News

Paddling trail effort seeks support

by Glenn Rea, Record Editor
Wednesday, July 2, 2008 7:59 AM CDT

Sometime in the near future there will be a discussion about adding a portion of the Guadalupe River near Cuero to a series of paddling trails from San Antonio to Victoria.

Paddling Trail DeWitt County Commissioner Curtis Afflerbach is shown at the Hwy. 72 bridge over the Guadalupe River. With a cleaner river bottom and access to the river, he said more people are seen using canoes and kayaks than in the past. (Record photo)

Information has been provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife and Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority to local officials on paddling trails opened in the last few months on area rivers. Currently there are paddling trails near Gonzales, Goliad, Victoria, Bastrop, Luling, Columbus, and Comal County.

Locally there are plans to meet with DeWitt County Commissioners Court soon to discuss a paddling trail on the Guadalupe River between FM 766 (Hell's Gate Bridge) and Hwy. 72 or FM 236.

Paddling trails are geared to people who enjoy floating along rivers in canoes or kayaks. The trail would involve having a place to launch the kayak and a place to exit the river. Those entrance and exit locations would need easy access to the river.

While the Guadalupe River is controlled by GBRA and TPWD, the river bottoms at the local highway bridges are maintained by DeWitt County.

Also it would take support from DeWitt County Commissioners Court to seek any grants or assistance to establish a paddling trail locally.

Most of the river in this county travels through DeWitt County Commissioner Precinct 1 Curtis Afflerbach's precinct. In recent months, he and his crew have made an effort to clean and maintain the areas at the local highway bridges for family use.

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