The Origin

I was scrolling through Facebook in 2019 and I ran across an article about kayaking and camping on islands. I read through the article about loading down a kayak with gear and making a journey down the river and camping on islands at night. I immediately thought, I HAVE TO DO THIS. So I grabbed my buddy that I knew would be down, bought all the gear I thought I needed, borrowed a kayak and we headed to the Brazos River in Glen Rose.

It was October in Texas which means it could be 90 degrees or it could be 20 degrees. Woke up early that morning to a crisp 32 degrees. Made a stop at HEB to get food for the trip (hot dogs, boudin, and summer sausage) and a case of beer (obviously) and we were on our way to put in on the river.

As we get to the river and start unloading our kayaks and gear we soon realize we have no idea how to put all this junk on our kayaks or better yet how to strap it down. Luckily I had some ratchet straps so I ratchet all my stuff to the back of my kayak, threw the cooler between my legs, and we were finally off on my first ever kayak camping trip. The first hour or so I had a feeling that I had never experienced before. Some would say spiritual or euphoric feeling. I just felt like I had been missing this my whole life and I was finally home. I could reach down and feel the cold water flow against my fingers. Seeing the birds flying over, the dragon flies zooming around, and the fish hitting the top of the water. We were just so connected to nature and the wildlife it was breathtaking. I don’t think we said a word to each other for that first hour.

So we made our way down the river taking in the sites and casting a line every now and again. We quickly learned the need to put EVERYTHING in dry bags. I had brought some dry bags that I put my clothes and electronics in but I had thought i could just throw some the hot dog buns and some of the other food in the kayak with me and it would be fine. WRONG. They all got soaked and ruined along with some toilet paper (thank god I didn’t need that).

As the day went and evening was upon us we realized we needed to find a campsite pronto. The sunlight was quickly fading but I had found a viable campsite on Google earth but we had to get there in a hurry. So channeling our inner Olympic rowing team we paddled as fast as we could and made it to the campsite right before dark. It was an amazing spot right by a small stream coming off the river. Two trees had fallen over and made the perfect spot for our two hammocks. We quickly set our hammocks up and then we realized…

Our lighters we had brought to start a fire were soaked and would not ignite. That means no fire which would mean no food or warmth. That’s about as primitive and it gets. I had also brought a flint rock just in case but those survival shows make it look a lot easier. We spent 45 minutes trying to start a fire with that thing when we realized we could use the sparks from the flint rock to ignite the lighter. DUH. Once we had that epiphany we had a fire roaring in a couple of minutes.

We spent the remainder of the night reminiscing on how badass of a day we have had, exploring our campsite, and staring at the stars(one of my favorite outdoor activities).

We awoke to one of the most amazing sunrises I’ve ever seen. The sun was just barely shinning though the leaves. I could of laid there all day but we were on a little bit of a time crunch. Especially since we had only done about half of the 17 miles I thought we could do. We were not going to make it to our take out spot so we were hoping to have a friend pick us up along the way. Another lesson I learned is that a power source to charge your phone is very necessary. All I got to tell our ride was the county road we would be on. We ended up having to haul our kayaks and gear up a steep river bed about 100 yards and sneak our way through private property to the county road where by some miracle our ride was there.

I talk about this trip often because even though LOTS went wrong, it was the most perfect 1st kayak trip. We learned so much not just about kayaking and camping but about ourself as well. When things got terrible we just laughed through the pain and figured out an alternative plan. This was the beginning of many kayak trips and now backpacking and other road trips.

Without this trip I would have never rekindled this passion for the outdoors and Big Outdoors Coffee would never have been created. So get outdoors even if you don’t know what you are doing. You won’t regret it!

Ryan

Big Outdoors Coffee