machine1
Explorer
May 2014 - Texas Hill Country
I've been reading about the past Texas Hill Country adventures taken by members of this forum. I've read about the public dirt roads and river crossings specifically in the Hill Country. The one thing that caught my eye was the river crossing that everyone seems to take when they explore this specific area. The crossing is located south of Mason Texas on James River Road. I've spent a few hours studying Google Maps to see where the river crossing is and also spent some time watching Youtube videos of people crossing the river. I told myself that if I ever go down to South Texas, We're going to make a detour to Mason, TX and check out that river crossing.
Every year on our anniversary we go out of town to a random city to get away from North Texas for the weekend. This year my wife and I decided on San Antonio. She's never seen the Alamo and the riverwalk seemed like a decent tourist trap to go visit. Since it was our anniversary, half of it was for me, the other half was for her. Her half involved shopping, the hotel of her choice, restaurant of her choice, etc. My half, well you know where this is going.
Since we only had a weekend starting Saturday morning, I was going to have to make my backcountry trip fit within a half-day timeslot. I spent Friday night printing out maps for my navigator(wife) and packing our cooler with food and drinks for Saturday's adventure. My wife asked me which car we were taking, hers(Luxury SUV) or mine. I told her we're leaving hers at home because it's going to get too dirty.
What vehicle were we taking? It's a 2013 Subaru Forester XT. It's pretty much stock other than taller Cooper A/T tires for more ground clearance. http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/125237-2013-Subaru-Forester-(SH9-3rd-Gen)-going-the-Expedition-route
It's been our adventure vehicle for the past couple of years and has never let us down. The AWD system on it is nothing short of awesome.
Early morning Saturday I posted the map on Facebook, just in case we got lost or something happened. That way if we didn't return in a timely manner at least our friends and family would know where to start looking for us. We drove from North Texas down to Georgetown where we stopped at the outlet mall for my wife. From there we filled up in Georgetown and started heading West. The range on the Subaru is between 260-300 miles per tank, I usually fill up when I get to 200 miles.
We took a detour from the mapped route to drive through Marble Falls. That little town was an unexpected oasis in the middle of nowhere. I was pleasantly surprised. We arrived in Mason around 1PM, everyone tells me it's the home of Old Yeller. I didn't get to see any statues or anything. In downtown Mason the highway I needed to be on split to the South, but I needed to gas up before we headed down to the river road. We gassed up and took a bathroom break at a Shell Station on the main highway past downtown. At first we stopped at a Chevron station, but the pumps had no credit card readers. I think it was still a full-service station. At the Shell Station someone had dropped their baggie of marijuana on the ground between the gas pumps. It could have been a set-up, I wasn't going to touch it, hahaha.
We headed south down to 87 then branched off to 1723. We were supposed to turn on 2389 but my navigator missed the turn. We drove on 1723 for a bit until the road maintenance went downhill and we drove by a house with a huge confederate flag waving at the front of it. Maybe it was time to turn around. I pulled off the road and checked Google Maps and sure enough we missed the turn. We backtracked to 1723 and then finally found James River Road. The road starts off paved but quickly turns to gravel. The road is sectioned off by cattle guards. We started to see deer hiding near the trees. The farther down the road we go, the more we see. A few cattle guards later we run into some actual cattle. None of them were in the road thankfully, we were cruising along slowly 15-20 mph. Before we got to the river crossing we encountered one vehicle on the road, a Ford F350 Super Duty filled with some older folks. I waved as they passed by, they waved back. Finally we reached the river...
There were supposed to be some level guages on the river showing what the water level was. Anything under one foot and it would be safe to cross. The only thing we saw were these poles sticking out of the water:
On the videos of others at this river crossing, there were gauges up. There had been some heavy rains a few weeks earlier in that area, so I'm assuming that the gauges were washed away and all that were left were the poles.
At this point, we didn't know what the water level was. Our options were to sit there and wait to see if one of the locals would cross the river and we could gauge how deep it was, or turn around and head down to San Antonio. We decided to wait a few minutes and soon another F250 Super Duty was on the other side of the river coming our direction. Water was splashing everywhere, they were going too fast for us to see where the water was at. I flagged them down and asked them how deep the river was. There were five guys in there and they each had a beer in their hand. It took me a few seconds to make out their country accents, everybody talking at once didn't help hahaha. They were a nice bunch of fellas, told me I would be fine going across, the river is always at that level just don't go too fast. They also said if I got in trouble they'd be back that way to check on us.
Without a good account of the actual water level we were about to give up on crossing. My wife knew that the entire reason for going down there was to cross the river and get in on GoPro. We sat around for at least 20 minutes in the same spot as that picture waiting for another vehicle to cross. Saw a couple of ATV's and a minivan on the other side, but they were just going to a ranch across the river and didn't come across. I've done a few water crossings in the Subaru, the deepest one 1/4 of the way up the doors, but being the only vehicle far away from home I did not want to risk this one. We turned around and started heading back to the main road, a little disappointed, well maybe more than a little. As soon as we got moving a pickup truck with some kids (waved at them, they waved back) followed by a Volkswagen Jetta were headed towards the river.
We were not going to miss this opportunity, I made a u-turn ASAP and started following them. The truck went right across, we could see that water was up to the bottom of the rear axle, we could manage that. The Jetta had pulled over to where we were parked earlier waiting to watch someone cross. We pulled up next to them, a group of girls were in it, to ask if they were going to cross also. I guess they were waiting for us to go first. I asked them if they had crossed the river before and they replied that they have. Then I asked if they could go first.
Here we go, a little car was going to cross the river of unknown water level. We sat and watched, hoping that we didn't send them to their doom. Luckily their boyfriends I'm assuming were across the river driving around in their truck ready to rescue them if needed. The water got up to about halfway up the front bumper of the Jetta and a little past the rocker panels. We were relieved, at this point my wife was urging me to go. That little car made it, we can make it too hahaha.
We crossed the river several times, the only good footage I got off the Gopro was going back across. I had forgotten to tighten up one of the thumbscrews so it was rattling like crazy.
Now that we crossed the river we were able to visit our second objective, the Eckert Bat Cave Preserve. The gate was open to the cave so we drove up the trail to the parking lot for the cave. When I washed my car a couple of weeks later I noticed the entire right side of my Foz had a bunch of new pinstripes on it. I guess that trail hadn't been driven on in a while. I took these two pictures from the parking lot of the cave.
The bat cave. I was tempted to record a video of my batman voice asking "WHERE ARE THE BATS!", but there were signs up instructing people to be quiet and do not disturb the bats.
We were planning on going to the front of the cave, but the path was still being cut out by the lady that was working that day. She was armed with a weed-wacker and had been clearing out the walking trail the entire time we were there. It was starting to get late so we decided to continue on our trek to San Antonio.
Driving from the Bat Cave to James River road, probably the hardest trail I drove on that day. (Meaning that this trail is super easy, you could do it with a Toyota Camry)
Our plan was to take James River Road south until we got to the Salt Branch Loop. We were going to take the loop east until we reached hwy 87. When we got to the Loop there was a NO TRESPASSING sign at the gate. So much for that idea, we agreed that we didn't want to get shot at while in the middle of nowhere. Our next option was to take E. Mill Road west until we hit farm road 430 then 385. That would take us all the way to 387. Mill road was a long straight gravel road, we were able to go between 40-50 mph dodging rabbits the entire way. The map showed a river crossing right before 430. When we got to the river crossing everything came to a halt. This crossing was short, nowhere near the width of the James river earlier, but I had to check the depth before anything. I was able to stand close to the deepest point of the river crossing, it was at least 2 feet deep, and the bottom was all sand. There was no telling how much deeper it would have been. Our journey was over, I refused to take the risk of flooding our vehicle. However long it took us to get to this point, we had to turn around and head all the way back to the beginning.
We were hauling on Mill Road heading back to James River road.
Stopped to take some pictures on the way back.
There was a shallow water crossing south of the Bat Cave on James River Road, on this crossing you could see the bottom.
As it got darker the deer and rabbits we starting to come out onto the road. We saw so many deer that we stopped counting. We ran into the cows again, this time one of them decided to stand in the middle of the road. I had to slowly go around the cow with it's face right in my wife's window, good thing it didn't move into our car.
The entire trip took us around 4 hours. The car's computer stated that we were averaging 15 mpg, I normally get 20-22. We saw a total of 6 vehicles the entire time (2 F250s, Full-size pickup, Jetta, minivan, Chevy PU going to the Bat Cave). The roads were easy, gravel roads with a few washed out sections where we had to slow down for. They were all ranch roads to access private property. I wish I had known about both the No Trespassing sign on the Branch Loop and the river crossing on E. Mill Road, it would have saved us some time. The point of this trip wasn't about saving time though, it was about the adventure. This was officially my first Back-country adventure with Subaru.
I've been reading about the past Texas Hill Country adventures taken by members of this forum. I've read about the public dirt roads and river crossings specifically in the Hill Country. The one thing that caught my eye was the river crossing that everyone seems to take when they explore this specific area. The crossing is located south of Mason Texas on James River Road. I've spent a few hours studying Google Maps to see where the river crossing is and also spent some time watching Youtube videos of people crossing the river. I told myself that if I ever go down to South Texas, We're going to make a detour to Mason, TX and check out that river crossing.
Every year on our anniversary we go out of town to a random city to get away from North Texas for the weekend. This year my wife and I decided on San Antonio. She's never seen the Alamo and the riverwalk seemed like a decent tourist trap to go visit. Since it was our anniversary, half of it was for me, the other half was for her. Her half involved shopping, the hotel of her choice, restaurant of her choice, etc. My half, well you know where this is going.
Since we only had a weekend starting Saturday morning, I was going to have to make my backcountry trip fit within a half-day timeslot. I spent Friday night printing out maps for my navigator(wife) and packing our cooler with food and drinks for Saturday's adventure. My wife asked me which car we were taking, hers(Luxury SUV) or mine. I told her we're leaving hers at home because it's going to get too dirty.
What vehicle were we taking? It's a 2013 Subaru Forester XT. It's pretty much stock other than taller Cooper A/T tires for more ground clearance. http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/125237-2013-Subaru-Forester-(SH9-3rd-Gen)-going-the-Expedition-route
It's been our adventure vehicle for the past couple of years and has never let us down. The AWD system on it is nothing short of awesome.
Early morning Saturday I posted the map on Facebook, just in case we got lost or something happened. That way if we didn't return in a timely manner at least our friends and family would know where to start looking for us. We drove from North Texas down to Georgetown where we stopped at the outlet mall for my wife. From there we filled up in Georgetown and started heading West. The range on the Subaru is between 260-300 miles per tank, I usually fill up when I get to 200 miles.
We took a detour from the mapped route to drive through Marble Falls. That little town was an unexpected oasis in the middle of nowhere. I was pleasantly surprised. We arrived in Mason around 1PM, everyone tells me it's the home of Old Yeller. I didn't get to see any statues or anything. In downtown Mason the highway I needed to be on split to the South, but I needed to gas up before we headed down to the river road. We gassed up and took a bathroom break at a Shell Station on the main highway past downtown. At first we stopped at a Chevron station, but the pumps had no credit card readers. I think it was still a full-service station. At the Shell Station someone had dropped their baggie of marijuana on the ground between the gas pumps. It could have been a set-up, I wasn't going to touch it, hahaha.
We headed south down to 87 then branched off to 1723. We were supposed to turn on 2389 but my navigator missed the turn. We drove on 1723 for a bit until the road maintenance went downhill and we drove by a house with a huge confederate flag waving at the front of it. Maybe it was time to turn around. I pulled off the road and checked Google Maps and sure enough we missed the turn. We backtracked to 1723 and then finally found James River Road. The road starts off paved but quickly turns to gravel. The road is sectioned off by cattle guards. We started to see deer hiding near the trees. The farther down the road we go, the more we see. A few cattle guards later we run into some actual cattle. None of them were in the road thankfully, we were cruising along slowly 15-20 mph. Before we got to the river crossing we encountered one vehicle on the road, a Ford F350 Super Duty filled with some older folks. I waved as they passed by, they waved back. Finally we reached the river...
There were supposed to be some level guages on the river showing what the water level was. Anything under one foot and it would be safe to cross. The only thing we saw were these poles sticking out of the water:
On the videos of others at this river crossing, there were gauges up. There had been some heavy rains a few weeks earlier in that area, so I'm assuming that the gauges were washed away and all that were left were the poles.
At this point, we didn't know what the water level was. Our options were to sit there and wait to see if one of the locals would cross the river and we could gauge how deep it was, or turn around and head down to San Antonio. We decided to wait a few minutes and soon another F250 Super Duty was on the other side of the river coming our direction. Water was splashing everywhere, they were going too fast for us to see where the water was at. I flagged them down and asked them how deep the river was. There were five guys in there and they each had a beer in their hand. It took me a few seconds to make out their country accents, everybody talking at once didn't help hahaha. They were a nice bunch of fellas, told me I would be fine going across, the river is always at that level just don't go too fast. They also said if I got in trouble they'd be back that way to check on us.
Without a good account of the actual water level we were about to give up on crossing. My wife knew that the entire reason for going down there was to cross the river and get in on GoPro. We sat around for at least 20 minutes in the same spot as that picture waiting for another vehicle to cross. Saw a couple of ATV's and a minivan on the other side, but they were just going to a ranch across the river and didn't come across. I've done a few water crossings in the Subaru, the deepest one 1/4 of the way up the doors, but being the only vehicle far away from home I did not want to risk this one. We turned around and started heading back to the main road, a little disappointed, well maybe more than a little. As soon as we got moving a pickup truck with some kids (waved at them, they waved back) followed by a Volkswagen Jetta were headed towards the river.
We were not going to miss this opportunity, I made a u-turn ASAP and started following them. The truck went right across, we could see that water was up to the bottom of the rear axle, we could manage that. The Jetta had pulled over to where we were parked earlier waiting to watch someone cross. We pulled up next to them, a group of girls were in it, to ask if they were going to cross also. I guess they were waiting for us to go first. I asked them if they had crossed the river before and they replied that they have. Then I asked if they could go first.
Here we go, a little car was going to cross the river of unknown water level. We sat and watched, hoping that we didn't send them to their doom. Luckily their boyfriends I'm assuming were across the river driving around in their truck ready to rescue them if needed. The water got up to about halfway up the front bumper of the Jetta and a little past the rocker panels. We were relieved, at this point my wife was urging me to go. That little car made it, we can make it too hahaha.
We crossed the river several times, the only good footage I got off the Gopro was going back across. I had forgotten to tighten up one of the thumbscrews so it was rattling like crazy.
Now that we crossed the river we were able to visit our second objective, the Eckert Bat Cave Preserve. The gate was open to the cave so we drove up the trail to the parking lot for the cave. When I washed my car a couple of weeks later I noticed the entire right side of my Foz had a bunch of new pinstripes on it. I guess that trail hadn't been driven on in a while. I took these two pictures from the parking lot of the cave.
The bat cave. I was tempted to record a video of my batman voice asking "WHERE ARE THE BATS!", but there were signs up instructing people to be quiet and do not disturb the bats.
We were planning on going to the front of the cave, but the path was still being cut out by the lady that was working that day. She was armed with a weed-wacker and had been clearing out the walking trail the entire time we were there. It was starting to get late so we decided to continue on our trek to San Antonio.
Driving from the Bat Cave to James River road, probably the hardest trail I drove on that day. (Meaning that this trail is super easy, you could do it with a Toyota Camry)
Our plan was to take James River Road south until we got to the Salt Branch Loop. We were going to take the loop east until we reached hwy 87. When we got to the Loop there was a NO TRESPASSING sign at the gate. So much for that idea, we agreed that we didn't want to get shot at while in the middle of nowhere. Our next option was to take E. Mill Road west until we hit farm road 430 then 385. That would take us all the way to 387. Mill road was a long straight gravel road, we were able to go between 40-50 mph dodging rabbits the entire way. The map showed a river crossing right before 430. When we got to the river crossing everything came to a halt. This crossing was short, nowhere near the width of the James river earlier, but I had to check the depth before anything. I was able to stand close to the deepest point of the river crossing, it was at least 2 feet deep, and the bottom was all sand. There was no telling how much deeper it would have been. Our journey was over, I refused to take the risk of flooding our vehicle. However long it took us to get to this point, we had to turn around and head all the way back to the beginning.
We were hauling on Mill Road heading back to James River road.
Stopped to take some pictures on the way back.
There was a shallow water crossing south of the Bat Cave on James River Road, on this crossing you could see the bottom.
As it got darker the deer and rabbits we starting to come out onto the road. We saw so many deer that we stopped counting. We ran into the cows again, this time one of them decided to stand in the middle of the road. I had to slowly go around the cow with it's face right in my wife's window, good thing it didn't move into our car.
The entire trip took us around 4 hours. The car's computer stated that we were averaging 15 mpg, I normally get 20-22. We saw a total of 6 vehicles the entire time (2 F250s, Full-size pickup, Jetta, minivan, Chevy PU going to the Bat Cave). The roads were easy, gravel roads with a few washed out sections where we had to slow down for. They were all ranch roads to access private property. I wish I had known about both the No Trespassing sign on the Branch Loop and the river crossing on E. Mill Road, it would have saved us some time. The point of this trip wasn't about saving time though, it was about the adventure. This was officially my first Back-country adventure with Subaru.
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