Kayaking – Fishing – Camping on The Guadalupe River part 2—Big Fish Caught and it FROZE! (10 Miles)

What is going on fellow adventurers! Today we are going to be camping on the Guadalupe! In the last blog (part 1 to this 2 part blog:) My dad and I kayaked about 9 miles down the lower Guadalupe River! We went Fishing for Rainbow Trout the whole way, and we caught em’! I caught a small Brown Trout that we released, and a large Rainbow Trout that we kept for dinner! This blog will be more about the camping that went on. And, the CRAZY events that happened while we were in the middle of the woods on the Guadalupe!

We had just found a perfect campsite, and it was just around the corner from where I had caught that last big Rainbow that we kept. We slid our kayaks up onto the gravely bank, and waded into the river and fished for a while. Once it was getting to just an hour or so of daylight left, we got camp ready. I started by clearing a spot for our tent with my Fiskars foldout hand saw,  and  then my dad and I set up my Ascend Orion 3 person backpacking tent. It is a pretty lightweight, easy to use tent, but is also heavy duty enough to with stand some serious weather.

After we set it up, my dad and I made a fire pit and got ready to camp on the Guadalupe! We then decided to hike up to a deep pool in the river by some rapids, and do some fishing! I INSTANTLY got hit on my Rooster Tail rigged up on my Zebco Dock Demon! Then, shortly after I missed the fish, my dad hooked into something BIG on our fly rod!

HE battled it for a while, until we could see what it was. Sure enough, it was a huge Rainbow Trout, and it was foul hooked, allowing it to fight even harder! I quickly waded across the river back to my net, and then tried to net it with a miss! The fish was now barley hooked and still fighting hard, but luckily, I netted him the second try!

We got him in, and after gently handling him with wet hands, we decided to release this one, and let him go! Now we headed back to our campsite just a ways down the river, and got ready for dinner!

I filleted up the rainbow Trout I caught, and then gathered some fire wood. With my trusty flint, striker, and fire sticks, I was quickly able to get a roaring fire! I next put on my Trout, and my dad put on some Quail pepper poppers! While those where cooking, it turned to PITCH BLACK, and we couldn’t see anything more than ten feet from our fire. Shortly after that, the weird noises of animal calls in the woods, brush moving, and BIG animals wading through the river began. I am not going to lye, it was SKETCHY!

Thankfully I had my dad right next to me, and a fire to scare off (hopefully) any big animals! By now all the food was done (or so I thought) and I tested it…. well…. the fish wasn’t done! Okay, so after ANOTHER few minutes on the fire, we ate everything, and it was GREAT!

I ended the night with some hot coco and smores, and then we went to bed. Considering it was now 27 DEGREES!!!!!!, it was REALLY hard to fall asleep and stay warm.

After a restless night of sleep, we woke up to fine that all of our gear was frozen (including my hero 5 session Gopro, which stopped working!)

We put on our ACTUAL ICY waders, and waded into the water. The reason being the freezing water was warmer then the FOR REAL freezing air! We then thawed out our gear over a small make shift fire! Next, we headed to our pick-up spot about a mile away. We made it there all before 9am, and we got loaded up as quick as we could, considering we could barley feel our neck down… NO JOKE.

We made it home safe and healthy though, and that is something I thank the Lord for! A successful trip camping on the Guadalupe!

I hope you guys enjoyed this blog, and make sure you check out the video I made on this trip down below! Thank you guys for tuning in! Until next time!