Do you really need a reason to go for a paddle? Well it could be just the right therapy for you. Stress of the urban life can require you to just chill out with a little paddle. Try and squeeze in a 1/2 hr. to 45 minute of solitude; just you and the boat and a paddle.

Check out my destinations pages for some put ins. http://www.canoeadventures.net/destinations/destinations.html

would we want to paddle in polluted water. While the science of water bourn illness is not completely exact, should you actively promote others to paddle in water we know is unsafe base on EPA numbers? This is the issue I am having with some members of the Dallas paddling community. There is NO question that the water quality in the Trinity is not great. It has an unsafe for contact recreation rating from the TCEQ – Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. We have spent a large amount of money on a park and play feature here in Dallas; 4.2 million.  The kayakers promoting this feature and defending it’s creation seem to be stuck on defending the feature as “ cool” and if you wimpy rec paddlers don’t like like, stay out. The issue is so much deeper than just a cool or hip issue. How do you spend public money? Do you build something like this in a know area of bad water quality with no improvement in site?  Do the proponents plan on paying the expenses for legal action sought by those injured or killed by infections that were a known risk with no visible warning from the city?

The Dallas Down River Club will be out at Caddo this Oct 26 – 28th celebrating Halloween in style. Look up details on MeetUp groups or on the DDRC home page – http://down-river.com

We’ve all seen them. Those white round things in the rivers, and lakes. Some of them float, and some don’t.  What does it take to get them out of the rivers and do we need to?  The estimated number of golf balls in the worlds water bodies is staggering.

https://www.ntta.org/roadsprojects/futproj/trihwy/Pages/Project-Meeting-Materials.aspx

Please post your thoughts to the link above if you feel the need. The proposed Trinity Parkway project provides little to no relief from traffic problems and will cost well over 1 BILLION and certainly up to 2.5 BILLION dollars.

Recently I participated in a litter survey for the Keep Dallas Beautiful and the City of Dallas.  While I am that the organizations contacted me to help , I was distressed to see that so little thought is put into the stream based side of trash. How can I say that? Well, the promo material that was produced for on a “wind shield survey” or drive by type view. No mention of  paddle down, past through, on, etc. If you get out and walk almost any major road,  you’ll find it has trash hiding in teh weeds, behind the bushes, etc just about any where the wind blows. Well if you paddle and creek, stream or river in an urban setting, you’ll see not only what the wind blows, but also where the storm water goes.

Do your part and stop using and or severely limit the use of Styrofoam, plastic bottles, and plastic bags. If we stop it from getting out there we can stop it from causing damage.