Planning longer rides in Texas

[smokeysevin]

We rode from Galveston to south padre a couple yrs ago. You have to carry fuel to make the stops. It was a great ride. We rented a condo at a place in south padre on the bay that had a boat dock for the first night. We spent the second night in port Aransas. Left the skis in the harbor and walked to the hotel. We fueled in matagorda, port O'Connor, Aransas pass, port Mansfield, and south padre.

That is a hell of a trip, what were the water conditions like?

Sean

[Pacer]

It was a little rough for most of it that's why we stuck to the ICW. San Antonio Bay was pretty bad. It calmed down in the bays just north of South Padre. A lot of the bays had these floating lines of this strange tough sea grass. We tried to avoid them, but they were everywhere. It would get stuck in the intake grate, and every time we would hit it, we would loose a few mph. Had to get under the boat and clear the grate several times. They run the coolest tunnel hull bay boats down there that are flat deck boats with huge outboards made to run through really shallow water.

We made it to South Padre in one day and took our time coming back. that's why we stayed in Port Aransas. It was 4 of us. I was on my GTR, one guy rode an Ultra LX, and we had 2 15Fs. I made a post about it, but a couple internet warriors started giving me S*&T about my remote tank, so I didn't say too much about the trip. I'd do it again. It was a fun trip. Surfside to port Aransas and back would be a good day trip.

[Pacer]

http://greenhulk.net/showthread.php?t=239929&highlight=long+distance+GTR

[dannyual777]

Pacer, thank you for posting your experience with some long distance riding. Thanks for the link to your old thread as well. Over the years, I've seen where others have tried to mount auxiliary fuel tanks or additional fuel cans.

I'm still planning on the Trinity River. I've been wanting to try it out for several years. Over the Fourth of July weekend, I mentioned it to a couple of my neighbors who are also jetski guys. They were both excited at first until one of them started researching the Trinity River and found 10 year old news articles of pollution in the river from the DFW area. My wife and I did our own research for several hours and came to the conclusion that the river was really nasty 50 or 70 years ago. These days, it's probably no worse than my lake, Lake Conroe. Can anyone speak to this?

[1tommygunner1927]

That looks promising

This year will be the first time we are NOT going to Ouachita since 2005. There are several resorts, marinas, camp grounds, and houseboat rentals available. Some marinas do not have pump 93 fuel. There are numerous islands for overnight camping as well. No sandy beaches...just shale rocks. Wear good water shoes and anchors, or do as we did.......

[dannyual777]

This year will be the first time we are NOT going to Ouachita since 2005. There are several resorts, marinas, camp grounds, and houseboat rentals available. Some marinas do not have pump 93 fuel. There are numerous islands for overnight camping as well. No sandy beaches...just shale rocks. Wear good water shoes and anchors, or do as we did.......

tommy, that really looks nice. Lake Ouachita looks like it'd be a ton of fun. For me right now, the Trinity River will have to do!

Does anyone have Trinity River riding experience?

[1tommygunner1927]

tommy, that really looks nice. Lake Ouachita looks like it'd be a ton of fun. For me right now, the Trinity River will have to do!

Does anyone have Trinity River riding experience?

Never been on Trinity River....just Sabine River. Lake Conroe isn't too bad.....in the mornings and during the week. When I ride that lake its usual north of the 1097 bridge all the way to 1375 bridge and beyond.

Lake Ouachita is a large lake with fairly clear water, unlike most Texas lakes. Shangri-La marina (west end of lake) has a small family owned country cafe serving catfish, burgers...the usual cafe foods, plus real home made pies!

[troyheb]

Does anyone have Trinity River riding experience?

Which part?

[dannyual777]

Which part?

I've been thinking the part just to the north of Lake Livingston. There is a real nice boat ramp off of hwy 19 near Huntsville. I was thinking of going north from there. Same as what TexasJet posted in post #4. I watched this youtube video of it earlier today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6bSmLBXXPU

It looks like the water is nice and smooth and would be good for some fast, aggressive riding. He talks about it and you can see the trash in the water. Very disappointing. I'd heard that the Trinity River isn't all that clean.

Maybe the jetskiing would be better south of the Lake Livingston dam??

[troyheb]

Only been on the Trinity from Anahuac to Liberty. That part of the Trinity and also what I see in the video, looks no more dirty most of the waters I ride on.

[TexasJet]

It's looking like a no go for me this weekend - can't find a babysitter for my kids.

[dannyual777]

I've got the boat hooked up to the truck. The family and I are headed to the Trinity River tomorrow for our first visit. I was told by my wife's friend's husband that there are a lot of shallow water areas to be careful of in the TR.

I'll come back into this thread and post about our experience.

[boudin]

We ride from Lake Livingston White Rock Creek area up to highway 7. 100 miles each way. You'll want to ride when the river is lower and no trash in the water (like right now). Know there are no ramps after highway 21, and only a couple between 19 and 21. So if someone runs into trouble it's a loooong tow back.

if you choose to go South from 19, it's about 50-60 miles to Pine Island. But only do that ride on a day with the wind <5 mph. The big lake will otherwise beat you up. If you do go that way there is gas on the water on the east side between 190 and Pine Island.

-Greg

[dannyual777]

It was a great day on the Trinity River. Such smooth water! The only chop was the occasional boat that you passed or was going in the opposite direction. A real change from my lake, Lake Conroe.

We boated for 3 hrs of engine run time and went 66 miles according to my gps. First, we went south on the river about 13.5 miles to the north end of Lake Livingston. We turned around and went back north past the Hwy 19 boat ramp. We ended up going upstream about 20 miles. There were areas that had floating wood where we slowed down. We were at idle speed just north (1 mile) of the ramp when we took a wrong turn off of the main river and we were in shallow water (4-8') and lots of wood debris. Shame on us; we found ourselves in the same shallow water coming back to the boat ramp .

One thing that surprised me about the river was how deep it was. The bottom drops off a cliff just 10-20 feet out from shore. I was in 35' of water less than 10 yards off shore! Most of the river we were in was about 35' deep. I once saw 65'.

Unfortunately we saw way more empty, floating water bottles that had probably floated down from the DFW area. I understand that they get washed from the city streets down the storm drains and into the river. I had to be careful about the occasional floating, 3" diameter "log." Not huge but I kept an eagle eye out for stuff like that.

We will be going back to the river. We'd like to take the skis out there for plenty of WOT running.

[dannyual777]

Thanks, Greg for all of the information. I can imagine that Lake Livingston gets rough on windy days. That's a big, wide open lake.