San Marcos cleanup

The Diving Rebels, joined by the Scubadillo Dive Club, will continue our annual tradition of the underwater cleanup of the San Marcos River on Saturday January 25, 2020.  We discovered last year that we could no longer park in the parking lot near the entry point as we had for many years previously.  Consequently, we will meet at Rio Vista Park (exit location) about 12:30 PM and gear up there.  We will then shuttle divers to the entry point on Aquarena Springs Drive where we plan to enter the river about 1 PM.  There are usually one or more folks with our group who aren’t diving the river and who can perform the shuttle efforts and this is greatly appreciated.  Please see the attached map noting these locations.

As usual, I am the outing coordinator and my cell number is XXX-XXX-XXXX.  For those that did not attend the January club meeting and were not able to sign up at that time, we would welcome you to join us and you may contact me either at my cell number or email me at steveogdentx@gmail.com and/or steveogdentx@yahoo.com.  For the day of the outing, call if you are running a bit late so we know to wait for you.

As usual, we will enter the water on the south side of the Aquarena Springs Drive bridge and exit at Rio Vista Park, about one mile downstream.  The attached map also notes the exit location.  For the most part, this is a relaxing fresh-water drift dive and in some places early in the dive you can just obtain a stable, motionless position and let the current move you along.  Depending on the water level, there may be some rather shallow spots about one-half way along the dive, but these are navigable.

We will have 1^st and 2^nd place prizes for the collector of the most trash and as well as 1^st and 2^nd place prizes for the collector of the most unusual piece of trash, as voted by the participants.  So bring your mesh laundry bags and/or onion sacks and be prepared to scour the river bottom for collectables.  Last year, Dale Romack reigned as the double champion as he won as trash collection champion, as well as the most unusual trash item.  So let’s see who will wear the titles this year.

After the dive, for those who are interested, we will meet for our traditional Saturday evening dinner together.  For the past couple of years we have eaten at a wonderful restaurant called The Root Cellar Cafe (http://www.rootcellarcafe.com/), so we will look to go there again.  The Root Cellar manager was very generous is providing gift cards for the restaurant and I will pursue this again.  On Sunday morning, we most likely will follow our past practice of breakfast at Herbert’s Taco Hut (http://www.herbertstacohut.com) for those who would like to join us there.

There are a number of reasonably priced motels in the San Marcos area, fairly close by the river.  In the past, I have generally stayed at one of the Motel 6 locations, which have not always been much in the way of quality.  Last year I searched https://www.booking.com/city/us/san-marcos.html and found a new Studio Motel 6 with a king bed and a kitchen for $53 that had a high rating and was very pleased with this.  There is also https://www.airbnb.com/s/San-Marcos–TX–United-States/homes that has some attractive lodging.  Additional information regarding the Motel 6 location is noted on the following page along with pricing and locations for other lodging.  Camping is also available in the area if you are so inclined.

For those outing participants who have completed the Dive Authorization Course (DAC) or the former Diving for Science or Scientific Diver certification programs and are interested in diving Spring Lake, we will perform a volunteer dive in Spring Lake at the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment (former Aquarena Center) on Sunday morning probably starting about 10 AM.  I have notified the diving coordinator about folks wanting to dive and am awaiting dive time slots that will be assigned.  Anyone who is planning to participate in an upcoming DAC event or would like additional information on this training is welcome to join us as an observer to obtain some idea of what is involved as a trained volunteer diver at this great diving venue.  In the spectrum of my diving experiences, I consider Spring Lake to be the premier inland diving experience.  Ocean-quality visibility is to be expected and there are endemic flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world.

In addition to the map below, I have included a few pictures from our 2019 river cleanup.  Hope to see you there!!

Motel 6 San Marcos, TX – North  outstanding value on these dates.

 2212 North I-35

San Marcos, TX 78666

(737) 213-4011