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Paddling the Guadalupe

Wayne H. McAlister, Foreword by Andrew Sansom

Wayne McAlister is the biology teacher we should all have had, intensely curious, all-round naturalist and someone who hates to see the natural world disrespected. He’s also the guy we should all try to go on a field trip with, as he is one of the best naturalist interpreters around. This combined with a penchant for quoting poets, philosophers. dryads, historians and naturalists, makes this book unique, and of interest to anyone who likes a good yarn. Beware though, if you are the type who carried loud radios, throws beer cans into the river or otherwise act counter to the natural rhythm and stillness of the river, as McAlister has no compunction of letting you know how he disapproves!

Flexbound with flaps, 6x9. 376 pp.; 73 color, 6 b&w photos, 16 maps, 1 table, Index, JUNE 2008

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From the publisher: For more than forty years, Wayne H. McAlister has canoed the Guadalupe River, sometimes called the "top recreational river in Texas." In Paddling the Guadalupe, he guides readers down this 400-mile river whose waters spring from the limestone of the Hill Country in Kerr County, meander across the broad Coastal Plain, and finally empty into the Gulf of Mexico at San Antonio Bay.

With the expertise of a life and career immersed in nature, he introduces readers to the places, people, plants, and animals—large and small, aquatic and terrestrial—that depend on the Guadalupe for either their livelihoods or their existence. With affection and humor (and sometimes aggravation), he wryly comments on the development and human activity along the river's course, from the headwaters west of Kerrville to its mouth near Tivoli, just east of Refugio.

For the traveler, either on the river or along its course, McAlister's knowledge of the grists, sawmills, dams, bridges, swimming holes, and reservoirs bring the history of familiar towns—Comfort, Canyon Lake, New Braunfels, Seguin, Gonzales, Cuero, and Victoria among them—to life. His love of the natural world, which shares the river's bounty, will inspire and enhance anyone's experience of the Guadalupe, from the serious canoer to the family vacationer.

Photographs taken over many years provide an intimate perspective, and sixteen maps help orient those interested in getting to know the river on a more personal basis.

After a thirty-year career as a biology professor at Victoria College, WAYNE H. McALISTER became an environmental education specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Stationed on Matagorda Island, he developed and presented programs on barrier sland ecology for ten years before retiring to his home on the Guadalupe River. He is the author or coauthor of three books, including Life on Matagorda Island published by Texas A&M University Press.