Toro Bayou....

[stoneman]

Hunter and I did Toro bayou this weekend....pretty sweet...nice little rapids..ones and twos at best....water level could have been about a foot higher,,,,but in all...nice trip....Anyone else done this run before?,,what about others close by.? :)

[RomanLA]

Are you talking about Toro Bayou in Louisiana?

[stoneman]

Yes...Do you know any other good places to do rapids close by?..

[KAYAKN]

Hey Stoneman,
Do you have any pics? You clould always go to Wallace Lake spillway and work on eddie hopping, if you live in the Shreveport area.

[RomanLA]

I've only paddled Toro at a low level, but here's a couple pictures of one of the rapids at 3.5ft (the second picture is the wave on river right). Here's a link to the USGS page for Toro...
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?08025500





Kisatchie Bayou is supposed to be a nice float trip (although it's a strainer nightmare). You can put in at Kisatchie Falls and take out at Kisatchie Bayou Campground. Unfortunately, it's not on USGS and it has a different watershed than Toro, making it hard to catch at a good level.

Kisatchie Falls


Upstream of Kisatchie Bayou Campground


I recently discovered Big Creek in the Sicily Island Hills WMA. It looks like it might have some decent rapids, but once again there's no way to track the level. Plus, it would be hard to reach the put in and take out and there would be lots of portages around strainers.



There's supposed to be some class I rapids on the Sabine River and a class III "ghost rapid" for a few hours after they start the generators at the dam. There's information and maps for the Toro and Sabine trips on the Tack-A-Paw Expeditions site.
http://www.tackapaw.com

[stoneman]

I did Toro Bayou last friday night and saturday...the whole run...the upper portion has strainers a plenty,,,,middle section...is great...lower..not bad...,,, But if you want action try the class III rapids are at the spillway on the dam...bout a mile away......its worth it.....