My wife is getting into canoeing and wants to get away for a short trip. I've always thought the Upper/Lower Mountain Fork and Brazos are the closest rivers with whitewater but maybe there's another river out there. We don't need any serious rapids, class I or II will do. We just don't want nothing but flatwater. I don't particularly like the Lower Mountain Fork and don't know if I want to hit the Brazos due to the golden algae since I do plan to fish.

How can you not like the lower mountain fork?

If you go down into the hill country there are lots of rivers with whitewater. Most of them are west of the Austin area. The Guadalupe is nice. but you may not like it if you think the LMF isnt good.

It's been years since I floated the Lower Mountain Fork, but I did like the first few miles. After that, it seemed like it was all flatwater and not the typical pool and drop stream found in the area. I also didn't think the fishing was as good as on some other rivers in the area I've fished.

Supposedly the Paluxy can be real interesting when it's flowing good. I have no idea if that's the case but lord knows the northern brazos watershed has gotten a lot of water recently. There's an outfitter in Glen Rose, forget the name. Maybe you could call them and ask.

http://southwestpaddler.com/docs/brazos10.html

The Little Missouri river in Arkansas is close and fast but you have to catch it when it's flowing good. (up to class IV in high water).

For class I and class II, you might check out the Illinois river in NW Oklahoma. The upper stretches are nice but it gets heavy use in the summer when the outfitters dump busload after busload of inexperianced paddlers in the river. You can avoid most of em by putting in at Chewey bridge.

Upper reaches of the Buffalo in Arkansas is great during the spring with great fishing to boot.

The LMF can be pretty fast and fun if the water level is up.

The upper Guad has plenty of water right now and good bass fishing. Lots of class I-II rapids, a couple of class III. The Colorado between Bend and Colorado Bend State Park has some white water, not sure how good the fishing is if the white bass run is done. The Upper Mt. Fork has good bass fishing, Large and smallmouth and some rapids. Kinda low right now. The Kiamichi River has some shoals and some class I- rapids. Need at least 100cfs.