I have fished there, man and boy, for over fifty years. This last trip, a few weeks ago, I noticed a change. The dam is the same, the water is the same, the cliffs are the same, the circling buzzards are the same,and, thankfully, the fish are the same. The difference this year is in access. This year,the getting in and out below the dam seemed more-well,difficult. Steep, slick, thorny, and snakey-there will come a day when I am no longer comfortable scaling in and out of that canyon. The Red River, below Texoma, has multiple flights of steep, stable stairs, making access to this excellent fishery a breeze on both banks. Why, wonders I, aren't there a few steps below the dam road and park? Seems to me that two flights-one at the culvert, and another up closer to the fence, would be a relatively inexpensive undertaking, and might prevent a broken hip. Any thoughts?

I am with you on that, I am 47 and felt it the next day after climbing and all the hiking I did

I've only begun fishing there recently and I looked at that area and decided to put in @ why 16 bridge and just paddle up to the dam. Hiking in there would be difficult but dragging a kayak would be a serious PITA. Another bad spot is the Chupacabra drop in spot on Bridgeport. There is a place to park but it is a long, rocky descent down to the water. I don't see how they consider that a paddling trail when it is so difficult to access.

I'm sure that the difficult access is a PITA, but realistically it's one of those things that keeps the areas fairly clean. If its easy to access, then everybody goes and most everybody trashes it, sadly. Case in point, Brazos public access under every bridge it a waste land. Same for the Trinity river system. Beds, couches, loads of trash. Is very sad and frustrating, but it's too hard to police and stupid people just don't help. Get into the river and float up or down a mere 200yards or so and it's usually pristine. One day I will have my physical limitations and too will opine for easier access, but the truth is that I probably won't like much what I find when I get to that easier access point.

Good point, very good point. The stairs at Texoma lead down to a huge mess.

That is a good point, but does it not also stand to reason that some people would be more likely to carry their debris out if they didn't have to risk life and limb to do so? A couple of weeks ago, I saw a young dad with two boys, maybe 12 and fourteen, and he was teaching them to flyfish in the pool below the dam. The kids were already executing pretty good loops, and caught several of the ubiquitous perchy type fish in those waters. Made me a little happy to see that guy handing this skill down to his kids. On the way out, though, I saw that they had left three gatorade bottles, a wad of line, and some candy wrappers right there on the bank. I hauled it out myself. So, he handed that habit down to the kids, too. That's a lesson they'll not soon forget. Maybe, if access was easier, and a handy trash barrel waited at the top of the stairs, some of that garbage would find its way out. Besides, some of the nastiest access points I have visited have no steps. Ever been to Carpenter's Bluff bridge on the Oklahoma side of the Red?

I guess it possible, but in my book a litterer is a litterer. No matter how close a trash can. If a guy doesn't have morals enough to carry his trash 100ft when he is willing to carry it 50 feet, then he's a POS regardless. The man you talk about had 2 I assume healthy young teenagers that should have been able to haul their stuff out. Case in point I was sitting outside B&N today and a guy was smoking next to me. He sat no less than 5 feet from a very large very obvious trash can. He lit up 3 smokes in a row and dispatched each with the sole of his shoe, and left them there to be blow away.