With all the morbid discussion going on about death, near-death, hypothermia and who’s going to die, well, I think we need to lighten things up a bit. Following is a trip report with illustrations of life in sunny, warm, Gulf Coast Texas. This has to do with a Houston Canoe Club trip on Groundhog Day, Saturday, February 2, to one of my most favorite paddling places in our area: Lake Charlotte and associated cypress swamps and bottomlands of the Trinity River, east of Houston. Our trip facilitator was John Bartos, who takes really great digital photos. Fifteen of us in 13 craft braved the cool weather of a fairly typical midwinter day. That means temperatures in the 40 degree F range. It was overcast with occasional breaks in the clouds for a glimpse of the sun. My craft was an extended cockpit sea kayak, frequently referred to as a canoe. My 18 year old daughter was my bow partner. As you can see from the photo at http://pw1.netcom.com/~jbartos/Lake%20Charlotte%202-2-02/Charlie%20B.jpg (these photos, I should warn you, are large files, you might not want to load if you have a slow connection), sea kayakers were having a good time too. Charlie is sitting in front of some of our typical cypress trees, with their knees those tall projections from the water. I enjoy the silvery grey of their winter colors, a nice contrast here to the red and yellow of colorful kayaking. The line between the dark and light colors shows the more typical water levels of this area. I have been on quite a few trips in this area with John, and I always learn something new. There are three new lessons for this trip: 1) The gage does not record any water level below 6.8, which is about the lower limit of easy navigation . Level this day was about 6.2, which you could only tell by paddling up to the gage at http://pw1.netcom.com/~jbartos/Lake%20Charlotte%202-2-02/Lake%20Charlotte%20 gage.jpg . At this level, the effect of bottom drag was very apparent – no glide between strokes, every inch was gained in direct correlation with paddling effort. No effort, no forward travel. Lesson #2, John can easily find the entrance for the passage between Lakes Charlotte and Mud. I couldn ’t believe there was a passage there even when I was sitting in front of it. It helps that John also had a GPS with him, and the coordinates of this spot are UTM 15R0333483 3304520 ; Long & Lat , 29 51" 36.0' and 94 43" 26.2' There was barely enough water to float us through the passage, but we all got to Mud Lake, and then looked for the next passage to Miller Lake. I have personally gotten lost on this passage, deceptively wide and apparent at its origin on Mud Lake, but known to meander and do 180 degree turns in the woods. Lesson #3: this level is too low to make this connection. I was paddling right behind John as we made our 180 degree turn way back in there – then ran out of water. John took this next photo, http://pw1.netcom.com/~jbartos/Lake%20Charlotte%202-2-02/Out%20of%20Water.jp g of Clete mired in the muck, and me on the right side of the photo, camera in hand, mired deeper. Ellen as you can see is sitting and waiting for her mother to unstick herself from the mud and get going. Perhaps not apparent from the photo: no wet suit, no dry suit, no fuzzy rubber, and plenty of survival gear: beach chairs, cooler, extra paddles, compass, map case. Note, we are all wearing our PFDs to prevent drowning in the calf-deep water. We had one motorized craft with us, in this photo with Travis at the remote control and his dad re-deploying the motorcraft. http://pw1.netcom.com/~jbartos/Lake%20Charlotte%202-2-02/Lake%20Charlotte%20 039.jpg We had lunch on an Indian midden, a pile of shells from clam feasts a long time ago, and even a few pottery shards. Areas that are high and dry are at a premium in this wet area, but plenty of room here for repast and visiting. http://pw1.netcom.com/~jbartos/Lake%20Charlotte%202-2-02/Lake%20Charlotte%20 044.jpg Associated with Lesson #3 is that it isn’t worth it at this level to try to get to Miller Lake. Another club member was scouting Miller, and got there by dragging his boat through the woods. When he finally got to the lake, there was not enough water to even float the canoe. He and his partner had to lift and shove the boat through the mud for a very long distance, and barely got out before nightfall. So there you go, great paddling for midwinter. Hope you have enjoyed the trip too. Natalie Wiest Houston Texas USA All photos by John R. Bartos and used with his permission *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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