I see the day trip reports are flowing with the rise of temps. here in North America and I'm pleased to have a contribution too from the Gulf Coast of Texas. A friend was in town from Minnesota for a job interview with NASA's Johnson Space Center, affording me the perfect opportunity to show off our local paddling opportunities and Armand Bayou Coastal Preserve hardly a stone's throw (in Texas distances) from the space center itself. We pulled into the parking lot at Bay Area Park at 4:15, first time in a long time I'd seen it so devoid of cars and people. Perfect paddling weather, temps. in the upper 70s and lower 80s, moderate winds, sunshine dappled by the hardwood forest along the shores. The southwest winds of the past few days have piled the water into the bayou. The closest gages at Morgan's Point and Eagle Point (bayou is about halfway between them, but inland and empties into Clear Lake) showed levels almost 2' above the mean. No muddy bottom to be seen, and the water lapped the asphalt next to the parking area. I predicted good alligator viewing on the bayou, and we were not disappointed. First sighting was a big boy of about 8' fully out of the water. He stood up to launch himself into the bayou with a big splash. Eyes and snouts protruded from the water several times along our route - more abrupt gator launchings too, including one in tandem. I was giving Russ my windup to "Big Bertha" and sure enough, one really big one and two smaller ones where I'd predicted them. The gators seem to be fairly comfortable with person-powered boats in the water, and we were within 50' of several feet of them, keeping a respectful distance and moving slowly. The flowering plant of the day was the coral bean (see the Aggie hort pages if you're curious, http://aggie-horticultre.tamu.edu/ornamentals/nativeshrubs/erythrinaherace.htm ). I've never seen this many in bloom, their red flowers were in sight almost everywhere along the bayou and sometimes up 15' or so into the trees and shrubs. False indigo had just started blooming way up the bayou. The trip was incredibly birdy too, at least one brilliant blue grosbeak, reddish egrets of both color phases and immatures, gold-crowned night heron, great blue herons, little blue herons, great (American)egret, and the splashy red of cardinals. Another lovely paddle on the bayou - hope it's getting warm in your neck of the woods, too. Natalie Wiest Houston/Galveston/League City, Texas *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Apr 30 2004 - 10:22:49 PDT
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