As I'm catching up on reading the Paddlewise posts, I'm seeing grim reports of accidents, and it seems to me the group could use a little cheering up. Luckily on Gulf coast Texas, the weather is superb for paddling this time of year and 13 of us decided to answer the call of the outdoors - and to celebrate a visit from friends Bob and Susie Scaldino who have been happily retired and moving about the U.S. for the past year. My favorite paddling buddy Marilyn Kircus put the trip together and encouraged the potluck feast afterward, and captured it to her photo site at Webshots. It's at: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/558359149NSuGPb (if this direct link doesn't work, you should be able to find it by going to Webshots, search for "Mkircus" , and hit "most recent", selecting Cotton Lake). Cotton Lake is part of the estuarine network formed by the Trinity River (and its former beds of Old and Lost Rivers) where it enters Galveston Bay. It's about 30 miles east of Houston, so easily accessible to our Houston Association of Sea Kayakers group. The overcast skies kept the temps. In the 70s, but the sun peaked through just enough to give my daughter Ellen and me a bit of a sunburn. We were in my tandem canoe, the only canoe in the group, so we had our work cut out for us keeping up with the 11 sea kayaks. You'll note Ellen never troubled herself by picking up the paddle for an appreciable amount of time so good old Mom got a workout. The grass has greened up, and the trees are just starting to leaf out. Several of the swamp lilies have begun to bloom; and the alligators, although not in the photos, are just beginning to move about. One medium-sized one was swimming in a pond just 50' off the trail we walked from the picnic area out into the marshes. This area has many alligators, and some huge ones at that, so it can be fun to go looking for them in the warmer months of the year. You'll see tall marsh grasses and cane in the photos - a great day to be out on the water. Cheers, Natalie Wiest Galveston, 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 Mon Mar 26 2007 - 07:32:55 PDT
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