A Day Canoe Trip

[JohnRich 4]

Sharing a little canoeing story.

Sunday, October 15th, I dipped my new (used) canoe (Old Towne Discovery 15'8") into Oyster Creek, in Sugarland, Texas, to take it out for a trial run and determine if it is seaworthy. I'm a novice canoeist, so I needed this easy paddle to gain some experience.

The recommended put-in site was from Cullinan Park, just north of the Sugarland Airport, down a dirt road. However, due to the extensive rainstorms the day before, this road was a mud bog, and even with 4-wheel-drive, I didn't want to try it. I hiked down the dirt path to see how far it was to the creek, and it was many hundreds of yards - way too far to portage an 80-lb. canoe and gear, alone.

So, I set out to find a good alternate put-in location, and settled on the Sugarland Airport just on the other side of Oyster Creek. The north end had a large empty field bordering the creek, and airports are public property, so no problem, right? (More on this later...) See photo #1 for my put-in site.

Due to the rain, the water level was probably higher than normal, and the current faster than normal. But I haven't observed this creek before, so I can't say how much higher from "normal". The forecast was for more rain, but I decided to do the paddle anyway, as I needed to test the boat, and refresh my rudimentary skills, for an upcoming Rio Grande trip. It rained plenty, but I saw no lightening. I was soaked, but it was a warm day, and I was not uncomfortable. A wide-brim hat helped. The creek varies from about 150-feet wide to 50-feet wide. The current flow was maybe 1 mph.

I paddled for three hours upstream, to the west. Due to the water flow, if you wanted to rest, you had to pull over to the side, or the current would quickly take over and make you lose ground.

The first section borders the Sugarland airport and Cullinan Park, and is a pretty tree-lined area. (Photo #2)

An old, low, wood bridge is encountered next, with a log-jam of junk and hyacinth piled up underneath it. You can squeeze through on the south side, with some pushing. (Photo #3)

Following that area is the Texas prison farm, with dilapidated old farm buildings, and a white water tower. I decided not to stop and rest here, so the guards in the watch tower wouldn't think I was trying to break in. If someone in black and white striped clothes comes running towards you, paddle away - fast!

There is a side creek which goes up to Pumpkin Lake, which I did not explore. Above Pumpkin Lake, I would swear that the water flow slowed down a bit. My theory is that the large lake absorbs a lot of the rain that was falling, and all that water flows out into the narrow creek, creating a Bernouilli Principle effect. But what do I know.

Next up was a high-end residential community on one side with creek-front homes. A few of the homes have fences made with iron bars so that the residents can see through from their picture windows and enjoy the water scene. But most have the standard Houston six-foot high solid cypress fence. Why pay extra for waterfront property, and then block off your view of the water? Go figure. It makes no sense to me.

The next landmark is the concrete FM1464 road bridge. Underneath are the mud nests of swallows, along with clusters of tiny little iridescent water bugs, which will jump off into your boat and flounder around in the bottom, if you get too close. On the other side of this bridge is a trailer park on the banks, and following that is the Houstonian Golf Club, and some bulldozer land preparation for residential home construction. I thought it would be fun to paddle past golfers, but they're not close to the water. This area is open on both banks and is not very scenic.

At this point I was getting tired and bored, and turned around to go back. The next landmark would have been the Grand Parkway Road 99 bridge, but I didn't get that far. On the way back, I did a lot of relaxing and drifting with the current, just dipping the paddle enough to keep me in the center of the creek. I laid down in the bottom of the boat, stretched my legs out, leaned back against the seat, and enjoyed the float. (Photo #4)

Critters observed: Herons, small ones and big ones. Hawks. Egrets. Kingfisher! Ducks. I love watching the ducks take off and the pattern of intermittent splashes they make on the water as they struggle to get airborne in front of you. Turtles. Fish would break the surface, but not enough for me to identify what they were. Oh, and a snake. (Photo #5) The snake was on a collision course with me, and I was torn between getting my camera out and taking emergency evasive action. Can a snake climb up the sides of a canoe? I went for the camera, and fortunately, the snake spied me, and turned and went the other way.

Throughout the entire paddle, you are never far from the sounds of planes, trains and automobiles.

Even being lazy, it took only two hours to return to the put-in site, with the water flow favoring me.

The boat was sound, and an old patch on the bottom did not leak. I practiced dodging logs, overhanging limbs, and giant spiders on webs strung across the creek. I reacquainted myself with the various strokes, like the sweep, the pry, the draw and the J-stroke. I could make myself go in a straight line with no problem while paddling on the right, but for some reason i had great difficulty doing that on the left. Hmmm... So I feel she and I are ready for Big Bend next week. At least until the first time I'm rushing towards a giant boulder at 20 mph in whitewater, and then all bets are off. Ack!

Lessons Learned:

1) Don't casually lay your paddle across the gunwales (sides), as it will slip off into the water faster than you can say "oh heck!" I didn't go for the spare paddle, but instead just hand-paddled back to the floating rascal. After that, I laid the paddle across my lap, and kept a forearm on top of it.

2) You can get sun-burned on an overcast day in the rain.

3) I got a good taste of what the wind can do to a canoe. About 100 yards from my take-out, the wind kicked up to about 25 mph. It kept blowing me sideways into the far riverbank, and it took a lot of effort to stay in the middle of the creek. Wow. I was glad I was near my take-out, and not in the middle of a large lake, downwind from where I needed to be.

4) Oh, and remember how I promised to comment again about the airport put-in location? Well, it turns out that there is some kind of directional antenna that pilots use to find the end of the runway, and the presence of my truck parked in that area was throwing off the readings a bit, causing pilot complaints. Ack! I found this out when, as I was pulling my canoe out of the creek, an airport truck pulled up and a man told me this info. He was very nice about it, and didn't make a big deal of it, but I felt bad. I could not have imagined that simply parking your truck in a field could cause such a problem. There were no fences or warning signs to protect against this problem I felt lucky that my truck wasn't towed away to resolve the issue for pilot safety.

- John Rich

[cloudseeker2001 0]

Looks like fun.

At any time did the canoe ever try to 180 or 360 on you? I have known some Old Town canoes to very hard to control.....I have no idea what models. And wind will flip a canoe over quick. A canoe trip is no fu without the canoe!

"Some call it heavenly in it's brilliance,
others mean and rueful of the western dream"

[rickjump1 0]

Yours got a keel? My (also second hand) Old Town came without a keel which is great for turns in moving water, but kind of a pain on a nice calm lake. It gets off course really easy. Had a bass pull the front end around with no problem.

Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

[shropshire 0]

Cracking travelogue thread, as usual John... I just can't get the same quality into mine (too lazy , I guess).

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[bob.dino 0]

Nice story.

[Viking 0]

the snake is a Cottonmouth Water Moccasin, its the only water snake in north america.



"This dangerous semi-aquatic snake is truly an aggressive reptile that will stand its ground or even approach an intruder."

my dad has had to shoot several trying to climb our canoe when i was a kid. You might wanna think about bringing a pistol loaded with rat shot next time.

I swear you must have footprints on the back of your helmet - chicagoskydiver
My God has a bigger dick than your god -George Carlin

[jumpjunkie2004 0]

Interesting story : )

Thanks for sharing!

Jump, Land, Pack, Repeat...

[JohnRich 4]

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At any time did the canoe ever try to 180 or 360 on you? I have known some Old Town canoes to very hard to control.....

The only time I've encountered that is with "eddy turns" in whitewater. That happens when you get the front end of the boat in calm water behind a boulder, for example, while the back end is still in the rapidly moving water. That causes the back end to spin around ahead of the front end. It can be useful when you do it on purpose to stop in an eddy to face upstream and watch others run rapids, or to rest. But I've also had it happen to me a lot when I didn't intend it. It's simply a phenomenon of having different ends of the boat in water moving at different speeds. Once it starts, you can't stop it, so the best method is to "go with it" and spin a 360 and keep going.

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And wind will flip a canoe over quick.

Now that worries me. I just had a friend of a friend drowned by that. He was moose hunting, bringing a kill across a frigid Canadian lake in a canoe. The wind overturned the boat, and they slipped into hypothermia and drowned. I think I'll stick to warm weather canoeing.

[JohnRich 4]

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Yours got a keel? My (also second hand) Old Town came without a keel which is great for turns in moving water, but kind of a pain on a nice calm lake. It gets off course really easy. Had a bass pull the front end around with no problem.

No keel in this one: it's a flat-bottom barge. That's good for shallow water stuff. I understand that design makes turns easier, with the tradeoff that it's harder to paddle a straight line. Since I do some low-class rapids, I need maneuvering. And with the right technique, like a "J stroke", you can still paddle a straight line without changing sides constantly.

[JohnRich 4]

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the snake is a Cottonmouth Water Moccasin, its the only water snake in north america.

I think you meant the only poisonous water snake... I researched the identifcation of these before, and got very confused with dozens of varieties of harmless water snakes, that all look very much alike. This one, after he retreated into the water grass, did coil up in a "strike" position and open his mouth, exposing the white inside.

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my dad has had to shoot several trying to climb our canoe when i was a kid. You might wanna think about bringing a pistol loaded with rat shot next time.

So I should have paddled to get out of his way first, before going for the camera. Ack!

I'd like to take a handgun on my upcoming Rio Grande canoe trip, but that is fraught with potential trouble, as guns are banned in both the National Park, and in Mexico. If some Federale was to search our gear while camping on the Mexican side of the river, I could end up in a Mexican prison forever. On the other hand, if drug smugglers ran across us, I could end up dead. Nice choice.

[SpeedRacer 1]

Quote

Quote

the snake is a Cottonmouth Water Moccasin, its the only water snake in north america.

I think you meant the only poisonous water snake... I researched the identifcation of these before, and got very confused with dozens of varieties of harmless water snakes, that all look very much alike. This one, after he retreated into the water grass, did coil up in a "strike" position and open his mouth, exposing the white inside.

.

Yep. I live in Maryland, and everytime someone sees a water snake here they go "OH, It's a cottonmouth! (aka water moccassin)"

But Cottonmouths don't live north of southern Virginia. What we have here are Northern Water Snakes, but since they aren't poisonous, they aren't famous.

Speed Racer
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