Pickett's Bayou
July 14th, 2013
by Natalie Wiest
Participants: Dave Kitson, Paul Woodcock, Ellen Shipman, Natalie Wiest
Our trio of canoes met the water at the Picketts’ Bayou boat ramp, Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge, at 9:30 a.m. and were shortly underway, paddling down the still bayou and its dark waters. Hardly a breath of air was stirring, and the air felt every bit of its 80 to upper 80 degree range.
The “artist” who has hung the wind chimes has been at work again – a string of floats hang from another tree downstream, and a large buoy from another. The area has been further defaced with a “Linda’s Narrows” sign. I believe these items are on private property, but still, it’s not an improvement on the beauty of the tall trees.
Anhingas flew occasionally overhead, and green-backed and little blue herons, an occasional kingfisher. Thought I caught the yellow flash of the prothonotary warbler. Even the birds seemed to be fairly quiet and still this day. A couple of fishing boats floated although they weren’t reporting great luck.
Dave wanted to show off a side passage he and Joe had found earlier, so we paddled on down to the Cutoff, then west past what had been an impassable log jam. The side passage got narrower and narrower, and finally so many trees down we turned around and headed back. A small shelf of (thankfully) solid silt gave us a lunch spot where we admired some very large footprints. We’re fairly certain these were made by a good-sized alligator walking across our lunch spot. Yikes, glad he didn’t decide to rest or walk there while we were eating.
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Island formed at east
end of Pickett’s Bayou |
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Nature abhors a vacuum -
vegetation taking over an
abandoned floating dock |
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Champion Lake –
with only enough water
to float a lotus |
Photos by Natalie Wiest & Dave Kitson.
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| The author, Natalie Wiest |