Great moments in history:
The first man to reach the North Pole: Robert Peary, 1909.
The first man to summit Mt. Everest: Edmund Hillary, 1953.
The first American in space: Alan Shepard, 1961.
The first man to paddle Katy Boardwalk Lake: John Rich, 2019.
I was reading a local Katy newspaper and they had an article about a new real estate development going up near where I live. There is a flood control water detention pond on a tract of land just south of Katy Mills Mall, and there are plans to build a fancy hotel and convention center there, along with restaurants and bars. I'm always looking for new places to hike, explore, and get exercise, so I pulled on my boots, grabbed my backpack and walking stick, and went for a hike at the location. The purpose was just to check it out, see what it looks like, and to view another piece of the Katy Prairie before it disappears forever under concrete.
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(click to enlarge) |
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| News story |
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Aerial view |
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Artist's rendition |
In the news story, above, the thing that caught my attention is the line by the developer that "it will feature walking trails but no boats or canoes".
On the aerial view of the land, Katy Mills Mall is at the top left. Note the paved walking trails, and the three boardwalk bridges extending out to small islands.
And in the last image; the artist's rendition, the lake is behind the hotel and convention center.
The recon hike went well. There was some difficulty crossing the field from my entry point due to thick, waist-high grass, and the shoreline was often choked with heavy brush. But it was exercise, and going fast wasn't important. I climbed up on top of the levee on the west side to get the high view of things. And walked all the paved trails, crossed the bridges, and read the interpretive signs. I crossed the muddy bulldozed areas, and explored the huge two-story high piles of dirt. Several hours later, I had run out of new things to explore.
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| West levee |
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Bridge to island |
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Boardwalk patio |
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South-end lake panorama |
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Park rules |
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I decided that a canoe paddle on the lake was possible and desirable. I've never heard of anyone visiting this lake before, and I would like to be the first. According to the news stories and other research, the lake area is owned by the city of Katy, it's a public park, there are no locked gates or "Keep Out" signs, so that eliminates the trespassing concern. But there was that blurb in the news story about "there will be no boats". However, that's a future-tense statement, the park isn't officially open yet, and that seems to be just someone's plans for the future, but not yet codified in rules. Furthermore, the "Park Rules" sign says nothing about boats not being allowed. So, if challenged, that's my story; public land, public park, open access, no boat prohibition.
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Dogs retrieving balls.
Levee behind them. |
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I returned with my canoe on Sunday, a day when the construction workers wouldn't be active in the area, so they wouldn't have that as an excuse to keep me out. The distance from my home to the lake was just under 4 miles. I had the park almost entirely to myself. There was one couple who watched me with interest as I unloaded my canoe, who then went for a walk on the trails. And a family who was throwing balls into the water for their two dogs to retrieve.
From the parking lot to the water is a portage of about 100 yards. I had brought along my canoe dolly, so I loaded up my boat with my equipment, and wheeled it down the concrete path and through some grass, to the waterline. Easy peasy.
The lake is 90 acres in size, about 2,000-feet long, end to end. That makes for a quick paddle. Do the math. If you paddle at a leisurely 2 mph, then you can cover 2,000 feet in about 12 minutes. Okay, now what? Well, you can go for spins around the islands, explore the nooks and crannies, and drag the boat around the bridges to get to other areas. The bridges are too low on the water to go underneath, but it's an easy drag-around. I managed to entertain myself for several hours just playing around like this. The temperature was a mild 82°. The water seems fairly clean, and there was, surprisingly, very little trash.
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| Low bridge |
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Water level view |
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Bridge over gully |
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Katy Mills Mall |
All I can tell you about the water depth is that it is greater than 5 feet, the length of my paddle. I dipped in numerous places to check the depth, and could not touch bottom except along the shorelines.
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Jigsaw blocks |
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The feeder gullies which drain water from the surrounding neighborhoods into the pond, have odd-shaped concrete blocks lining the bottom to prevent erosion, and they fit together like interlocked jig-saw puzzle pieces so they don't wash away..
The lake surface is recessed down below ground level quite a bit, maybe 20 feet. So, looking around, you don't notice much of the development all around you, because it's hidden by the high banks. The levee to the west, which rises another 20 feet, hides the neighborhood. The high banks hide the nearby businesses. All you really see is the top floor of a 3-story apartment complex, and the top of the mall roof. Traffic noise from adjacent Kingsland Blvd is present, but faint.
They want to make this a nature preserve, but it's not there yet. I saw tracks of a raccoon, but I think the bulldozers will wipe out his habitat. I saw no signs of fish, turtles, gators or mussels. Some seeding is needed. There were just a few birds; one red-wing blackbird, an egret, some small pointy-wing birds darting around the water surface, and one gray thing with a medium-long neck. Do you like my bird identification skills? There seemed to be plenty of doves, mostly heard cooing in the brush.
And there were some nice flowers to look at.
I paddled back to my starting point, put my boat back on the dolly, pulled it uphill through grass to the paved pathway, and then wheeled it easily along the path back to the parking area. I'm still working on getting my boat trained to crawl itself up onto the top of my truck.
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| Hello Dolly |
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Come on,
crawl up there! |
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Good boy! |
If you live in the Katy area and want to go for a quick spin in your boat, try it out, but you better do it soon, before the bureaucrats ban it.