Clear Creek
Nov. 13, 2011
by Tom Douglas
 |
|
|
|
Canoes & kayaks,
singles & tandems
|
|
Lots of smiles on
a fine fall day
|
After everyone had arrived at 1776 Memorial Park in Friendswood and the morning car shuttle was underway, many of us checked out the map and interpretive materials located along one of the park’s hiking trails. We observed how a high-flow channel is designed to speed up drainage during periods of heavy rain while preserving the natural channel, and saw how stormwater runoff from the road near the park is causing erosion of Clear Creek’s bank. During the better part of our first hour on the water, we paddled around numerous tight river bends that circumnavigate what used to be a whole neighborhood before repeated flooding triggered a voluntary buy-out of almost all of the homes there. Eye-catching plantings of giant bamboo and palm trees provided us with reminders of this area’s past. Among the birds that visited us were great blue herons, snowy and great egrets, belted kingfisher, and a couple of species of ducks. Further downstream, we saw how the channel cutoff of Quaker Bend is steadily converting this part of the creek into an oxbow lake. After passing by the ruins of an old brick chimney at Oxnard Park, we stopped for lunch and conversation near
|
|
|
|
Caving banks reveal
layers of sediment
|
|
Paddling past
palmettos
|
Cowart Creek. We examined the layers of sediments exposed in the creek’s bank, and learned how the details of these layers several miles upstream were crucial to the design of the remedy for the Brio Refining Superfund site. Numerous lost fishing bobbers snagged along the bank suggested that the fish consumption advisory for Clear Creek has not been heeded by all. Wind from the south created a challenge in several of the downstream, more open, stretches of the creek, bringing a sense of relief when we reached the point where the creek turns to the east on its way toward Clear Lake. Though the take-out at Countryside Park in League City was a bit muddy, it went well, and the park gave us a pleasant place to organize our gear while the afternoon car shuttle was being run.
Photo credits, above: Linda Shead
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Can you find 14 boats
in this picture?
Photo: Joe Coker
|
|
Photo: Alan Bernstein
|
|
Photo: Alan Bernstein |
|
Photo: Alan Bernstein |
 |
|
The author,
Tom Douglas
|