Last Meeting Minutes
HOUSTON CANOE CLUB GENERAL MEETING
April 11, 2012
Bayland Park Community Center
Recorder: John Berlinghoff
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| Harmon Everett |
The meeting was called to order by Purser Harmon Everett. He reported that Commodore Ken McDowell and Vice Commodore Joe Coker were out on the Buffalo River in Arkansas, and that they had delegated program presentation to him.
Boatswain Honey Leveen gave her membership report. There were 7 people for the pre-meeting dinner at Pico’s Restaurant. We had 3 visitors at the general meeting: Tommy Spikerman, Mike Olsen (a boat builder), and Cliff ?.
Conservation Chair John Bartos said that $221 was raised from the auction, plus there was another $20 from Christy Long that hadn't been counted yet.
TRIP REPORTS
- Paul Woodcock and John Rich ran the Trinity River at flood stage (50,000 cfs). They did 20 miles per day in just 4 hours, during a 3-day trip.
- Harmon Everett did the Brazos River.
- Bob Naeger did the upper Guadalupe River at 200 cfs and Christy Long also did the Upper Guadalupe River at 400 cfs.
- The Red Hats did Village Creek.
- Paul Woodcock did TrashBash at Stubblefield Lake and collected 12 bags of trash and 1 live fish (of unknown species).
- John Bartos led TrashBash on Armand Bayou with 5 HCC members.
- Linda Gorski did Buffalo Bayou on Easter Sunday and submitted a photo to KHOU-TV which was shown on the air.
- Honey Levine said there was a Buffalo Bayou Regatta Happy Hour at St. Arnold’s where they honored Bob Arthur.
- There was a bad fire at ACK (Austin Canoe & Kayak) on Bissonett.
CONSERVATION ACTIVITIES – John Bartos
At the Devils River State Natural Area (SNA) public meeting on April 10, 2012, Bob Naeger talked about the public access discussion. (Note: There are two units of the SNA and they require a permit to enter. River recreation will be limited to 5 paddlers-only camping sites at each unit, with a maximum of 4 or possibly 6 people at each site.) Bob was impressed by the willingness of the three presenters to listen to comments. Linda Gorski will be participating in archaeology studies at the SNA as part of the management plan. The opening date is not set yet, but it will not be this year.
Mike Olsen showed pictures of the beautiful wooden boat that he built, which took him 14 months to complete. It weighs 58 pounds and is 16 feet long.
Harmon showed several short vignettes from the internet:
- There was a video of a fellow that paddled a kayak from Africa to Brazil in 90 days. The kayak included a solar panel and a desalinization unit – which failed after 2 months.
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| bottle kayak |
There was a kayak made of empty plastic bottles that was 21 bottles long.
- There was a shot of the Guadalupe at 5,000 cfs and another of Hidalgo Falls at 23 feet.
- There was a video of river otters on the Trinity River and video of the South Llano River.
- We also saw part of “Call of the River” while eating delicious popcorn supplied by Honey Leveen.
WHERE TO PADDLE – Harmon Everett
- Patty Carothers is looking at Hidalgo Falls for Memorial Day.
- Christy Long is looking at Village Creek.
- John Ohrt is looking at the Brazos River.
- Fraser Baker is doing Plum Creek.
- (Unknown person) volunteered to do the Columbus Loop on the Colorado River for Memorial Day.
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| Recorder, John Berlinghoff |