Cypress Wonderland
May 6th, 2012
by Tom Douglas
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Trinity River bridge
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Photo by Linda Shead
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We celebrated the recent re-opening of the Trinity River access at Interstate-10, following its closure to the public for several years during construction of two new bridges. The driving approach to the river bank is a little less direct than it used to be, but everyone found their way without problems.
Paddling north, up the broad Trinity River channel under cloudy skies, we saw lots of false indigo bushes and sycamore trees along the river’s natural levees. When we turned east into the Lake Pass, the channel became much narrower, and the forest began to be dominated by bald cypresses. A couple of fallen green ash trees, which reached most of the way across the channel, gave us practice with boat control, which some had been learning out on the main river channel.
Our group of 15 paddlers was very diverse, with some being new to the sport, while others were “old hands”, ready to help them gain familiarity with it. Our boats were also a varied collection, including both solo and tandem canoes, as well as solo and tandem kayaks.
We got a good look at a tiger swallowtail that landed on Joe Coker’s life jacket, and a little over a mile and a half up Lake Pass, anyone who hadn’t yet sighted an alligator got to see one at the short passage through the forest into Lake Miller. Question Mark butterflies swirled overhead, and more than a dozen of them paused for a drink of water from the damp soil at one spot on the river bank. The bull nettle plants near our lunch spot on the south shore of Lake Miller were covered with beautiful white blossoms. You might experience a prickling feeling on your skin if you touch the hairs on their stems or leaves, but they are thought to be a host plant for some of the very butterflies that we had been admiring. Conversation during lunchtime ranged over many topics, including the discovery that several paddlers shared more or less direct connections with Ireland.
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Heading up
Lake Pass
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Tiger swallowtail |
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Question mark
butterfly
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Photo by Linda Shead
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Photo by Dave Kitson
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Photo by Linda Shead
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On a short hike (looking out for poison ivy here and there), we visited the marker commemorating Corporal James Miller, who served in the War of 1812, settled here, and for whom the lake is named. This is also the site of a huge pecan tree and an ancient live oak, draped with Spanish moss. Back at our picnic spot, all helped Tom and Linda celebrate their wedding anniversary with a round of non-alcoholic bubbly.
With the breeze at our backs, we headed for Mud Lake Bayou, which threads a narrow and winding 1.2 mile path from Lake Miller to Mud Lake. This part of the trip took longer than anticipated, due to several spots where the channel was congested with plants that we either had to push through or navigate around by temporarily leaving the main channel. Although Mud Lake only has a footprint of about 50 acres, it looked amazingly big when we got there. We were greeted by large rafts of lotus plants, which were a special treat, both because of their beauty and their habit of sometimes going for years between appearances.
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Ready to cross Lake
Miller after lunch
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Cypress knees along
Mud Lake bayou
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Duckweed afloat in
Mud Lake bayou
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Photo by Linda Shead
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Photo by Linda Shead |
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Photo by Dave Kitson
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Lotuses have returned
to Mud Lake
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Stains reveal past
water level
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Linda & Tom chill
out at Mud Lake
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Photo by Linda Shead
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Photo by Linda Shead
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Photo by Emmett Doherty
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Making another traverse through the forest, we emerged into Lake Charlotte, which looked oceanic in its proportions, compared with everything that we had seen during the preceding several hours. Only a small tip of Sand Point, which is often a great spot to admire native hibiscus later in the season, peeked above the water’s surface. We were greatly relieved to see that the cypresses on Bird Island, which had looked so bleached and desolate last December, have put on a luxuriant new coat of green. A little less than half a mile down Lake Pass, we encountered the cutoff that leads to Lake Miller, which we remembered from earlier in the day. Lake Pass somehow seemed larger than it had only hours earlier, and it led us gently back to the Trinity River and the take-out point at the Interstate-10 bridge.
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Lake Charlotte looks
immense and serene
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Easing down Lake
Pass towards home
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Photo by Linda Shead
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Photo by Dave Kitson
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We may not have particularly noticed that the clouds had stayed with us until that point, but now we were glad that they had prevented the temperature from rising as much as it might have done otherwise. Our GPS told us that we had paddled about 8.1 miles, but it undoubtedly failed to account for some of our route’s many twists and turns. At the time of this writing, which is several days after the trip, some of us are already beginning to think about going back to see those Mud Lake lotuses when they are in full bloom…
Photo Credits: Thanks to Linda Shead, Dave Kitson, and Emmett Doherty for taking the photos that accompany this article.
The Cypress Wonderland trip was officially sponsored by the Houston Sierra Club,
for which Tom Douglas is a designated outings leader.
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The author, Tom Douglas (left)
with Linda Shead
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