Luce Bayou
July 22nd, 2012
by John Rich
On Sunday, July 22nd, Natalie Wiest led a trip on Luce Bayou, a tributary that feeds into Lake Houston, which is north of Houston.
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Location map |
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River access point |
The access point was the Ponderosa Marina, 7400 Huffman Cleveland Road. Parking is $7, and there is a self-pay box where you write your vehicle description on an envelope, put your fee inside, and drop your envelope into the box. If someone claims to be the owner of the property and offers to accept your payment, don't give it to them - thieves have been known to scam visitors and steal from the owner. If you haven't paid your fee, your vehicle may be towed.
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Ponderosa Marina
put-in & take-out
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Guest paddlers, Scott
Cook & Tanya Jackson
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Lily pads
(Photo by Natalie Wiest)
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15 paddlers showed up for the trip, which started out from the put-in winding through lily pad islands, and then opened up to an enjoyable paddle upstream on the winding creek with wooded banks. The group consisted of 6 canoes and 6 kayaks, with three of the canoes being paddled tandem.
I tried to get photos of all the paddlers in action with their boats. Here they are:
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Scott Cook &
Tanya Jackson |
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Katie O'Neill |
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Steven Page |
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Ellen & Natalie Wiest |
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| Paul Woodcock |
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Ken McDowell |
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Dave Kitson |
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Bob Scaldino |
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| Kathy Plato |
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Joe Coker |
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Linda Gorski &
Louis Aulbach |
We stopped at a convenient place underneath a power line crossing for lunch. Shady spots where you can easily get out of a boat are scarce.
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| Sunken boat |
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Water moccasin
(Photo by Paul Woodcock) |
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There wasn't a lot of great wildlife viewing, but then the bayou was very busy that morning, with 15 paddlers in our group and another 25 in a group ahead of us. Any respectable wildlife knew to get the heck out of the way of that mob. But there were several items of interest, like a sunken boat trapped under logs, and a nice fat water moccasin. Most moccasins are much darker in color than this one, some almost jet black such that you can barely make out the pattern of bands and spots. But this guy was a nice tan color which accented his pattern.
After lunch, we continued upstream to a log jam which halted progress. I whipped out my bow saw and started cutting a path through the hefty log, but it was going to take a while. Impatient paddlers turned around and started heading back downstream. Joe Coker, being a good buddy, didn't want to leave me behind, and stayed with me while I sawed. I reached a point where I was about two-thirds of the way through the log, but the bow saw wasn't big enough to go any deeper - it bottomed out on the handle. So the effort was abandoned and John and Joe hurried to catch up with the rest of the group. So, next time you make this paddle, bring a bigger saw - John has already done most of the work for you! You can be the hero to clear the log jam and open up access further upstream.
Other random nice photos:
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Around a log
by Joe Coker
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Under a log
by Natalie Wiest
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Cypress tree
by Paul Woodcock
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Still water
by Natalie Wiest
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The length of the trip was about 7 miles; 3½ each way. A good time was had by all.
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| Group photo |
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| Trip leader, Natalie Wiest |
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The author, John Rich |