A little over a year ago I subscribed to the
Piney Point water gauge on Buffalo Bayou with a 1000 CFS threshold, which notifies my by e-mail once on hour if the water is over the threshold. By Friday morning, it had been holding steady at ~ 1800 CFS, so I posted a trip. By Saturday, it seemed that fast water would hold up and it did – at least to the 1750 range. We had five HCC paddlers show up, meeting at Subway near Memorial Mews at 9:00 am for a hearty breakfast. (I like a big breakfast before I canoe and It’s a good way to get everybody together.) On the trip were Keith Williams and son John Michael, Mike Pollard – all in kayaks, and Sharri Blifford and Will Blumentritt in a tandem canoe.
After eating, we dropped the boats at
Memorial Mews and headed out to drop three vehicles off at Woodway - a 15 minute shuttle each way.
With the water about 8 feet higher than normal, we were in the trees a bit in the Memorial Mews area, it cleared out after a little ways. The weather couldn’t have been better. In the first hour we encountered a couple of strainers, but were able to get thorough them without incident.
The trip was beautiful and pretty non-eventful for the next couple of hours, but at the Houston Country Club Golf course – which is well into a major erosion prevention project – there was a brand new strainer that had fallen overnight. We stopped and looked for the best place to go over it. I backed the canoe up about 25 feet and set out, but the back of the boat was in a faster current that the front and I couldn’t get it straight fast enough, so Sharri and I went for a swim. Keith quickly shot through and gathered up some loose items and Mike threw a rope. No harm done, but Sharri and I both lost our hats. The remainder of the trip was great and went by too fast.
I highly recommend this trip as it really is the best parts of the Bayou from a nature perspective. Traffic noise is low, trees are plentiful, even few people sightings.
The total trip came out to 16.9 miles. Total time on the water ~ 5 hours, including stops.