Greens Bayou
Sept. 22nd, 2013
by Keith Williams

The reason for this trip was so that my 14-year-old son, Jon-Michael Williams, can get to a milestone of 100 miles in a year. Before this trip, he was at 95.1 miles. I do not know if I will be able to do any more trips with him this year due to the fact that I have to move to Abilene, Tx. next week. This would be the only chance that we would have for him to get the miles.

On September 22, 2013, four Houston Canoe Club members met at Greens Bayou for a paddle. (Colin Baker, Myles Hyams, Jon-Michael Williams and myself) This trip was going to be about 6 miles. I was kind of concerned in that on Friday and Saturday we had a lot of rain in the Houston area. This trip was going to start at 9 am. on Sunday morning,  At approximately 8 am I get a text from Colin Baker that he is already there and that the water looks great for a paddle. I could not tell you how excited that I was knowing that we could do this paddle. (I just love the early birds)  Once I arrived, I noticed that the parking lot is a grass field and had some mud in it but no one got stuck in it.  Every one took the high areas and we all did well with the parking lot.

Once everyone got there and set up, we were able to start the trip at 9 am. The weather could not have been better.  Nice clear blue skies and a little head wind.  Due to the front that passed through on Friday and Saturday, it was a little cool but once you were in the sun, it did get hot.  I was expecting a little bit of a current but there was VERY little, if any at all.  I do not know if it was because of at the point of put-in it was wide or if the rain runoff had already passed.  As we were going up and down stream it was apparent that you could see the water line that the water had risen to during the rains.  It looked like it was about 1-2 feet more than what we paddled.  From my past experiences on paddling this area, it was a little higher but not by much.  I am saying that by the put-in area. This was easy paddling going up stream about 3.1 miles.  There was a little area that we paddled around and then came back.  On the way back, if there was a little stream or a place to paddle, we did it.  During this whole trip we did see a lot of birds and a few jumping mullets long with the alligator gar.  I did not see any alligators.  Approximately 1 mile from the put-in, there is a huge eagle’s nest that I forget to look for on the way out, but we did see it on the way back.

During this trip my son kept on asking, how many miles have we done so far.  He wanted to make sure that he did do the 100 mile this year with the Houston Canoe Club.  We got out approximately noon. The trip total was 7.1 miles.  As we were putting up our gear, we were trying to come up with an initiation for a first timer who makes the 100 miles.  There were ideas that we should throw him in the water, but I did not like the idea because he would be all wet riding back with me in the truck.  If I could, I would have thrown him in the water and let him ride in the tailgate of the truck on the way back.  Is there a tradition that I am not aware of for what the initiation is for someone who makes the first 100 miles in one year?

Keith Williams, and son, Jon-Michael Williams