The weather forecast for the club trip that was scheduled for Saturday December 3 (2 days later than this scouting trip) was looking bad, with a high temperature in the low 60s, a serious probability of rain, strong winds from the ENE, and the likelihood of thunderstorms. A crew of 4 scouts (Joe Coker, Tom Douglas, Rea Inglis, and Dave Kitson) set out with the main purpose of finding a route that would provide maximal shelter from the forecast ENE wind. The main channel of the Trinity River north of Interstate 10 and the Lake Charlotte end of Lake Pass would be rough under those conditions, and both the cut from Lake Charlotte to Mud Lake and the mouth of Mac Bayou might be rough, too. The most sheltered conditions would be along the east side of Lake Charlotte, down to the area near the gauging station, then east and south into the woods, through to the east end of Mud Lake (see the first map). The probable return route would be along the same path, unless conditions on Mud Lake were smooth enough to offer other possibilities.
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Planned and
Actual Routes
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Morning on
Lake Charlotte,
by Tom Douglas |
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Pushing into
Mud Lake,
by Tom Douglas |
We departed from Cedar Hill Park about 10:40, and passed by the Lake Charlotte gauging station around 11:00, where Dave and Joe observed that the depth gauge stick was missing from the tower’s leg. According to the USGS web site, the water depth fell slowly during the day, from 8.67 feet at 10:00 AM to 8.63 feet at 4:00 PM.
Two areas to the east of Lake Charlotte, that had been open water several years back, were now very full of understory growth, making them impassable, at least along their western margins. We skirted them as closely as we could, staying near the edge of the cypress trees. We hit Waypoint 1, but were forced off to the west before reaching Waypoint 2. We headed south, looking for opportunities to cut farther to the east, but were unable to find any. Eventually, we were pushed more and more to the west, a path that took us to the northeast edge of Mud Lake, nearly due west of Waypoint 4. The last 20-30 feet into Mud Lake were very difficult. There was an approximately 1.5 foot wall of water hyacinth, which concealed many cypress knees. Even with a boat’s bow sticking out into the open water, several more pushes off the bottom were still required to get out into the lake. This row of cypress knees extends all of the way from here down to Waypoint 5. We paddled along the shore to Waypoint 5, and up the bayou to Waypoint 4, where we again encountered quite a bit of water hyacinth. It just didn’t seem worth trying to push onward toward Waypoint 3, so we gave up on our originally planned route for the December 3 group trip, and we considered what other scouting activities might be of benefit for planning future outings. Rea pointed out that in addition to the difficulties described, today’s route included many spots with narrow clearances between trees, where wider boats would probably encounter difficulties. He also noted that an alternative approach would have been to go farther to the east soon after leaving Lake Charlotte, so that we could then head due south toward Waypoint 2. The answer to that question will have to await a future scouting expedition, though. In any case, we did find that a depth of 8.7 feet on the Lake Charlotte gauge is about the minimum required for paddling through this part of the forest.
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Waypoint 5,
by Dave Kitson
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Ghost Bayou,
by Dave Kitson |
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West Side of Mud
Lake, by Joe Coker |
The entrance to Ghost Bayou, on the south side of Mud Lake, was blocked by a large band of water hyacinth, and it was not clear that it would be worth pushing through it, for an uncertain reward. The opening of Mud Lake Bayou, at the southwest corner of Mud Lake, was severely blocked with water hyacinth as far as we could see. At one point along the west side of Mud Lake, we were finally able to paddle back into the forest. It might have been possible to continue southwest through the forest into Mud Lake Bayou, but we decided against that because of uncertainty as to whether the cut between Lake Miller and Lake Pass would be open when we got there (we would find out later on that it was indeed open). Returning to Mud Lake, we paddled to the usual northern exit, where we took a brief lunch break.
After lunch, we paddled up to Lake Charlotte and followed the shore westward to Sand Point. Only one very small ridge at Sand Point, about 20 feet in length, was visible, barely 1-2 inches above the water’s surface. Then, we made our way farther west to Lake Pass, through a couple of patches of water hyacinth, to the Lake Miller cut. Although it was lined with water hyacinth, the cut did offer a clear passage out into Lake Miller. Next, it was back along Lake Pass to Lake Charlotte, and across to Bird Island, where there were HUNDREDS of birds: mostly cormorants and anhingas. The water depth over the central portion of Bird Island was approximately 3 feet under these conditions. As we paddled toward Cedar Hill Park, we saw a number of groups of cormorants flying low over the water. Near the park, a bald eagle made a low pass over the water, picked up a fish, and landed in a tree about 200 yards to the south. The approaching sunset over Lake Charlotte was breathtaking.
All in all, we had paddled about 7.4 miles in a little less than 5 hours.