I've been wanting to paddle to Pumpkin Lake in Sugar Land for about 10 years. I became aware of it while paddling Oyster Creek near the Sugar Land Airport. At one time I thought there was a pass connecting the lake to the creek, but that turned out not to be true. And there wasn't any road to get to it.
Fast forward to today, and a new subdivision has been built adjacent to Pumpkin Lake, called Orchard Lake Estates, with a lake called, not surprisingly, Orchard Lake. This opens up a new possibility for getting access to Pumpkin Lake. All you have to do is drive into Orchard Lake Estates, put-in at Orchard Lake, and paddle across to Pumpkin Lake. Sounds easy!
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| Location map |
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Close-up aerial view |
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Route to Pumpkin Lake |
Well, not so fast... I took a scouting trip with the canoe on top of the truck just in case I might actually get to use it. Upon arrival at Orchard Lake Estates I discover that this is a gated community, with security code access. And a sign is quite explicit about what will happen to trespassers. Drat!
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| Orchard Lake Estates |
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Entrance gate |
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No trespassing! |
So I'm back to Square 1 again, still without access to Pumpkin Lake...
An alternative path occurs to me: put-in into Oyster Creek, paddle around the southern perimeter of the subdivision, and then do a healthy portage overland to Pumpkin Lake. I figure from Google Maps that the portage is about 500 feet, and I really don't want to carry my boat that far. The good news is that Oyster Creek is public property, and Pumpkin Lake is public property as part of Cullinan Park. So, no one can tell you that you're not allowed to be there.
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| Plan B |
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Cullinan Park |
What I really need is a friend that lives in Orchard Lake Estates that will host me as an official guest for a day, giving me permission to enter the property and paddle their lake. Does anybody know anyone who lives in this subdivision, who could grant an old man a long-sought wish?
Update: After making a posting on the Orchard Lake Estates Facebook page, I had a response from a nice lady who explained that Orchard Lake is off limits for boating, even to the residents, due to alligators. So, that option is once again quashed. It's a shame that even their own residents cannot use their own lake for recreational purposes. So, that leaves me with the Oyster Creek path as the only possibility still open. I'll have to get me a set of those wheels that strap under a canoe, to make it easier to execute the portage.
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| Portage wheels |
Stay tuned for the next installment of the story; "John paddles Pumpkin Lake".
And here is the 2nd installment covering the subsequent successful visit to Pumpkin Lake: Click here
Trivia:
Before the subdivision was built beginning around 2003, the two lakes together were called Pumpkin Lakes, as a plural word. The subdivision builder took it upon himself to change the name of the west lake to Orchard Lake, to match the desired subdivision name Orchard Lake Estates. I guess that sounded better to the developer than Pumpkin Lakes Estates. I kind of like "Pumpkin" myself. So now there is only one Pumpkin Lake remaining, however, on maps it's still written the old way as a plural, giving the odd situation of having just a singular Pumpkin Lake, but called plural Pumpkin Lakes.
The land in this area was first settled in 1828 by Alexander Hodge, a member of Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred original settlers of Texas. You can read his amazing life story by clicking here.
As you can see from the topographical map, below, there was a cemetery at the location that is now the entrance to the subdivision. And what became of that cemetery? It looks like it was fenced off and remains just an unused grassy area. I'm glad they didn't build houses over top of it, giving new home owners serious ghost problems. Perhaps the occupants of that cemetery could have told us why the lakes were named "Pumpkin"? And just who is buried here? This site is registered as the New Home Cemetery, affiliated with the Baptist church, containing 39 burials, primarily African-Americans, with grave markers indicating interments from 1929 up through the 1990's. Some burials were found here when FM 1464 was widened, and the remains were relocated.
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| Pumpkin Lakes 1995 |
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Old USGS topo map |
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Cemetery today |