This outing was originally planned for Champion Lake, which is about 3 miles west of the Trinity River, opposite the town of Moss Bluff. But on May 25, the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge’s Champion Lake Public Use Area was closed because of flooding on the Trinity River, which was overflowing into and through the lake. Meanwhile, over on the east side of the Trinity, and about 9 miles downstream from Champion Lake, there was still good access to the water at Cedar Hill Park, where we could paddle in areas with high water but little current.
We picked a route that promised to be favorable, taking into consideration shade, scenery, and likely breezes. Our group of 17 paddlers headed south, along the east side of Lake Charlotte to the Lake Charlotte gauge platform, where we could read on the staff gauge that today’s water level was just shy of 13 feet. That would make it about 4.6 feet higher than average, but still about 4.5 feet below the level that was reached during Hurricane Harvey. The water line from Harvey was still evident on many of the cypress trees, where it was marked by an abrupt absence of the gray lichen that grows on the tree trunks, but doesn’t tolerate being under water.
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Leaving Cedar Hill Park,
by Linda Shead |
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Along Lake Charlotte,
by Linda Shead |
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In the Forest,
by Richard Cunningham |
Next, we slipped under the forest canopy and continued clockwise around the lake all the way to Sand Point, which is at the lake’s south end. Here, we headed deep into the forest, not following any bayou (or, for that matter, any path taken by a previous paddling trip). We took extra care to keep all our boats close together while we were back in the deep woods, where a lost paddler could be hard to find. Our passage through this nearly mile-long forested section took us to the south and west, all of the way to Lake Miller, where we headed over to the high bank at that lake’s south end for lunch.
Lounging on tarps provided by Linda Shead, we ate lunch and exchanged stories while (mostly) avoiding the poison ivy and the beautiful, but prickly, stinging nettle plants. Then, it was east along an abandoned channel of the ancient Trinity River (referred to by some paddlers as the “South Channel”) that had played a major role in shaping this part of the swamp system. There, the deeper water created by that channel has given rise to a small marsh (a.k.a. Marshy Lake) that is surrounded by forested swamp where the water is shallower. (For more about “A River Ran Past It: How Lake Charlotte Got to be the Way It Is,” see the separate article in this issue of the newsletter.)
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South Channel,
by Charles Browne |
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Marshy Lake,
by Richard Cunningham |
Turning west into yet another channel, we returned to Lake Miller, then headed north to Mud Lake Bayou. This was a special treat today – almost a mile and a half of winding bayou between Lake Miller and Mud Lake – and even wide open enough in places to allow one of our paddlers to hoist his sail. After a short crossing of Mud Lake, we cut through the trees, back up to Lake Charlotte. We paused in the shade to take one last water break before heading out across Lake Charlotte to Cedar Hill Park. With a pleasant breeze at our backs, we made the lake crossing in less than a half hour, arriving at our take-out point a few minutes ahead of schedule. Total paddling distance was 8.1 miles.
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Mud Lake Bayou,
by Linda Shead |
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Back to Lake Charlotte,
by Linda Shead |
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Across Lake Charlotte,
by Linda Shead
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Where We Went,
by Tom Douglas |
We were careful not to intrude on the fun of several non-paddlers who were fishing and swimming at the park, and we were more than pleased when they kindly offered to help us load up our boats and even asked us for information about where they might be able to get a good deal on a kayak or canoe.
Special thanks to Joe Coker, who helped explore novel routes at Champion Lake on April 11 and Lake Charlotte on May 15, and also to the paddlers on our May 5 Cypress Wonderland outing, who explored part of the novel route through the forest between Sand Point and Lake Miller.