I was looking for someplace new to paddle on the west side of town, and Marshall Lake jumped onto my radar screen. I did some quick internet research, printed off a map, loaded the boat on top of the truck, and away I went.
Marshall Lake is named after oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall who formerly owned the land, and is famous for, at age 89, marrying Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith. The land was purchased from Marshall by Compaq computer company as home for their world headquarters.
The lake is man-made, because the 1944 aerial photo shows nothing there but undeveloped flat prairie. The next available aerial photo is in 1978, and poof!, the lake magically appears. Apparently it was a borrow pit used for construction material. The hole filled-in with water and became a lake, and Compaq ran it as a private recreation facility for their employees, for fishing and canoeing.
Compaq was bought out by Hewlett-Packard, which sold off the land to real estate developers Kickerillo Companies and Mischer Investments, who planned a housing subdivision. And they, in-turn, donated the lake land to Harris County, who now run it as a County Park open to the public, called the Kickerillo-Mischer Preserve. The Preserve is an 80-acre property featuring Marshall Lake which covers 40 acres, and includes fishing piers, paved trails, woods, a canoe launch, restrooms, and a covered picnic area. Nice place, very popular, with lots of visitors. But I had the water all to myself!
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| Location |
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Entrance |
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Rules |
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Aerial photo |
The lake is about 3,000 feet long east to west, and 500 to 1,000 wide north to south. It doesn't take long to cover it all if you're paddling fast. I was out for leisure escape, and to enjoy nature. The water is shallow, with depth running from 1 to 5 feet, according to my paddle dip tests. The water source seems to be run-off from surrounding land, so it serves as a reservoir. It contains large-mouth bass and channel catfish, according to the fishing signs, which designate keep sizes and limits.
It's a short portage of only several hundred feet from the parking area to the waterline at the boat ramp. I launched, turned left and followed the shoreline around in a clock-wise direction. I kept a respectful distance away from fishermen on the banks, so as not to interfere with their lines, or get snagged by a fish hook.
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| Boat ramp |
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Bean scene |
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Snag ahead |
I also tried to keep from spooking the birds which were present, but they were fairly skittish, and would often take flight to escape my presence, even though I didn't get very close. Sorry. Birds seen were egrets, small and large, a great blue heron, several cormorants, and some black belly whistling ducks, which are actually mostly brown. There are also a lot of water turtles in the lake, and many of them were up on top of logs sunning themselves. They appear to be red-eared sliders. You could also see them poking their heads up as they surfaced for air now and then, and in the shallows they lay on the bottom in the mud and run for cover when they see your boat coming.
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Black bellied
whistling ducks |
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Cormorants |
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Turtles
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| (Thanks to Natalie Wiest and Frank Ohrt for the bird identifications.) |
On the negative side of things, there is a lot of road noise from Highway 249 at the west end of the lake. And an occasional commercial jet liner flying overhead on route to Intercontinental Airport. Life in the big city.
Cypress Creek runs alongside the lake just 100 feet away, but there is no connection between the two. Cypress Creek does not feed Marshall Lake, and Marshall Lake does not drain into Cypress Creek. Cypress Creek is about 20 feet lower in elevation at the bottom of its eroded gully, while Marshall Lake is up on top at the surrounding ground level. One of the things I explored was the possibility of leap-frogging over from Marshall Lake into Cypress Creek. It's do-able with a short portage, but you'll have to negotiate the steep banks going down into, and coming back up out of, Cypress Creek. So, an interesting exercise would be to paddle both Marshall Lake and Cypress Creek in the same trip.
When I got bored paddling, I beached on the island which lies directly across from the boat ramp, and explored the island, which is not accessible by pedestrians. It is thick in brush, so take your paddle along with you to help push aside vines and thorns. And this led to the coolest sighting of the day. I saw movement of something black inside a mound of vines, and out hopped a large buzzard which flew up into a tree. The mound of vines was hollow inside, and nestled on the ground inside were two large eggs. This was a ground nest for the buzzard! I took photos, and departed so as not to disturb the nesting activity any further. The island also contains signs of some critter like nutria chewing on saplings, but they were not very fresh. And there are metal signs on posts indicating that a pipeline runs underground across the middle of the island, but I suspect it's an inactive one, as no effort is being made to keep it clear from overgrowth.
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| Going ashore |
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Buzzard nest |
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Eggs |
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Pipeline |
Marshall Lake is a nice place for a leisurely paddle, to get some exercise, and to see some birds and turtles. Enjoy!