An outing to Lake Charlotte was planned for Sunday May 9, but it was becoming increasingly clear that the forecast was going to be for strong winds from the south that day, which would be bad for Lake Charlotte. I had promised the registered participants that we would make the call on a possible change of venue for the trip on Friday evening. The two best alternatives that would be protected from southerly winds, but weren’t too far from Lake Charlotte, were Champion Lake and Turtle Bayou/Whites Bayou. If we were to switch to either of these, recent scouting information on the conditions there would be invaluable. I had scheduling conflicts for both Wednesday and Thursday, which left only Friday as a possible scouting day. Even though Joe Coker was planning to leave on an out-of-state trip first thing on Saturday morning, he generously offered to join me for a scouting trip to Champion Lake, a paddling spot with which he is very familiar.
The gauge at the Champion Lake fishing pier showed that the water level was at 10.76 feet, which is quite high. We figured that, at this level, water would be flowing over the lake’s recently-reinforced levee – an expectation that was confirmed when we saw large patches of floating azolla fern floating from left to right as we looked out into the lake. There was a flow of 3-4 mph headed to the northeast, and, where the channel narrowed, a novice paddler might experience difficulty working their way back upstream. At one point, the thick carpet of azolla had piled up to more than a foot high above the water’s surface where the flowing water was passing underneath a tree branch. (See a video of that here.)
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Grassy Launch Site
by Tom Douglas |
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Streaming Azolla
by Tom Douglas |
So, that potential route to the northeast of the boat ramp would definitely be off the table for Sunday’s group paddle.
We checked out conditions at several points along Big Caney Creek and the northern paddling trail, making sure to visit duck hunting sites #3 and #5, which were likely to figure prominently in Sunday’s paddle.
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Champion Lake’s Paddling Trail System
by the Trinity River NWR |
We also explored several potential routes, both along established trails and back through the forest.
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Big Caney Creek
by Joe Coker |
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Green Carpet in the Forest
by Joe Coker |
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Azolla-Free Forest
by Joe Coker |
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Five Finger Tree
by Tom Douglas
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Willow Tree Catkins
by Tom Douglas
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Joe at Site #13
by Tom Douglas |
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Tom at Site #13
by Joe Coker
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Returning to the boat ramp, we noticed that the water level had crept up to 10.78 feet. Having paddled a quick 7.0 miles and made many mental notes about the conditions we had encountered, we loaded up our boats and headed for home.
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| Beautiful Day!
by Joe Coker
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Based on what Joe and I had learned that Friday, plus numerous other facts that Joe had shared from his extensive knowledge of Champion Lake, I shifted the location for Sunday's paddle from Lake Charlotte to Champion Lake. At numerous points during the Champion Lake trip that came just two days later, the experience of the 15 paddlers in that group was greatly enhanced thanks to Joe’s advance scouting and advice. Three cheers for Joe!