As I’m preparing this report the rain is coming down and I am thankful for our good fortune in making the trip when we did. We really lucked into a good weather day and it’s been downhill since.
As it was, 13 of us paddled in 11 watercraft, departing from Bay Area Park. Advertised as a slow trip it was fun to leisurely paddle about and enjoy the day. Noticeable in many of the photos, all boats in different orientations attesting to the pace of the day. I always enjoy the variety of watercraft that we paddle and our different styles of paddling. Here we are loosely assembling at the boat ramp in preparation to the paddle.
In the background you can see the very recently installed new dock. One of its features is a handicapped accessible boat launch although we noted it still requires getting the boat to the water and around a corner before mounting up. We all opted to use the existing concrete ramp which thankfully this time had plenty of water.
We headed upstream and into Big Island Slough.
At the northern terminus of Big Island Slough is another water access point with its own dock and canoe launching point. My bow partner Ellen was not enthusiastic about giving it a try but it’s an interesting earlier version of what is at Bay Area Park.
Kent Walters was trying out his new-to-him sit-on-top kayak, a nice design which we all admired. His other new acquisition was a set of hand paddles which he used very effectively on the water.
It just wouldn’t be a proper Armand Bayou trip if there weren’t alligator sightings and two of them posed very nicely so we could admire them. Perhaps they were guarding nests but we did not challenge them to see if they would defend or retreat.
A new geographic feature was a cut-through from a meander neck. That neck of land is very narrow and it was only a matter of time until the bayou decided to take a shorter course. New paddler Greg Fan celebrated his successful pass through.
Elderberries are in full bloom along the bayou, sure to have a good crop by midsummer.
We paddled slowly back to the park.
Here’s another look at the new boat ramp. Cindy Bartos gave it a try as an exit strategy but was done before I got there with my camera. I believe she found it very workable.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch together at the pavilion before heading home. Great day to be out on the water, wish you could have been with us.
Here is a map of our route; first up Big Island Slough, then a right turn onto main Armand Bayou and a short run upstream. John Bartos and my GPS agree that we paddled 5.1 miles. Great day to be out on the water, wish you could have been with us.
Trip participants: John and Cindy Bartos, Pat Cox, David Risch, Sandy Rushworth, Kent Walters, Fran Wilcox, Cyndi Cannon, Christy Long, Brent Smith, Ellen Shipman, Greg Fan, Natalie Wiest (coordinator).
Meteorological: 74 degrees at 10 a.m.; 79 at noon. Wind ranging from 9 to 16 mph from ENE. Our route was well protected from the wind. Water level was very adequate. New discovery by me, gauging station from Harris County Flood Warning System is now set up at Pasadena Lake (Mark Kramer Lake) at NASA 1. Interesting to see the graph for the time period, showing how tidally affected the level is:
