Due to several weeks of daily rain, the Columbus Loop trip was moved to Champion Lake which proved to be a good move.
Kent Walters had reminded us prior to the trip to SLOW DOWN on the residential CR 417 to 20 mph. The folks that live there are adamant about this speed limit as there are young ones playing about.
Nine boats and 10 paddlers assembled at 9 am on Saturday morning in Dayton, Texas ready to go. Water at the put in, according to the gage at the fishing pier, was 8.5’. This was perfect for ease of put in and in the areas where we went off “main street” and made our own trails.
We had some new members on our trip. Sara Hook, a brand-new member and a transplanted professional violinist from Nebraska, brought her ORU foldable kayak. She demonstrated how quickly it packed up in an impressive minute and thirty seconds! David Barrett, Lydia Westbrook and Greg Fan (with his fish finder) were back. Alice Nissen, Kent Walters, Fran Wilcox, Joe Coker and Natalie Wiest and Ellen Shipman were also on the trip.
Joe took us through the Cypress maze to the various duck hunting clearings. We learned that if there is a number with two orange/yellow reflectors on the trees that means one is entering a cleared duck area. The white reflectors on the trees means that one is on the Main Trail. Joe also gave us Flora and Fauna information on this lake. The female alligators are preparing their nests right now (June/July) so they are mostly in the woods. There are “teenagers” who are swimming about, and they are learning appropriate alligator behavior. The alligator eggs will hatch after the 60-day gestation period which will be August/September so we will need to pay even more attention and be on alert as alligator activity will increase!
There is also cabamba, a water plant where the fish lay their eggs. There is an algae called azolla (Mosquito Fern) which is reddish brown and mixed in with the duck week. There is much duck weed on Champion Lake. It looks like a lot of split peas in the water and makes paddling a tad difficult. Duckweed appears in fresh water and is not harmful. It seems to prefer the shadier areas.
We stopped for lunch on the water under the tree canopy and went on for more exploration. As Tom Douglas aptly advises paddlers on this lake, “if you get lost, paddle south!”
It was a beautiful paddle with zero rain and great folks.
Joe and Kent have posted their trip pictures on our HCC web page. Click on “Photos” from the main page.
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Joe Coker's Photos
Kent Walters' Photos