Radiation, Journalism, History, and New People
Distance: 19.86 miles
Leader: Bruce Bodson
Other Participants: Eric Boatman*, Joel Crutcher, Doug Fairchild, Sara Hook, Meredith Kohut*, Joanna*, Joshua*, and Willy* Parsons, David Portz, Michelle Waterman, Felicia Ziegler* (* indicates people paddling the Brazos for the first time with us)
Boats: Six solo kayaks and three tandem canoes (Two Safari aluminums)
Put In: SH 159 mostly west bank
Take Out: FM 529, east bank
On Saturday March 25 a group of 12 in six boats paddled the Brazos from SH 159 to FM 529. This is just down river from Hempstead. In addition to a nice day on the river this little trip was intended to conduct some preliminary assessment of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) in eroding pits and inn abandoned well that have now been captured by the river. This activity, as well as the general messing about in boats was to be photographed by Meredith Kohut for a story on the lower Brazos in the Texas Observer (Assuming it survives another few weeks) and Inside Climate News.
As is often the case, the put in at SH 159 was a bit difficult and a tad off-putting. There were two potential paths to the river on the west bank, both equally steep and slippery. One path we christened Dead Dog Path, because there was a dead dog in the middle of it. The other I called Equal Opportunity Path, because there was a dead dog and a dead cat in it. We elected to take Dead Dog.
There was actually a very nice bar at the bottom of Dead Dog that allowed us to effectively stage boats and launch quite easily. Seven out of nine boats agreed that this was the proper place to launch. Two boats elected to go to the wrong side of the river and launch where there was essentially no path and instead of a bar, a just short of vertical wall of rocks used for erosion control. Even so, we ultimately got all nine boats in the river and headed out.
The experience level of the team was varied this time. We had everything from multi-Safari finishers (Felicia) to folks who were relatively new to paddling and doing, I believe their most ambitious trip thus far. Felicia, for the record, paddled an aluminum tandem with Meredith and all her gear in it and did a beautiful job of keeping her where she needed to be to do her work.
Our first stop at roughly mile 3.0, was on a large sandbar just below the limestone sills that mark the former location Bernardo Plantation. The sills create a nice little riffle and provide the only real fast water in this segment. I was talking and pointing things out and got pinned sideways on a rock I failed to see, but managed to slide off before I became a truly entertaining event. It’s always nice to avoid taking a swim on a paddle that is being nicely photographed. The bar was, as usual an interesting mix of mussel shells, petrified wood and other fossils and bits of brick, believed to have originated from the on-site brick kiln at Bernardo.
Our next stop, at mile 6.3 was at an area of old oilfield wreckage. This area contains eroding drilling pits, old well casings that have been captured by the river and a number of exposed, abandoned pipelines. Eric, Meredith and I disembarked at this point to screen some of the pit out washing and the casings for NORM, using a Geiger counter (Ludlum 3 with 49-2 detector, the Physicists friend- or so I am told). A number of debris piles and pipes read substantially above background, but nothing was at a level that raised immediate concern. While we scrambled around on the high bank Felicia went on a fossil hunt and accomplished her mission for the trip by finding a large fossil horse tooth.
The rest of the trip was mostly a paddle, birding event, and fossil hunt on the sand bars. The one unusual thing found was a dark brown chert dart point, identified by John Rich (from photos) as a Trinity point (Middle to late Archaic- estimated to be 3 to 4 thousand years old).
Mussel species observed this trip (mostly recently dead valves) included pimpleback, yellow sandshell, southern mapleleaf, Tampico pearly mussel, three ridge mussel, pistolgrip, Brazos heelsplitter, Texas fawnsfoot, fragile papershell, and of course, Corbicula.
Bird species included Least Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Greater Yellowlegs, Killdeer, Little Blue Heron, Green Heron, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Double-crested Cormorant, Neotropic Cormorant, Anhinga, Wood Duck, Bald Eagle, Osprey, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, American Kestrel, Mississippi (FOS), Crested Caracara, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Belted Kingfisher, Ringed Kingfisher (best bird of the trip- also one of the first birds of the trip), Swallows (Cliff, Barn, Bank, Northern Rough-winged, Purple Martin, Tree), White-eyed Vireo, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, White-winged Dove, Rock Pigeon, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (lots!), Dickcissel, Red-winged Blackbird, and Great-tailed Grackle. There were probably, as usual, a few little things down in the cover that were detected but not identified and a few others that were never seen at all. Clearly though, migration is getting in gear.
The take out was actually pretty tame this time. The relatively low river created a bit of a bar that was not entirely quicksand and allowed several boats to be queued up for hauling up the slope. It also didn’t hurt that we had Eric and Joshua along. Young legs and hearts make that final chore a lot easier.
All in all, it was a lovely day on the river. We saw some interesting things, learned some interesting science and made some new friends.