My brother Sam dropped in for a visit 2 weeks ago, so what to do for entertainment? Well, go canoeing of course. The day was very windy, so I chose Turtle/White’s Bayou as our destination. It was flat beautiful as we put in at White’s Park and paddled up White’s Bayou.
I was amused by this blue rope dangling from a tree leaning across the bayou. I don’t think I’d give that a shot today and had to wonder if the person that put it up there did it before or after the tree started its downward descent.
A little farther upstream we came across a concrete rubble area I’d noticed before. It seemed to have an extensive uphill component.
I was curious about that, and not far beyond was a huge concrete culvert with its end section detached and halfway into the bayou.
That was a little scary to me, noting the high capacity of a pipe that size. Our bayous have very little downstream flow, so what could this mean?
We continued upstream to the usual logjam that blocks the waterway, turned around and headed back enjoying the hollies, magnolias, cypress trees and the quiet stream.
A friend from Anahuac filled me in on the details, and very recent maps from the Houston Galveston Area Council confirm the presence of a new housing development that is likely the source of the concrete on the embankment. It is called Cypress Point and as you can see on this first photo, it is built out already with many new homes on smallish lots:
The area circled in red borders the bayou and here is a closer view showing its extent:
I am assuming the concrete pipe is associated as well.
Just thought you’d want to know. It’s still a lovely bayou for a paddle under the trees and out of the wind.
Natalie Wiest