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The Big Thicket, initially over a million acres of dense
wildernessbetween Dallas and Beaumont in eastern Texas, is now a
one hundred thousand acre National Preserve administered by theU. S. Park
Service. The coming together of plants, animals and birds,
from different regions, makes the Big Thicket a unique natural phenomena.
Ever since I first read about it I was intrigued bythe Big Thicket. Several
years ago I did an overnight canoe trip onVillage Creek
but that did not satisfy my thirst for the Big Thicket.When the chance
came along I jumped at the opportunity to do a three day Thanksgiving
trip on the Neches River, a Houston Canoe Club trip.
After a 130 mile drive to the put in on Texas farm road 1013 and a twenty
mile shuttle each way we managed to cram an unbelievable
amount of gear, clothing and food into eight sea kayaks and started down
river to highway 96, forty miles away, at 12:30 PM in
a light rain. We made camp early after doing only slightly over six miles.
The camping beach was high, wide and beautiful. Tents and flys were
quickly put up, stoves and food brought out and the process of heating
our feast began. The trip leader, Marilyn Kircus, had
prepared food for the whole group and it only had to be heated. Turkey,
cornbread dressing, cranberry relish, gravy, veggies and
sweet potato-pecan pie made up the Thanksgiving feast. We were dry
and cozy in our chairs under tarps as the rain continued.
And the rain continued until morning, rather hard at times. Morning
was sort of laid back, we took time dealing with wet
gear and repacking the kayaks. The sun actually came out after breakfast
and we started down river in a bright sunshine at about
10:00. We had to cover 20 miles this day.The Neches is a rather
wide river sort of like the Pearl on the southeast Louisiana border.
Forests lined both banks. Mostly bottomland hardwoods. The
sweet gums and chinese tallows were displaying a little fall color.
The rain started again and the wind picked up to about 15 mph. We were
going against the wind for a while with the rain
drops pelting our faces. Glasses were practically useless.
The wind was strong enough to create a light chop on the water. The
river winds a lot and at times we were going with the wind, then against
it and then it would be coming from the side.The rain slacked
and we explored a side slough. There were acouple of great blue herons
and several people sighted a baldeagle. Moss draped cypress trees
abounded in the slough.
Lunch was turkey sandwiches with cranberry relish.
Beaches began to be scarce and for a while it looked like we might have
to paddle through the night to the takeout.
Around 4:30 PM we settled for a little spit of land about three and a
half feet above water. There was barely room for all the
tents with one large penthouse tent taking up most of the space. Dinner,
again supplied by Marilyn, was chili, both the hot and mild variety. Desert
was bread pudding with whiskey sauce. During the night one of the ladies
went out to answer nature’s call and dug into a fire ant nest. One
of the men exited his tent just in time to pull kayaks higher and keep
them from floating off sans passengers.
The river was up in the morning and still rising. We got the hell
out of there in a hurry. A damn release had occurred during the
night. Be careful of those damn dammed rivers. A swift current greatly
aided our progress and we reached the takeout on Hwy. 96 at noon instead
of two or three as we had expected.
All three days and only about six small motor boats. About a dozen small
house boats were tied to the banks and all but two were unoccupied.
The quiet scenic splendor of the Neches lends one a degree of peace and
tranquility seldom found in todays everyday world.
A great trip.
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