Thanksgiving on the Neches
a sea kayak trip
by Marilyn Kircus

Eight hardy souls, none of which had called to see if the trip was canceled in the face of possible severe storms Thursday and Thursday night, met at the boat ramp on the east side of  the intersection of the Neches River and highway 1013.  We were all present and unloading our boats and supplies by 9:15 a.m.  Present were boB, Bob, Michael, Hulin, Rick, Janet, Ron and myself, Marilyn, the organizer and camp cook.

We unloaded our boats, partially packed them and then left the 3 passengers to watch over everything while we ran the shuttle.  We used Eastex Canoe Outfitters in Silsbee (1-800-814-7390).  We found them very satisfactory.  We left our cars with them in their fenced yard and gave them a key to my car with instructions to have it at the take-out by noon on Saturday.  They he hauled us back to the put-in and we finished packing.  The hardest part was getting several people to haul some of the food.  We finally agreed to eat one of the sweet potato- pecan pies on the spot so we would not have to carry it.  I tried to carry the second one, securely shut up in a pie carrying case, in my lap but alas, it would not fit in my cockpit.  Ron took pity on me and found a place on his kayak to fasten it.  By 1:30 we were finally starting down the river in a light intermittent rain.  The river was at its optimal level so we expected to have no trouble finding a sandbar.  We paddled six plus miles before finding a huge, white sand, 2 level sandbar.  We landed, unloaded our boats and set up the tents, my sun shelter, and two tarps.  We ended up with a sitting area, and a cooking area.  A big wind blew down the tarps but we got them up more securely and had an uneventful supper except that boB was giving his son, Michael, very clear directions about clearing water from the tarps.  When Michael followed them, he poured about a gallon of water on boB's head.

Loading up - the Pieman

Our Dining Room ......................................................................

As soon as camp was set up, I got everybody to get out their stoves and get ready to heat.  I had to steam several items of the menu.  I had considered little balls of aluminum foil or  a thin layer of sand and water.  Ron suggested we just turn a lid from a smaller pot upside down in the largest pots.  That worked great and we heated the Creole Cornbread Dressing that way.  I had made it ahead, cut it into squares, and wrapped each square in aluminum foil.  We just filled a pot with the squares and then covered it and let it steam for about 15 minutes. I also got the Pear-Pumpkin started for the first course and mixed up the lime juice and the sour cream to dollop on top.  Soon everybody was drinking down the soup and helping to heat up the rest of the supper.  Meanwhile I decided not to steam the turkey since I had neglected to wrap it in foil but rather to just heat it in the Giblet Gravy.  So we started a dark meat pot and an light meat pot.  Janet had already volunteered to make the relish tray so she was busily spreading cream cheese or pimiento cheese salad into celery sticks, adding green onions, sweet Germans and olives while the rest of us grabbed them every time we went past her.  I finally got the Caraway Cabbage into a pot and heating and unpacked the slightly runny, molded cranberry salad and the fresh cranberry relish.

I called for everybody to get their utensils and come get supper.  We all loaded our plates, starting with dressing and adding the giblet gravy and the meat of our choice.  Then we all began eating.  Suddenly boB remember his wine which was his promised contribution.  But we were too conformable to get up and find our cups so we saved the wine for later.  We all ate until we were past full then had some wine.  We debated about eating the second pie but everybody was too full and sleepy.  So we packed away most of the food.  Most of us were in bed by 7:30 p.m..  A few hardy souls made it to 9:30 p.m..

We had another huge  storm with lightening during the night.  Rick got up to pee about midnight and saw the boats were about to float off.  So he moved all of them to higher ground, taking most of our walking space up.  His set his alarm for 6:00 and he and I were the first ones out. I had already packed up my sleeping gear so I came out about 6:15.  The river was about a foot from his tent.  I was camped by a little ditch that I had walked across the evening before when it was completely dry.  Now it was a 3 food stream only a foot from the front door of my tent.  So we got everyone up and made quick coffee, packed and left.  I had set a stick up by the river and it had risen several inches by the time we left at 7:30.  We all managed to stay dry except for Rick.  A passing boat wake wet a corner of his tent before he could get it down.

I was concerned because most of the group had been paddling with rudders.  I talked to them about their strokes and found most of them did not know how to draw, back paddle, lean to turn, rudder with the paddle, etc.  Hulin, and I both are certified for teaching canoeing in moving water and Ron knew how to paddle in this kind of water as well.  The three of us also knew how to do boat over boat rescues or at least how to get the water pumped out and the passenger back in these really heavy kayaks. Hulin demonstrated a back ferry and we talked about how the current will push you into obstructions and ways to deal with it.  Then we made a rule that we would all stay very close together.  I put Hulin in front and Ron in back and I took the middle so I could get to either end quickly and help if needed.  But we had no trouble, only a fast ride out.  The day was beautiful with scudding white clouds against a blue sky.  The willows were a bright yellow green.  The tallows provided red accents.  The other trees were in many shades of green.  The water speed was averaging about 2 miles per hour.  I was in the back half when an adult bald eagle flew over.  He made my day.

We stopped an took a breakfast break at Hardin County Park, the first sandbar we had seen since we left ours over an hour earlier.  I think Rick said we had paddled  6 miles. (He was the GPS master) We enjoyed walking around and I really enjoyed a mixed flock of chickadees, warblers, and titmice. We also shared gorp, and figs.  Soon after we left the park, we started seeing a lot of houseboats.  One had some people on it.  We asked how far to the highway 96 mile bridge.  The lady replied, " When you get to the next houseboat, you'll be halfway".  That's all we could get from her.  When we reached the next house boat, there was a man outside and we again asked him how far..  "He replied about 2 hours for you ."  A short way after this we saw a few more houseboats sans owners and finally another sandbar.  We stopped there for another snack.  boB usually would not sit but did everything standing.  But this time we looked and he appeared to be asleep in his kayak.  His kayak also had an interesting list.  We quickly got Janet to take his picture while we all giggled. A minute later, he was shooting his camera back at us.

See Next Column

We went on down the river and soon came to a T-shaped split.  The fastest current was to the right but the widest water was to the left. The right was filled with obstructions.  When Ron, Janet, and Rick caught up with us, Ron said to go left.  So we did.  We found the river had split around an island.  Ron said, "Marilyn, you and I should have gone right".  We had already talked about how we like to paddle moving water.  But with the extra inertia from the load we were carrying we both might have had problems.  Ron had built his own kayak and loves it for a flat water tourer but decided it needed to have a little more rocker to be fun on moving water.

The bridge came in sight only a turn or two past the place where the right channel rejoined the river.  Janet yelled "There's the bridge.  We're saved".  It was 11:50 A.M.. Thanks to the fast water, we didn't have to come off at 3 or 4 P.M.. as I first thought we would.  We came though the pillars and turned right to the boat launch and quickly got our boats out of the way of guy loading up  his motor boat.  Then I loaded up the other 4 drivers into my Ford Focus and we did a short run back to our cars.  We got back and got everything loaded up, hugged good bye and left to go back to the Dallas-Fort Worth Area, Hammond, LA, and the Houston area.