Weekend at Choke Canyon State Park

I had to drive about five hours for a checkup on my rehabilitation progress after my surgery, so decided I might as well drive another four hours and spend a long weekend with friends at Choke Canyon State Park. I invited my friend, Julie, from Florida to come join me and arranged to get her paddling equipment so she could go have fun.

I finally made it to Corpus, after having started off at 6:45AM  from Galveston, so I would have time to stop at a Texas Birding Hotspot or two and bird on the way down.  I was only five miles from my first planned stop, and an hour from Galveston, when I discovered I had lost my phone.  I was sure it had fallen out in Natalie's bathroom so drove back to get it.  So I missed birding at Quintana, which usually has a few wintering warblers. After a few more minor adventures, I made it to the Corpus Christi airport to pick up Julie.  I hadn't had time to go grocery shopping, so that was our first task.  Then we had barbeque before heading to the state park. I had gotten Winnie to pay the money I still owed so we could have a prime campsite. We found out site just after dark, then set up camp before going back to build a campfire and visit with Winnie and Wayne, the only other campers on site.

Galveston sunrise as I left

We spent Friday looking for cheap firewood, and after an offer to follow a guy home for free wood, came back with my Honda about a quarter full of firewood as well as with beets, shallots, and two huge cabbages. Julie planned to take hers cabbage back home on the plane. We spent the rest of the day hiking, and Julie also did a short paddle in Winnie's kayak.  I cooked supper in my crock pot to share with Winnie and Wayne. People started coming in that afternoon and early evening.

Then we got a scary call from my friend, Bob.  He was in the emergency room with his friend, Karen and they didn't know if they would even make it.  Since he was bring a kayak for Julie, this was devastating news.  We were very worried about Karen, who had recently spent eighteen days in the hospital with spleen and pancreas problems and were afraid she was starting a repeat. However, an hour later,  we got another text that they were on the way.

Julie loves to be in trees and this one was just too inviting

Saturday, Wayne and I followed the kayakers down to their put-in on the Frio River.  Wayne has just retired as a drone pilot for the Border Patrol and has several drones he flies for a hobby.  He wanted to take still pictures of the group leaving. And I wanted pictures as well .

Loading up the kayaks

Winnie ready to leave

Julie boarding 

Bob drawing over for the pre departure group picture

The group picture as seen from the  drone

Wayne's drone with camera

The last view the drone got of the paddlers

Then I mostly hung out in my hammock as the temperature climbed to ninety-three degrees. This was the hottest day I'd have to suffer through in two years. The paddlers all had a great time and Julie came back with pictures that she shared with me so I could be duly envious.

I hiked back to the group site to see if the Mother-of-thousands was still growing there.  Many years ago, I took a piece home and easily got it growing in a pot.  Then I found it was invasive so destroyed it.  However a tiny plantlet grew in a crack in my steps all summer without water. It's a very tough plant and makes lovely blooms in the late winter.

Mother-of-thousands bloom

This duckweed covered red ear slider was searching for diggable dirt - in very short supply there

Tree tobacco was also in bloom 

On Sunday, everybody wanted to go home and not do another paddle, so Winnie loaned Julie her kayak and I took her to the put-in in camp.  Then I went to the previous day's put-in to retrieve her.  In between, as well as before, I birded and hiked. Sunday evening Julie and I packed up everything but our tents.

The rising moon on Sunday night

We got up early on Monday to go visit the Padre Island National Seashore and set Julie off on another short paddle from Bird Island Basin.  She got back in time for us to drop off the kayak at Winnie's house and  to go eat Galveston Bay oysters before putting her back on a plane.

Julie paddling behind a sandbird of loafing birds

Picture by Julie of the some of the sand dunes she paddled by

Then I drove the four hours back to Galveston, and managed to see Natalie a few minutes before going to bed so I could get up early and head back to Louisiana.

Looking Back at 2013: Work and Play

While I actually do a lot or work, I don't have much documentation of it.  So I'll throw in some of the pictures of me in play.

This first picture represents my favorite job.  I got to develop and then give a program on the bees to the Montana Conservation Corps kids. My goals were to collect bees to establish base line information of what bees were present, while getting the kid interested in helping to save the bees, to Citizen Science, and perhaps consider a career in Biology. From the kid's point of view, it was a day off from pulling invasive weeds, or stacking fallen trees to be burned in the fall.

I set out bee cups the day Tuesday mornings, then picked them up on Wednesday with the kids before they netted bees.  One day, I remembered to bring my camera and caught this picture as they started up High Point Trail. I missed the picture of the little bear coming through the pasture where I had one of my bee transects on another day but we all got to watch him for several minutes.

Bee catchers and bighorn sheep

 Didn't use this in my work but did take the certification course with two young guys.  And passed!

Certified to drive

 Another program I worked closely with was Talk-to-a- Biologist.  I helped produce the brochure, and also worked most Tuesdays on it, after we got it started. I even got to impresenate a Biologist.

Talking pollinators

 Here at Okefenokee, I helped with educational field trips. I love the intensity with which these guys are checking out their catch in their net. Children can learn so much more by doing than by being told.

 Last winter, my job fell through when the refuge had a major sewage problem in the the volunteer house which they could not afford to fix.  So I did a lot of playing - mostly paddling.  This is one of my favorite places, Choke Canyon State Park.  We are paddling on the flooded Frio River.

 This is Turtle Bayou, very close to Anahuac NWR on the upper Texas coast. It is through a swampy area.

This picture was from the same trip.  I'm paddling in the bow of Natalie's boat, with Zootie, her dog and her daughter, Ellen.

In September, I got to paddle in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota with friends. Bob, Andrew, and Natalie for the first week, and only Bob and Natalie for the second week.

I also did the work of cooking and drying our meals, then reheating and serving them.  Bob and Andrew did the heavy lifting of the canoes and a heavy personal pack, as well as the food packs.  Natalie and I only had to carry our packs and day packs and light stuff like the paddles on the sometimes difficult portages.

I got in a lot of hiking while in Montana and during the two weeks I traveled towards  the Boundary Waters with Bob G.  One of the best hikes was with a family I met the first weekend I was at National Bison Range.  This is me at the start of that hike.

Boundary Waters Bob also came up and visited me at National Bison Range before we went to Glacier National Park. We ended up camping with another couple.  Karen and I hiked the Grinnell Glacier Trail while the guys fished.

Karen

Karen's picture of me in front of the Grinell Glacier Lake

Bob G. and I went on a guided tour while at Grand Tetons. He took this picture of me in a beautiful grove of old trees.

On the way back to Galveston  from National Bison Range, I spent two nights at Palo Duro Canyon State Park so I could get in a hike. This is a self-portrait among some of the wonderful boulders carved by nature. 

And of course you all remember that mystical swamp paddle the Cindy and I recently did at Banks Lake NWR.  It will be a favorite memory forever - or until Alzheimers sets in - both because it was so magical and was my first paddle in a Georgia swamp.  Cindy took this picture.

What are your memories of 2013?  I'd love to hear from you.  Leave a memory in the comments  or a link to your memory blog.

And I hope you are getting a quick start on making 2014 memories.  May you all have a wonderful year.