Corpus Christi Weekend

 Note:  This is a very long blog.  Be sure your coffee cup is full.

 Natalie and I both decided to spend last weekend with many of our friends camping out in Nueces County Park in Port Aransas, Texas.  That is the site of the annual paddling festival held each year by that paddling guru, Ken Johnson.  (I'm still trying to grow up to be just like him but have LOTS more work to do.)

THE MAN - Ken Johnson

 Natalie, her daughter, Ellen, and I packed up and took off with dog, Zootie in  Natalie's little HHR.  We had a tandem canoe and a storage box on top and barely shoehorned in.

HHR held 3 adults, 1 dog, 1 tandem canoe, 1  storage box, 2 tents, gear and food

 We got to Port Aransas just in time to get Natalie to her surfboarding class.  Ellen, Zootie and I hoped to have an exciting time watching her, but she put on a real boring show - never fell in once!

Queen of the surfboard

Friday night, I  invited several friends to join us at our camp site to share Vegetarian Quinoa Chilli and good conversation. That was fun in the warm, clear evening.  We did have a lots of un-invited mosquitoes but they finally went to sleep before we did.

Winnie's picture of us visiting at my camp

But  during the early hours of Saturday morning, a big wind moved into the area.  We woke to at least a 15 mph wind with gusts up to 30 mph. Zootie and I get in a beautiful walk before eating breakfast and meeting up for the morning events.

Zootie looking for shorebirds

Beach birds

Sun rising over a freighter

The  classes went on in a  protected area but all the tours were canceled.  Fortuately, Natalie and I were also very happy to just go birdwatching.  (These area has several wonderful spots to bird.)We met a couple of other friends with the same idea and spent the morning with them  looking for birds in the blowing branches of the trees, as well as along shores, and marches. After coming back to camp for lunch and a rest we went back out birding until it was time to come back for a catered supper.

Just-married friends Tracy and Dutch looking for birds

Osprey on the hunt

Small flock of ruddy ducks

A few avocets had already arrived

A few of the hundreds - thousands of redheads

Horned Lark

Dune buggy rally - a little lunch-time lagniappe

Sunday was pretty darn  perfect, with cool enough weather that I needed a jacket early on for my walk with Zootie. I thought I would have time for a really long walk, but my phone clock said it was time to get back for breakfast and then a trip. But about the time we got back to camp, my phone FINALLY decided, that indeed, time should move backwards one hour.  So when Natalie and I decided to leave after a paddling trip, I had plenty of time to pack up my stuff.

Then it was on to the paddle.  We chose to do a short trip because Natalie had surgery scheduled on her rotator cuff on Tuesday and was paddling Ellen and Zootie in the tamdem.  I have a known tear in my left rotator cuff that has me slightly crippled in that arm,  and  a suspected tear in my right one, together with pinched nerves in my neck.  So it felt miraculous to be paddling at all, much less with a doubleblade. Another wonderful thing happened - my friend Donovan,  a paddler from Louisiana who works tirelessly to preserve bayou waterways there, was on my trip which was also led by Ken.  So I got to spend a little more time visiting with them.

Donovan helping Natalie load up

And they're off

Natalie's last paddle before surgery and several months of rehab

Ken's picture of me in the kayak he loaned me

A small part of a long line of pelicans resting on and island

White ibis

Coming through a area that was draining out and making a current

Happy Paddler

Long-billed curlew and willet feeding together

Break spot

Last view of Mustang Island beach - our lunch spot

We were tired but still happy campers when we arrived back in Galveston at bedtime.

When this publishes, I'll be on the way to Louisiana to spend a few days with my friend, Hulin.  I'll probably not have time to post again until I get to Okefenokee NWR.  Stay tuned.  I'll be there next Tuesday. 

Circumnavigation of Big Pelican Island

Last Thursday, I only worked until noon, then cleaned up and went into Houston for a haircut before starting a wonderful weekend with my friend Natalie. I parked my car at a shopping center and rode back to west Houston with Natalie for a Huston Area Sea Kayakers meeting where John Wharff gave a presentation about his new book, Kayaking the Texas Coast.  Natalie had reviewed the manuscript for the press and also written the review that is on the book cover. I had corresponded with him a few times but neither of us had met him in person.

We enjoyed his presentation, as well as meeting lots of old friends.  Our service was really slow - over two hours to get our food - so we didn't get to Natalie's home in Galveston until after midnight. We staggered up early the next morning, cooked a big breakfast, and loaded up kayaks and gear.  Then we  met a group of people to paddle around Big Pelican Island in Galveston Bay.  Texas A & M Galveston is located there and Natalie, the head librarian, got us permission to launch from their beach.

 We put in under the training ship for the merchant marine program. Across the bay is a sulfur plant. Sulfur comes in a liquid form on a train, and then is processed into flowers of sulfur which is piled up.  You can just see the sulfur color on the right side.

This is the old sailing ship, the Ellissa, which is a kind of museum.  The docents used to get to go sailing on her after they earned enough hours.  But I hear she is not seaworthy right now. But is is still a fun destination in Galveston. We paddled under a twenty percent chance of rain and saw one little shower in the distance about here. But we were under clouds and looking east so everyone's pictures were very dull.

After we went down to the east side of Big Pelican Island  and turned north, we passed  Sea Wolf Park, where the USS Stewart, a destroyer escort, and the Cavella, a submarine are berthed. The actual Sea Wolf submarine was a sister ship to the Cavella but was destroyed at sea.

Soon after we rounded the corner of Sea Wolf Park, we could see the remains of the Selma, a concrete ship from the WWI era. Now it is a landmark in Galveston Bay and had a pair of American oystercatchers nest on it this spring. Below is a picture taken from closer up.

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Just, past the Selma, we stopped for a break.  A huge ship was moving in the ship channel and just after we landed and pulled our boats up on the shore, they were hit by the waves from the ship and we had to all grab them and pull them higher.

 Natalie and John posed for an authors picture before we left. Natalie will have a book about paddles within an hour's drive of Houston out next year.

And I found some pretty wildflowers on the beach. 

On the last leg of our circumnavigation, we were paddling next to the Intercostal Canal and saw lots of ships and tugboats pushing barges.  We had  to start paddling a little harder because the tide was going out against us. We also got some surfing waves here but I had my non-waterproof camera around my neck so mostly backed off of them.  But I did get one good ride.

Little Pelican Island, a bird sanctuary, is just behind this tugboat. It is off limits to people from March to September to allow the birds to nest in peace. Lots of  brown pelicans nest there, along with other waders, gulls, and terns. But a few juvenile pelicans were hanging out and fishing on Big Pelican Island, just across from here.

One of the biggest changes to the bay is the container terminal that is currently under construction. Levees are being built to, I guess, provide channels inside for loading and unloading, as well as the docks and maybe storage facilities.So we have to paddle much farther out from Big Pelican Island then we used to and the land looks very different.This may have major impacts on the quality of life in Galveston, as well as on the nesting  birds.  Already some of the nesting habitat has been destroyed by the construction.

About here, we started catching very strong south winds and our speed dropped dramatically.  I had figured we would be all the way back to our landing beach by 12:30 PM but it was almost 1:00 PM before we arrived.  But the ten mile paddle was interesting all the way and it was fun to visit with old friends from Houston and Corpus Christi.

 

I also had good memories of paddling this same trip with Hulin, the former owner of this kayak.  He sold it to Natalie who now mostly loans it out to kayak-less friends.  I just sold my kayak to a guy in Corpus Christi since I can only haul one boat around with me.  Natalie took this picture as we came in to the landing. Behind me is the bridge from Galveston Island to Big Pelican Island.