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The December 3 Christmas had been canceled but Mary and I wanted to paddle anyway. We wanted a short paddle with no shuttle so we decided to put in on Buffalo Bayou at The old Spaghetti Warehouse.
When we arrived we were greeted by the ducks that hang out there. I looked across and saw White Oak Bayou where it joins Buffalo Bayou at the jail. We decided to paddle up it as it was something I had always wanted to do and it would be new territory. As we passed under the first overpass we were greeted by a bum (homeless person in politically correct language). The roar of the traffic as we crossed under 45 made conversations impossible. An egret was on the side of the bayou and he just stood and looked at us as we paddled by. I guess city egrets aren’t upset at the proximity of humans. A red-tailed hawk circled over head. We saw the yellow blinking lights of the construction crew as we paddled by. They waved, surprised at seeing a canoe on White Oak Bayou. We were dodging shopping carts, old mattresses, bikes, and a great collection of trash.
As we paddled on, we saw a creek coming in to the bayou and we paddled up it. The first bridge we came to had solid cement sides down into the bayou making a tunnel we could paddle through. It was just a two lane street so it wasn’t really dark inside. There was a 4-foot pipe coming in the side and a great amount of water was rushing through it. You could smell the chlorine so I guess Houston had another broken water main. It became shallow so we turned around and went up the bayou.
The sides had become cement so we were now paddling in the man-made channel. The sides were adorned with gang graffiti and we saw a male with a spray can running away at our approach. As we headed Northwest the grass above the bayou was cut and park benches lined the bike path. People were riding their bikes and walking their dogs. We had arrived at Studewood where all the new condos have been built. It was 83 degrees in December and I even had to swat at mosquitoes.
We turned around and went back to the Spaghetti Warehouse where Mary got out and I soloed up Buffalo Bayou. As I passed the Aquarium - the new restaurant with the giant Farris wheel - the sides of the bayou became very park-like with benches and trails. The art work on the Wortham Theatre caught my attention. They are building a bridge over the bayou and I saw workers landscaping the bayou. It is going to be beautiful along here in the spring. It was interesting to see what we can do to make Houston Bayous enjoyable to hike and paddle. The wind was getting stronger so I turned around and returned to the takeout.
It was the ultimate Urban Paddle with the best and worst that Houston has to offer the urban paddler.
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