Table of Contents
June 14 General Meeting Minutes
Trip Reports
Cecilia Gill: Labor Day on the Sabine River
Lake
Charlotte , June 4, 2006
by Natalie Wiest
Paul Woodcock put out a last minute call for a Lake Charlotte trip to go the morning of Sunday June 4. I saw the notice about 10 p.m. Saturday night before, so too late to call and let them know Ellen and I would be joining them, so we just showed up at Cedar Hill Park at the appointed hour and resolved we'd paddle by ourselves if we didn't make the connection. As you can see from the attached photos, we did join them and our foursome set off on a mirror-like Lake Charlotte.
It's been some time since I've seen the lake so flat. We made such good speed toward the Mac Bayou entrance, we went right by it and on down to Bird Island until Paul and I had to admit Z was right about its location. Oh well, we were there to enjoy the scenery and my photo of the two of them at Bird Island gives a pretty good idea of the flat calm. In this ever-changing area let me add there is a new and unmistakeable feature now marking the entrance to Mac Bayou, a large mudflat into Lake Charlotte with lots of greenery growing on it. Well, it's unmistakable when you've blatently paddled right on by and have to turn around and eat crow on your navigation skills.
Mac Bayou was lovely as ever; and a new sight there too: water pouring out of the huge pipe that used to be atop the earthen dam on the bayou. I'm assuming it was water, but from what source? Another mystery for another day. This isn't a great photo but gives some idea of the flow.
There is a large stand of pickerelweed where the bayou zig zags across the sulfur barge cut. It was in full bloom, and here's a zebra swallowtail tanking up on nectar. Lizard-tail flowers bloomed among the cypress knees.
Paul and Mary's boat contrasted beautifully against the dark water in the bayou and lake.
We topped the paddle with a hot dog cookout under the large covered pavilion at the park. Our thinking was there would be enough of a breeze there to cut down on mosquitoes, which I'm sorry to say are the worst of all the times I've paddled that area. Alas, the mosquitoes had a great feast too, at the cost of the four of us, but we had a great time anyway.