Sheldon Reservoir: Quick Fix to Your Paddling Habit
by: Cindy Bartos

We hadn’t been paddling for a while and were starting to get the “paddling shakes” (“grip itch”; “canoeing creeps”; you’ve all been there….) when we noticed Mary Z had posted a trip to Sheldon (Mary Z and Paul Woodcock lead the Sheldon paddle)

Reservoir for the next day – Saturday, June 2. Perfect!
Five of us: Ken Anderson, Paul Woodcock, Mary Zaborowski, John and I met at the northern end of the reservoir off Garrett Rd. at around 8:15 a.m. Much to our dismay, we quickly noticed that the lack of hard freezes in the area has allowed the vegetation to grow so thick that there would be much pulling and pushing before any paddling was to take place. We also noticed one very HUGE alligator swimming close to the shore, which prompted many stories (tales?) that involved alligators with lengths of 20 feet, 22 feet and more, which then led to the discussion of the Texas state record for alligators. Without laptops and access to Google, we could only speculate on what that might be. Talk centered around the record being about 14 feet, but those of us who have been paddling in teeny tiny boats and have come across the mighty beasts swear we have seen alligators that were as long as our 15-foot canoe.
Well, talking wasn’t getting us paddling so we decided to go down to the boat ramp on the southern end just off of Pineland Rd. and put in there.
Great decision! The water here is very open and clear with only small amounts of water lilies and water hyacinths. Not long after putting in we came across several small islands brimming with nesting and breeding herons, egrets, ibis and roseate spoonbills. We saw great blue, green, yellow-crowned, black-crowned, tricolored and little blue herons. There were several cattle, snowy and great egrets and both the white-faced and white ibis. All the birds were resplendent in their breeding plumage and didn’t seem to be bothered as we paddled by at a respectable distance.
(ken Anderson checks out the birds)

And there were several more alligators! We gave them a wide berth and they seemed content to just let us paddle by.
We paddled almost to the northern end before we turned around and went back to the boat ramp. We were out a little over two hours, paddled about 5 ½ miles and off the water around 11:00 a.m. before it started to get too hot.
(John Bartos adds color to the scenery in his teal boat)

My point is this: Sheldon Reservoir is great place to paddle and a short drive from Houston (30 minutes from our house). You could put in early like we did or bop over after work or later in the evening for a quick paddle near dusk and avoid the daytime heat. There are directions to Sheldon listed on the HCC website: http://houstoncanoeclub.org/
Oh – after googling and searching we have determined that the Texas state record for an alligator is 14 feet 4 inches…