Wednesday 11/3
Then I waffled back and forth between options. Stay and visit the the alligators at 40 Acre lake again, or take a road trip to the Lake jackson Birding Center and drive along the sea wall at Galveston? Since rain was in the forecast, driving seemed the better choice, and after a slow breakfast of blueberry pancakes, off we went. To the ocean!
To the Sea, to the Sea! The white gulls are crying,
The wind is blowing, and the white foam is flying.
West, west away, the round sun is falling.
Grey ship, grey ship, do you hear them calling,
The voices of my people that have gone before me?
I will leave, I will leave the woods that bore me;
For our days are ending and our years failing.
I will pass the wide waters lonely sailing.
Long are the waves on the Last Shore falling,
Sweet are the voices in the Lost Isle calling,
In Eressëa, in Elvenhome that no man can discover,
Where the leaves fall not: land of my people for ever!
--JRR Tolkien
The birding center was empty of visitors, but we were welcomed with a nest of fire ants and a really nice man doing some weedeating. They'd cleared a lot of lovely little trails in the swampy woods. I saw a warbler, but other than that just a few cardinals, wrens and chickadees. It was late iin the day by then, so no surprise.
From there it was about a 45-minute drive to Surfside. We drove along the beach, admiring the brand-new, softly colored houses on stilts. Gorgeous, but (a) who wants to clutter up the ocean with a bunch of shitty human habitat, and (b) who wants to pay the homeowners insurance and flood insurance on a house in a hurricane zone?
I suspect they bulldozed sand dunes to clear the land there, too. Dunes are habitat for birds and wildlife;; they slow the progression of storm surge waters and stabilize the beach; and they're beautiful. The houses done none of the above.
We tried to stop at the Galveston Island State Park, but the oceanside area was closed and the bayside area just didn't look all that appealing to us. Plus, unlike most state parks, the day use fee was six dollars per person rather than per vehicle, so we would have had to pay. We only have the one State Park Pass--typically you only need it for camping and entrance and engrance is, as I said, typically by vehicle. So why pay $20 for a second one?
Besides it was getting late by then. We went on to Galveston and drove along the sea wall. Being winter and very few people about, it wasn't at all what I remembered. Plus I suspect they've rebuilt a good bit of it in the twenty-plus years since I've been there. We drovw back out of the city along Broadway Street, wheere a lot of the old houses are, but I forgot to get any pictures. Oh well.
It's a big place, much bigger than I remembered.
As we drove back toward the wildlife preserve it started to seriously threaten rain, so we skipped that one for the time being. We'll go another time. And as we neared the park, the skies opened up and deluged us. But it was slacking off as we neared camp and we were able to get inside without getting too awfully wet.
After an hour the rain stopped, so Molly and I got a good enough walk at sundown. It was 5:45 when I looked at the clock, so I determined a one-mile walk would be plenty. I didn't have the flashlight.
We went over toward the Big Creek Bridge and decided that the trail around ?? Lake was too muddy, so we continued on the road. In a short bit, a trail marked "Bluestem Trail" opened off to the left. It was large, graveled, and smooth enough for a car, so I knew there was no way I was going to get lost on it, even if darkness came.
There were no birds at all. I saw a few deer and once, in the distance through the woods, a couple of low-lying creatures that looked black in the dim of evening. They moved away quickly, with that odd, ungainly gait I associate with hogs in a hurry. They were fairly large around, too, so almost certainly hogs. Molly saw them too, and she agrees.
No birds. After about fifteen minutes we came to a juncture with a trail that was closed. Our trail went on, but it was time to go back. There was a bilboard map there and I studied it for a while, totally unable to determine where we were. Despite the big words "You Are Here" and the arrow on the map pointing to our location, it just didn't make sense considering where I'd come from and the direction I'd turned.
I later realized that the sign saying "Bluestem trail" probably meant "To Bluestem Trail" and we were actually on the Big Creek Bridge Trail. That made sense based on the direction we'd turned and the distance we'd gone.
We went back and made our walk longer by circling the campground on the road. When we returned at about 6:30, it was getting dark. If I even get to come back to this place I'm going to walk (or jog) every single trail. They are superb! And especially I'm going to go down to the Brazos River==it's only about three-quarters of a mile away. Despite the name of this park, and despite the fact that all of this water probably flows into the Brazos River, we never actually saw it. The map says that, "Steamboat.......
That's a longer walk from the campsite, close to a mile out and back, but very doable. There are several different routes I could take, too. No danger of getting lost with a map. I won't rely on GPS on my phone, though. Reception out here is spotty at best.
After we returned it was time for supper, and then it started in raining again. I guess I was lucky it didn't rain while we were walking. I had on a light hooded sweatshirt under my raincoat and I never felt the need to take it off, so that means it was pretty chilly out there.
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