Magnus to the Coast, Day 5

Friday Dec 8

Short drive almost due east, to Sea Rim State Park. Another of my absolute favorites of Texas State Parks.  (they are: Caprock Canyon; Sea Rim; and Brazos Bend)  We zoomed around the south loop of Houston, seeing the city skyline off in the distance. And then we drudged through the depressing oil refineries and chemical plants of Port Arthur and Sabine Pass. And then, finally the congestion disappeared and we were on the ocean highway to Sea Rim! Hurray!

,The campsites aren't especially exciting. There are only about twenty in the whole park, laid out in two lines alongside a road.  (Down at the end of the road is a loop with a few extra campsites squeezed in). Each camp site has a little grassy area carved out of the brushes to hold a picnic table, fire ring, and an infinite supply of mosquitoes.

 

Yeah, mosquitos. In December. Why didn't I remember that little detail?  Last year we came to this area in January and found them too, so why'd I not realize they'd be around in December?

Anyway, we'd purchased a bottle of fancy "Vet Chem" mosquito repellent for dogs, and so we doused Molly head to tail in it. It seemed to help for about five minutes, then she was back to snapping and worrying.  She had a pretty miserable time of it, although when we put her inside it only took her five minutes to forget the misery and be ready to go out again.

Nothing much else happened. Just a long walk on the beach and in and around the day use area. They'd added a brand new, very long, handicapped accessible boardwalk in the salt marsh flats. Lovely!  I walked out a pretty long way and then realized there was no reason to go back, plus, the mosquitoes were not bothering us out there. According to the sign the salt marsh was fully of a mosquito-eating fish and it kept the population down. Seemed to work.

The only birds out there were a pair of ducks that didn't like us walking in the same universe as they were. They left in a hurry. Stupid ducks.