Boykin Springs Hike and Cool Creek Water...

We spent Memorial on a hike and a swim at Boykin Springs and the surrounding Angelina National Forest. I was probably about 16 years old the first time I camped here with friends. As a young adult I spent good times in the late 70s and early 80s with my dad and friends camping and fishing for the stocked rainbow trout and have continued all these years to hike and fish there with my own kids. Mary has kept up this tradition bringing her family down here for hikes, swims and as a backdrop for family photos.   

Right near this spot in the photo is where I picked up my blues name, mudbelly. It came about as I was sliding down the muddy spring water slickened banks of the creek to splash into deep cool pools.

I noted that while there was plenty of spring flow the old artesian well pipes look to have run dry. Once while in college we were camping there we decided to shower under the cold flowing water of the natural bathhouse. Once a couple of us got well started on our bathing the rest of our camp buddies suddenly appeared with cameras and took plenty of photos. Years later when one of these friends married his wife discovered the naked photos of me and reportedly destroyed them. Occasionally I get emails saying something like, "we have pictures of what you been doing." I don't know if any of those photos survived and have been posted on the internet but I would click on a link sent from a trusted source.   

I think I'll sit in this cool creek water a lot this summer. I'll have probably wear a swim suit. 

That's equivalent to me picking up a 75 pound rock.  

Creek bank caves. 

Dam building 101. Man can't help even at 6 years old from making environmental alterations. 

I would guess that one quarter of the old lake has been sanded in since the late 1970s by the spring feed creek that feeds it and the down stream creek that flows to the Neches River. There was a time when I stood at the tree line and casted rooster tail spinners to catch trout where the sand is now.   

Things change but it is the perfect place for a first cold Texas creek water experience. 

I think this summer we will go upstream to find cool pools. It's fine sand and there are no step banks and slippery rocks. The grand kids handle those things just fine but I'm pretty big to be toted out if I fall and break a hip.  

I believe that round post on the right of the photo is all that is left of an Eagle Scout project  built by Matt of our old Troop 135 that was sponsored by St. Patrick's Catholic Church. The bridge has been wrecked by the relentless push of water and sand. It was part of the trail that ran from Bouton Lake Bouton Lake to Boykin Springs. I have never hiked the whole thing and only spent time on the Bouton Lake side. I can't seem to find an internet map so it may not be open.  

Nice hilly rock features in the area. There was an emergency landing field here during WW2 where bomber crews could put down if they had trouble during training missions over the vast East Texas forests. 

The old Aldredge ghost town. I was 16 the first time I rode down here with Gil Stovall in his 1964 Fairlane station wagon. The car had no air conditioning and the roads were so dusty that anywhere we touched in the car left hand prints. On this trip hikers we met on the trail reported turning back because of the mud so we drove on good gravel roads in late model cars to within a couple of hundred yards before hiking the rest of the way on a clear trail. Bring skeeter spray.   

My Senior Parks Pass got me in Boykin Springs free. US Forest Service parks, at least in this area are a bit rougher that the nice Texas State Parks I usually camp at but the facilities are good enough to wash up a baby after a day in the woods.