Bouton Lake Camping...

 We headed out last weekend for a couple of nights camping at the old Bouton Lake Campground in the Angelina National Forest. It's a free area with no hook ups so we took our generator and depending on where you look they list 9 or 11 undeveloped campsites. It would be a pretty busy place with this many camps but there was only one other tent camper and we were at opposite ends from each other so very nice, private and quiet.     

 

Cathy warned me no photos on this trickle of a slough crossing but I think I made her log walking look pretty graceful. We were on a walk to the Neches River. The old trail, which I have walked back in the 90s with the St. Patrick's Scout Troop used to have 19 bridges on it's route to Boykin Springs and then on to the Old Aldridge Ghost Town but this section is no longer maintained all the way to Boykin and best I could tell just makes a loop back to the lake.      

Looking up the Neches River I thought about the history of the area. One document recorded the "patent" of the Bouton oxbow lake in 1854 as a place where the developers of the land's resources had big cook outs and fishing trips. There is much recorded about Old Fort Teran, the timber and sawmills, the river boat traffic and the quarry of stone for Sabine Pass Jetties, seawalls and the Rayburn Dam but little mention is made of any Native American occupation of the woods where there is springs, lakes and probably plenty of catfish. bear and deer.  Bound to have been Indigenous people out the wazoo who enjoyed easy living.     

An old aerial photo I found online from the 1930s shows great swaths of clearcut land. The forest is nice and clear with easy hiking and some nice big trees. Reportedly along the trail near some old Temple Inland land there are cypress trees 1000 years old. 

There are catfish in Bouton lake and while there is a slough where with about a 6' rise the river and lake would probably communicate Texas Parks and Wildlife does add hatchery fish every few years.   

On the way in and out of this campground you pass the Blue Hole which I remember first visiting in the mid 1970s as a woods hippie hangout. Seems I remember the last time I was there, I do not recall the date, there was lots of trash floating in the water. It's now got a fancy gate and many improvements and photos show it to be much nicer than in the past but out of my price range these days. 

This makes about 12 camping trips this year divided between the old Rpod (the buyer of which has remodeled with nice improvements) and our new Wolfpup which we bought in July. The solar power and the generator has encouraged us to make more dispersed camping trips than before and with the cool nights we enjoyed the heater which was very propane and generator efficient. 

One difference in the two campers is that the old one hauled 33 gallons of water and new one holds 26. Being dirty stinking hippies we never felt like we were using much water but with the smaller tank we have ran out a couple of times. Turns out for some reason the Wolfpup line comes without a water tank vent hose hooked up which reduces the capacity to 22 gallons. It's an easy mod, length of 1/2" hose and two clamps to attach the tank to the vent that I may do before beach camping season rolls around again.    

High Tides and Alligators Forever...

 I always say I'm one of those life long learners. Earlier this summer camping at the beach, we were still in the Rpod and I learned that winds gusting to 20mph would nearly take the pop out tent off the back of the camper. This trip I learned that the combination of a gusting NE wind, a nearly full hunters moon and probably a storm down south around central America will produce tides 2.76' high which is enough to reach the dunes where we have camped 3 times already this summer when the water did not even get close.  

We made a good day of it meeting Jim and Sandy and Rose and Tim and crew at the beach for some good hang time. This set up is pretty close to the edge of the water and when we left the occasional wave was washing under our camper in the background. There were more campers up and down the beach, none close, than other trips and one guy drove by to say the waves washed sand out from under his tires the night before till the slide out was on the ground.  

At least I did not get skunked on the fishing with the score one whiting which was one more than my brother in law caught. Whiting are a pan fish, no limit or size and while not the glamor of trout, reds or flounder they are decent eating. I'd like to fry up a bucket full on a cool fall afternoon and serve them up with a horsey cocktail sauce. 

The water approaches. Jim had moved his truck three times at this point. 

The tie eventually forced us to withdraw to Rose's driveway in Lake Jackson. Electricty and water is free there, I run the black water tank into a neighbor's flower bed and S'mores taste the same there as they do at any camp ground. 

Brazos Bend State Park is just north of Lake Jackson. We have tried to reserve there before but like most state parks near metro areas the weekends including day passes are often booked. No problem getting a Monday night campsite. We stayed the one night and enjoyed the park trails and sightings of many birds, humming birds, butterflies, deer, squirrel and alligator.   

The park is famous for the gators and though there are many swampy lakes, creeks and old river oxbows it's no boating or swimming allowed. I always find this a curious rule because locally I'm boating and swimming around gators already. Great place for the bikes and I wish we had had ours.  

Any questions about why signage in two languages is a good thing? 

How another life long learner be looking when she realize there's also a bigfoot in the park. 

More Beach Camping and Shark Fishing...

We made another beach camping trip to the spot by Brazoria County Free Beach beach access road #3 (here's a tip) that we are calling Pop Pop's Secret Fish Spot. This is the third trip of the summer here, once in the old Rpod and now the second beach trip for the new camper which if I see some kind of bumper sticker that says "beach house" I may purchase it and sick it somewhere prominent because that's how we feel down here camping. Some almost always stops and asks, "Is it just free to camp here?"  

We could see a few other campers down the beach but not close enough to feel crowded as people that camp here are looking for solitude and the weekend beach traffic was also low.   

Fall is the time for the Texas Redfish run but while we caught no reds there was plenty of ankle bier shark action to be had. Final total was four sharks, three lady fish (poor man's tarpon), a sting ray, a small pompano and several whiting. We ate the biggest shark, a 27 inchers (gotta be 24") cooked on the iron cooktop with Jamaican jerk spices, peppers, onions and cheese as fish tacos and sometime I'd like to catch enough whiting for a meal as they are good and I also like to eat the pompano if big enough to fillet.    

 

There's always a variety of opinions as to whether shark is good eating. This was a very mild tasting black tip, not all kinds of shark meat is created equal, and I think it's important to fillet the shark as soon as he is caught. When they die the body fluids pollute the meat so don't haul one around in the bottom of the boat, the ice chest or on a stringer till you are finished fishing. If the good fish, trout, reds and flounder are biting toss the shark back but in this case I was able to tend to the cleaning properly.  

By the way this shark was in the first gut, or the first little deep spot you come to on wading out, very close to the beach. 

Plenty of good bait was available and all fish caught on live finger mullet on a falling tide. So many mullet left in tidal pools that the grandkids Warren and Coraline got good experience throwing the cast net. 

Here's a sting ray, which they say this makes good hut bait for shark but I removed the barb so he's harmless incase I step on him the next trip. I've been stung and it took 9 weeks for the wound to stop draining. That could be considered the mildest outcome you can expect from something like this.  

Coraline with mullet. 

Cathy and friends

Warren was much more interested in fishing if he caught the bait. Note the clear water. It's the time of the year to hit the beach.  

If the fish aren't biting take a note from the seagulls. Sit around until they start again. 

First Trip in the New Camper...

 We bought a new camper. It's from Baily's RV here in town and it's a Wolf Pup BHSW model. That's really not the big news. We bought it because our son Morgan, wife Ali and grandkids and moving because of his job to Greenville, South Carolina and in the coming year we will be on the road more often and something a little bigger and nicer will serve better. Morgan's job is really a move upward and what the heck, we deserve a promotion also.  

This past weekend we broke our camper in with a trip to the Brazoria County free camping beach. We both love the beach and with school starting it was not as crowded as a previous trip this summer.  There's no hook ups out there and with it's solar panel and off road package we felt in the lap of luxury.  

This rig has a 12 volt fridge compared to the the old three way conversion unit on the old camper and the solar panel kept pace on the sunny beach with the fridge and the indoor outdoor speakers playing the famous Carl and Cathy Radio mix tape/usb drive. Once the sun went down we switch on the Champion 4650 dual fuel generator for sleeping under the air. 

A few months ago when we bought that generator it seemed like it might be overkill for the rpod but it's just right for for this unit. A tank of propane last 10 hours running air, fridge and outside (you don't want a drunk driver to not see you at night on a beach without roads}

  lights. Since I sleep about 7 hours or less a night we might could squeeze that a bit but somebody sleeps 10 hours each night and we will just have to charge that to her passive income stream. 

I caught one trout which then escaped my old floating fish bag, lost a good size trout at the net and had several more hook ups but no landings while fishing Thursday evening. The water was calm and green. The trout chased bait fish everywhere and dolphins swam nearby. Really beautiful setting. I used to thrash the water to a froth every time I saltwater fished but I am mellowing and just enjoying the opportunity to go. The odds will line up for a big fishing bonanza sooner or later. 

It was no hardship to settle for pork chop and hamburger suppers.      

Rose and family are nearby in Lake Jackson and they came out. It was nice to have a visit from family but with the added people and the extra foot washing with the convenient outside shower to keep the sand out of the trailer it depleted our water. The rpod trailers don't have much of a shower and most of their owners don't even use it preferring to shower at the campground facilities which is where we are most of the time. We were so enjoying the various extras we were not used to that in addition to outside shower use Cathy took two indoor showers and I took one. At 26 gallons the water tank is actually 7 gallons less than the rpod and I drove into town to purchase 6 gallons at $1.34 each. I think at the end of the trip we had a hat full of water left.      

It was a really great trip and we look forward to another beach trip. September is a good time to catch the redfish running in the surf.   

I do still have the rpod. It's a 2010 model and as you might expect it's not perfect but I have camped it for almost two years and would not be afraid to go anywhere with it. Bluebook is $4000-$5000 and I'll sell it for a little less. 

Congrats to Morgan on the new job. See you in Greenville. 

Way Back in Days of Old...

We made a nice little tour through north eastern Louisiana and Mississippi. This 4 night campout marks the 17th or 18th nights this year out in the camper. I know people make much longer trips even living in their campers but we are getting good use from ours and with local visits to our favorite fishing holes, trips to music festivals and this trip that had as it's main interest the ancient Mound Builder Culture of Poverty Point, La.      

I have documented through this blog on my trips to the old places where I think it's important to stand in the places long ago where things happened that we don't quite understand and ponder what is happening now, to us personally and to the world in general. Poverty Point dates back to 3500 years go to the time of Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Egypt. 

They have just barely scratched the surface of what was going on here. What they do know is that periods of occupation and abandonment stretch through the history, the people that lived here were hunter gathers, there was no evidence of farming, no domesticated animals other than dogs, no burials, there was a trading network with other groups and someone knew something about societal organization and engineering.      

The white markers indicate a pole circle. Other places in the world circles like this seem to be linked to celestial observation but they believe this was used as a barricade to keep something in or out. They have found 37 circles so far and believed the cypress posts used were often picked up and moved over to be reset in a new circle for unknown reasons.  

The semi circles indicated on the map are ridges, believed to have been 6' tall where rows of huts sat in an orderly formation. Most ridges are reduced to less than 2' by the farming of the area from the 1840s to the early 1970s. Note the large mound that is centered.  

The view from 70' up on the large mound A. Through the gap in the center I believe that is the oldest mound which is on private property. While most mounds show stop and start construction through the centuries the large mound seems to have been built in one push that moved 30,000 dump trucks of dirt in 30 to 90 days. I think modern man can take a lesson in problem solving from this effort. 

The mounds are either flat or conical tops which possibly indicate different purposes. This mound is flat topped, and may have had a structure on top. It's made of 18 layers of soil which our tour guide told us makes quite a striking pattern of different colors when viewed in an excavated hole. We don't know what that was about. All flat plaza areas, once part of the Mississippi River flood plain with drainages creeks and sloughs were raised and leveled.  These were prehistoric people using the most primitive methods. 

I once wrote a song with the line, "...modern man has ruined his brain, he's lost sight of the cosmic plane..." I'm not saying this was aliens but stand in an old place and feel the difference. It will make a difference. 

  

 

 

Beach Camping...

On Sunday afternoon when we arrived at Surfside Beach this was a parking lot. Lots of people out having fun in the sun. This is the free beach. Driving and camping is free on this part compared to the county maintained fee area that begins at the red light where you come off the bridge. We got on the beach at Access Road #2 and driving toward San Luis Pass the day trippers were in full force but we only saw a handful of campers. We picked a spot probably less than a mile past the landmark of the container houses. We set up next to the dunes and sun worshipers cleared by the evening though the last hard cores continued driving up and down Mad Max style on into the night till Monday morning when we were finally alone to the sound of surf and wind.     

This was our first trip to camp without hook ups of any kind. While the Rpod can do some stuff on battery and propane power the generator allows you to run air, big lights, microwave if you need that kind of thing and wall plugs for a coffee pot and phone charging. We picked the Champion 4650 dual fuel generator. We might have made due with something a bit smaller but generators are like tow vehicles better to have more than you need and it has been coming in handy around the house for water slides and power outages. Only draw back is the weight but as long as I only have to set it out of the pickup on the ground by the trailer tongue where we chained it for security as it's our most high dollar camping item I think I'll be ok. 

With the Gulf breezes we opened the pop out tent windows and air conditioning was not necessary. We have not run the air yet on four camping trips from April up till now.    

Beach camping tip: With the generator it's a good idea to run the porch light all night. Probably not needed on less crowded weekdays but I felt like late night drivers could see us. 

We did come home a day early as gusty wind to 30 MPH threatened our pop out tent. With a 13 year old camper there's usually a few things to fix after each trip but they are minor and by leaving we avoided major. I don't think we could have cooked on the fire pit in this wind anyway. 

Last year during May and June I had seen good fishing reports and I was hot for that kind of action but with the wind churning the surf I remembered why I always preferred late July on into the fall. If the wind shifts north and east the water is calmer and clearer. When I was a young man I'd battle that kind of water but now days I'll even give up swimming to just sit and watch the waves and birds.    

We both like the beach and have many fond memories of childhood, coming of age teen trips and vacations with our own family to the beach. We will be coming back as we hone our cut the cord camping.  

 

Camping, Fishing and Where Did the Gas in My Boat Go?

This was the third weekend in a row for camping. Maybe I should keep a count of how often it rains on us. We are running at two out of three on this run. That hasn't stopped us, or our family and friends from joining us as we spent three nights at Hanks Creek. Hanks is only 15 miles from the house but it's where our fishing spots are. In this photo you can see my mother in law Geneva's truck camper, our Rpod and the boat tied up ready to go.    

Our old friend Darwin, who we saw at our recent campout in the Austin area for HonkTx! was passing through and stopped just long enough to catch big fish of the day. He reminded me he caught the biggest last time we fished. This cat came from the same stretch of bank we were fishing about 35 years ago with his late wife Debbie and the late Gary strong catching loads of bass on Tiny Torpedo topwater lures. All kinds of fish in this area and the Torpedo would still be a good choice.   

Cathy, Ezra and Luca reel one in. I think final total for three days fishing was 45 cats. Not bad considering half of it was done while someone held Milo Back from eating catfish bait. 

Luca scored big fish this day and I think it scared him a bit. Actually I hooked it and handed him the pole and Ezra netted it. These guys are great boat hands. 

I guess I'm slipping in my old age as I did not get a photo of Milo with a fish. He did catch on quick as to what a boat steering wheel is for.  

Morgan, Ali, Parker and Cullen joined us in their boat for the day. It was a good thing because as me, Ezra and Luca returned from a morning of fishing we ran out of gas and require a tow. I have a 40hp outboard on my boat and it has been very economical. I'm not running all over the lake and often make a tube riding trip and a couple of fishing trips on the same tank of gas. I checked the gas a couple of days before leaving and while not full it seemed enough for fishing the Hanks area. The gas ran out after four runs from Hanks to the Canyon area of the lake maybe 15 minutes and not all the time at full speed. After the tow I drove to town and filled up a five gallon can. I check the oil injection tank and it seemed to have not used enough oil to match gas consumption which made me wonder if someone had come by water and siphoned my gas at camp during the night or even at home before I left on the trip. Guess we won't know but I'll keep a closer look.    

Morgan's boat at work landing a fat cat. Ali lays out on the front and the back is for fishing. Note on the right there is an orange marker buoy marking the fish location and on the left you can see Cathy's cork. We probably caught 20 fish between the boats in water about 4 feet deep.   

I'm a little tired of cleaning fish but in a couple of days I might be persuaded to fish again. 

 

It rained again on Saturday nigh before we checked out Monday so all out camping gear is good and washed. It will be a few weeks before the next trip which will be boondocking with our new generator on the beach. 

Ratcliff Lake Camping...

The very best song ever written is "I Heard the Voice of a Pork Chop" by Jim Jackson. Ratcliff Lake is a pretty good campground to sit around the griddle and let the bacon do the  singing. We had Warren and Coraline for a visit and stayed two nights, the Zamora family stayed one night and the Morgan and Ali family joined us for one day. We weathered a thunderstorm Saturday night staying nice and dry in the camper but power to the park went out the next morning so with my dependence on an electric coffee maker showing we packed it up and came home on Sunday.     

We called this place Camp Catawba Worm because my tree at home was covered with worms and we turned those worms into a fish dinner. 

The campground was pretty full and maybe it was the Boy Scout troop but Ratcliff was a better choice than Sam Rayburn this weekend because of the Big Bass Splash with it's 6000 entry draw. Here's a photo of me winning the Anti Big Bass Splash Tournament. 

You can see the rain that filled the canoe on Saturday night. 

Luca, Ezra, Parker, Warren and Morgan trash the water to a froth off the pier. Barely visible is Cullen whose main mode of transport for the time being is a wagon since he broke his leg and is awaiting casting. He did as well as anyone else casting from this seated position. 

The Zamora mobile. 

I think we ended up with about 10 fat bream with most boat fishermen scoring on lures or Catawba worms. I was hoping the panfish would be in full spawning mode but with the little cool front we did not locate any big concentrations with most fish holding tight to the weeds. Seemed to be some fish in the backwater right in the brush that were hard to target, especially with the crew I had.   

See that stick out over there, that's called a sickout. If you have not said this do you even know anything about boating? 

Later this week we are off with the camper again to Festival International in Lafayette. Warren and Coraline will again accompany us and we get to see one of our favorite Balkan Bands out of New York City, Slavic Soul Party. We have collected the cds for years so this is a big deal.