As I mentioned in the Armand Bayou - Big Island Slough - Middle Bayou article I enjoy canoeing this Houston bayou and its tributaries. In that article I mentioned the first launch site on Big Island Slough. A second launch site is in Bay Area Park. You can access the park via Bay Area Boulevard.
The alligators of Armand Bayou area are most aggressive from July to August. During these warm months I usually launch from Bay Area Park. From here I paddle down stream into the larger, lower part of Armand Bayou. Eventually the bayou widens even more, becoming Mud Lake. This open area allows these apex predators and me some breathing room.
From the Bay Area Park launch to the NASA Road One bridge and back is about six miles.
Much of the bayou from Bay Area Boulevard to NASA Road One was created by subsidence. Largely an accidental, artificial, man made ecosystem, this setting is unique and with its own beauty. It is a damaged and besieged natural environment that reveals the willfulness of nature. Nature is an active force, never resting, always encroaching upon, into anything mankind does not maintain. If we abandon, neglect, forget, overlook...or protect an area it will return to a more natural state. It may be an altered natural state, but...
Entering Mud Lake highlights the juxtaposition of these opposing environments of the urban and natural. Paddling into Mud Lake from upstream the skyscrapers, electrical towers, houses and traffic noise are evident.
In the confluence of these urban and natural settings we have seen feral hogs, deer, gar, alligators, racoons, osprey and other wild animals.
Just as there are intrusions of the metropolis into this bayou, there are also pockets of less altered areas on this bayou. In these spots one can momentarily forget they are inside the metroplex.
Despite the proximity to urban structures these are some of my favorite pieces of Houston. It is worth paddling to and finding.
I like to enter the NASA Branch on the return from the NASA Road One bridge. Sheltered from the wind a and waves, it is good place for an in-canoe break.
Most of my pictures of Mud Lake are on the return leg of my trip. Apparently I prefer the more natural perspective. The back side of this trip is a temporary and partial escape from the metropolis. Even if only temporary and imaginative, it is nice to stretch your eyes across these wild scenes.
Maybe on the next trip I will take some pictures looking downstream.
Now and then I make a late day canoe trip on the bayou. The place is different in the evening. Somehow the setting sun makes the place bigger and more lonesome. It also feels more isolated and wilder in the evening to me.
At twilight the nocturnal animals take over the park . The people go home and the gates shut.
Simplicity is a choice, sometimes. The knowing of complexities prospers us but a little, and the trash of stress and excess that comes with knowledge litters our minds. Canoeing is an opportunity to momentarily live plainly, directly and simply.
Thanks for reading.
MSM
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