Week 91 May 27 - Brazos Bend State Park

Total distance: Approximately 4 miles
Elevation Gain: 100 feet
Time: 5:00 am - 8:30 am
Weather: Humid, warm, partly cloudy turning to sun.

So my great uncle, my maternal grandfather's brother will be 85 in July.  My family decided to surprise him with a family reunion this Memorial Day weekend.  It was so great, good family, good times, but hot, humid south Texas weather.  It also meant another state to add to the list of places I have hiked.  I looked up hikes near Houston on Google a month or so back when I knew I was going and found Brazos Bend State Park.  I was planning on spending all day hiking on of these weekend days.  When I was talking with my mom, she made it clear that I would not have all day to hike, and I needed to be ready to go to Galveston with the family by 10 am on Sunday.  This meant I needed to hike early if I was going to hike at all.

The park opened their gates at 7 am, and this would not be enough time to really explore.  So my plan was to get to the park by 5 am, jump the gate, and start walking.  My sister, Pam, and her fiance´, Keegan, heard my plan late Saturday night and wanted to join.  We were up at 4 am and on the road a short time later.  We were going to stop at an open convience store and get snacks and water, but between Alvin, TX and the park nothing was open.  I thought, well 3 to 4 hours with no food or water won't kill us, let's go.

When we arrived at the park we found the gate, locked, but it was secured with a combo lock.  The gate was only waist high, and a sign indicated overnight campers had the combination.  It was still dark, and the yips of coyotes, and what we later learned were the bellows of alligators filled the air.  My sister getting a little nervous, since we only had my headlamp, decided to stay in the car.  She said she would drive in and pick  Keegan and I up after the park opened.  As Keegan and I walked the middle of the road into the park, we enjoyed the relative cool morning, relative only to the heat of a south Texas day like the one we had the day before.  We saw a light off in the distance.  The light was a warm, yellow color.  At first we thought a campfire, but then as it never flickered and we approached we figure it was a street light.  Sure enough in about 30 minutes we were at an entrance station and the park headquarters.  We explored a bit, found trail maps, some bathrooms, and a water fountain.  While standing around, we heard footsteps.  Around the corner came a camper who was probably just as shocked to see us there.  We chatted briefly, and then I asked if he knew the gate combo.  He did.  We called my sister, and she was able to enter the park and lock the gate behind her.  She drove up to the entrance station and parked.  I felt safer knowing she was not on the side of the road.

By this time the sky had lightened more, but it was still before the dawn.  Pam feeling a little more confident with better vision and two guys now possessing a map decided to join us on the walk.  As we were setting off, the camper said, "if you are going walking near 40 acre lake, be careful! There are a lot of alligators out there."  This was enough to keep us off that trail until sun up.  We walked the road until we finally found a trail that was open and the light of the sky helped visibility.  We were on a well maintained, wide, gravelly trail.  There were plenty of spider webs, and I was glad Keegan was out in front clearing them away.  We got to a little drainage creek and hiked along side for about 15 minutes.  At one point, Keegan and Pam stopped ahead of me, and as I asked why, a black blur, about the size of large, fat dog, took off across the trail and into the woods.  As it ran, there were the unmistakable noises of a pig.  Keegan was pretty sure he saw the tusks before it took off, we were all a little surprised and thankful we scared the boar more than it scared us.

We walked on, and came to the end of the trail.  It ended in a huge parking lot near a Nature Center.  Here, in a large clearing, we saw lots of birds.    We could see some commotion off where the campsites were.  A few cars moving, even a couple out walking.  We took a trail to loop back to our car, that would take us by the 40 acre lake.  As we walked, we saw a ton of deer in the open fields.  When we reached the first lake, Elm Lake, we saw hundreds of birds standing on the lily pads and muck of Elm Lake.  As we hit the turn around Elm, in-between the Horseshoe Lakes and Elm Lake, Keegan spotted the first alligator.  It just had its snout and eyes above the green surface of the algae.  We were totally stocked, and we even saw it swim a little.  We walked on, and by this time we could see a few bikers and hikers out walking the trails.  The hike between the lakes was filled with birds and what we later learned were alligator bellows.  These deep, almost snore like sounds would come from the swampy lakes.  Some sounded far away, others sounded only a few feet away.  We were thankful for the sun which was now definitely out and already warming up the day.  As we walked, we heard a loud bellow and spotted the alligator making the noise.  It was amazing to see this large reptile moving up and down on the surface arching its snout into the air and extending its tail out.  It must have been at least 8 feet long.  From a distance, it was beautiful and a bit scary.

We hit a trail junction and found a large water cooler with little cups.  It was perfectly placed for us, because by this time we were getting a little hot, and we had nothing to drink. We then saw another hiker and asked him a few questions.  He was a local who came here often.  He told us about the bellows and that we were there during the mating season.  Apparently, the bellows are too assert male prowess, and the females choose based on the calls.  We continued our walk towards 40 acre lake.  We came to a large observation tower that over looked both 40 acre lake, and most of the park.  We took some pictures and found another cooler.  It was a little past 8 am, and we decided we could book it back to the car and make it back before 9 am.  This would make our mother happy, which is always a good thing.

We walked quickly along 40 acre lake, got back to the road, walked a short distance to the car, and drove back to the hotel.

Orchid: The camper with the gate code, or the large alligator we saw bellowing.

Onion: Thinking my sister would not come on the hike.

Picture:

Google Map