Cypress Trees & Bayous

(Originally published in the Wilderness Explorers newsletter)

Harrison County, Texas

We were glad to be back in Texas. After having gallivanted all over the southern states and as far east as North Carolina, we were overjoyed to see that sign on the state line as we left Louisiana—“Drive Friendly, the Texas Way”! Other places are nice to visit, but there’s just no place like the Lone Star State.

Our final camping-out destination for the trip was Caddo Lake State Park near Karnack, Texas, just across the border. Although off the beaten path, this was a place we really wanted to see, since Caddo Lake is the biggest, if not the only, natural lake in Texas.

By the time we got there it was dark, but the next morning we got a good look at the place. Being in far east Texas, the trees were very tall, and there were so many kinds! It was just neat to actually be in a forest, since we don’t really have those in our neck of the woods.

That morning as we were packing up the tent, we found a very gigantic millipede. It was so big it looked like it must have escaped from the zoo! But there it was, crawling among the dry leaves. I did pick it up, knowing of course that centipedes sting, not millipedes.

After breakfast we decided to go canoeing. Upon inquiring at the park headquarters, we learned that Caddo Lake proper was a good distance down the bayou from the state park, and that it would take us a few hours if we expected to make it that far.

But we rented a couple of canoes anyway, and paddled out across Saw Mill Pond. This pond (a view of which is pictured above) was unlike any pond I had ever seen before. There was a great abundance of cypress trees, and estimating the size of the pond was very difficult due to this fact. As we were pushing off from the shore, we saw a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) standing among the lily pads, the same type of bird of which I wrote in the January 2006 issue. I was in possession of the camera at that time, and I was able to get a few pictures of the curly-necked bird.

Although much of the pond was covered with lily pads (whether native or not, I do not know), there was a path carved through them which led out of Saw Mill Pond to the bayou. You can ask Deborah about lily pads; she has a great dislike for them due to a bad experience at Fort Parker State Park.

Once we left the pond to paddle the bayou, however, there were no more lily pads. When we reached Big Cypress Bayou, we went to our left, the opposite direction from Caddo Lake. The bayou was very wide and deep, and lined with cypress trees on both sides.

Nearly all the cypress trees there were decked with Spanish moss, which gave them an old, gray appearance. Although the moss anchors itself to the branches of these trees, it is not a parasite, as might be expected. In fact, its roots serve merely to hold onto the branch, and the moss gets all the nourishment it needs from the air.

By all appearances, the bayou along which we were paddling seemed much like a river. In fact, until just recently I did not know the difference between these two terms. Although both bayous and rivers are channels of water, the difference is that bayous flow very slowly (some even contain stagnant water), whereas rivers are usually faster-moving. Also, bayous tend to be wide, and rivers come in all sizes.

After we had gone a good ways down the bayou, we went under a bridge. Shortly after that we decided to turn back and start heading back to the pond.

As we turned our canoes and reentered Saw Mill Pond, we spied a heron among the lily pads, presumably the same one we had seen earlier. As Deborah and I were fighting our way through the lily pads on an alternate route (how did Daddy talk us into that?), Mommy had the camera and was closely following the movements of the bird, waiting for it to take flight. Finally it did, and she was able to get an excellent photograph of the heron in mid-air, along with a splash of water.

Once the canoes were landed, we decided to go on the nature trail not too far off. The trail led through the forest among the tall trees, and here and there were interpretive signs, alerting us to the fact that we had just entered a different vegetation zone, and containing other pieces of information.

Having already looked at the map, I decided to take the trail labeled “Steep Rugged Footpath”, which led away from the nature trail. Daddy went with me, and Deborah and Mommy continued following the nature trail and went back to get the car. We agreed to meet them at the other end of the Steep Rugged Footpath, where it met the road.

Although the trail had a formidable title, for us who are used to hiking mountains in New Mexico, this one was easy to conquer. It did go uphill for a while, but it was nothing too difficult. As we went along, I marvelled at all the different types of trees and plants that were there, and took pictures of some of them. At one point along the trail I even spotted a five-lined skink (Eumeces fasciatus), with a bright blue tail. We don’t see skinks very often around here, and as far as I know there is only one species of skink in Parker County, the ground skink. It’s not every day that you see a lizard with a blue tail, and although I pursued it with the camera, it got away from me.

Daddy and I soon arrived at our point of rendezvous, and were soon picked up by Deborah and Mommy. Although we could have stayed longer at the state park, we had everything packed up already, and we were ready to head home. So once we were back in the car we left the state park, although we had one more stop we wanted to make before we headed west.

On the park map, I saw an arrow pointing north next to FM 2198, which was labeled “To Uncertain”. Having heard of that place before, I knew what it meant, and I was eager to go. There is nothing spectacular about Uncertain, Texas, but even though it was a little out of our way, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to visit this little town when we were so close.

So to Uncertain we went, although we weren’t sure how far up the road it was. We knew for sure that we had reached it, however, when we saw the city limit sign. We couldn’t resist the chance, and we all got out to take our picture by the sign.

After that, we were really ready to go home. We bade farewell to east Texas, and drove west, back to our home in Parker County.