After racing to Georgia, up to Columbus, Ohio, and then back down to Shreveport, Louisiana in time to finish dad's taxes we really enjoyed relaxing at Martin Dies Jr. SP and exploring the Big Thicket area of eastern Texas covered on another page.
Here are a couple of very rare views of Ba Steinhagen Lake or to be more accurate the lack thereof. Normally the tree stumps would be under several feet of water which would be up near the brush line along the trees. The lake had been drained to allow repairs to the dam and also kill some of the water hyacinth.
And one of the things that make camping special is we had bugs. The little caterpillars were around by the hundreds. They kept dropping on the tent and tarp shelter and Lori had to rescue every one and try to get it to it's proper bush to thrive and prosper. I try to tell her that they are just bird food but that was not really appreciated.
Martin Dies also has a number of trails mostly through heavily forested areas like this with many large mature trees. Late April in Texas was starting to get hot on the sunny days and shade was very welcome for hiking. It is also very pleasant to just wander off the campsite and suddenly be all alone in the woods without having to drive miles to get there.
We were also amazed by the variety in plant growth stages. The thistle here has bursting seed pods, nearby a newly sprouting flower, and more ripening seeds not far away.
I think this brown leaf is from one of the rhododendron varieties. Hiking in what is still early spring it presents a striking contrast of essentially fall foliage. Of course in this part of the country with mild winters it could very well be a left over.
Having the lake drained allowed me to get some good pictures of a 12 foot alligator basking in the sun. Being dumb but not stupid, I am taking pictures from the fishing pier 20 some feet above the water level with a great telephoto lens. Life got a little more interesting for Lori knitting on the shore end of the pier. She heard a thump, thump
, looked around and heard again a thump, thump
, and then about 4 feet of alligator crawled out from under the handicapped access ramp as she scurried for the truck.
In addition to having the lake drained, only the smaller southern half of the park was open for camping due to damage from the 2005 hurricane Rita. It's hard to see on the right side of this campsite a 4 inch thick concrete picnic table broken in half when a tree landed across it. After a year and a half the rangers were pleased to have even the southern part operating and had no idea when the northern part would be repaired. Again in a shrinking economy funds were just not available to complete the extensive work that was going to be required.
With the lack of traffic the turtles had become very skittish and I just managed to capture the last of three as they went diving for the safety of the water. Bugs just don't have that same sense of self preservation so here I got the best of both worlds: flowers and bugs.
And so here we are back at more bugs. This is another variety of catepiller this time crawling on our blue tarp just before Lori could rescue it. Overall I think my favorite is the dragonflies that also seemed to be almost everywhere you looked.
And since we had all the bird food we had to have birds. Actually Martin Dies and the Big Thicket are in a major migratory pathway with a lot of birds passing through this time of year. The cardinal was easy; I just sat back with a telephoto lens and waited. The pileated woodpecker I had to chase all over.
Again due to the drained lake the cedar trees that would normally be in the channel next to our campsite are here high and getting just enough water to get by. And here again is our camp setup; still the brown tent, red truck, blue trailer and a shelter to keep a few caterpillars off the table. Hardest part is holding the tarp in the rain when the wind comes up.
The ranger station had this feeder for the hummingbirds passing through on their migration. This again demonstrated the wonders of a digital camera. Telephoto lens, high speed machine gun mode, sort through a bunch of wasted electrons, and voilà! a couple of nice pictures.
So here is one more critter we saw on our hikes through the park. It was warming up but we did not see any other snakes probably due to our heavy stomping. Finally here is Lori coaxing one more caterpillar off the picnic table so she can place it back in it's proper place (bird food).