Oh I'm so woefully behind on this blog. Mea culpa!

So while you're waiting for me to get some new stuff up, here's some stuff from the back end of the kayak (better known as "the spousal unit") from his blog on our paddling adventures:

http://www.bigroom.org/wordpress/?p=175#more-175 (Lake Paula from the back end of the kayak)
http://www.bigroom.org/wordpress/?p=184#more-184 (going for pizza on Lake Conroe)
http://www.bigroom.org/wordpress/?p=206#more-206 (post-Ike)

I have three kayaking trips plus a new place to put in, all which I need to get up onto the blog. I've been so remiss about getting this stuff written up. There's the trip on the trip up the Caney Creek branch islet of Lake Conroe (Oct. 2008), Colorado River south of Smithfield, TX (Nov. 2008); this year's first Hostetter Creek attempt (April, 2009) and yesterday's trip up the Chambers Creek islet of Lake Conroe (May, 2009).

I was going to do a post on the 2008 trip up McDonald Creek from Stubblefield, but the version done by the back half of the kayak is preety good - complete with map, photos and audio (the bit where I realise the spousal unit was recording is worth a laugh). You can find the 2008 Stubble field trip at:

http://www.bigroom.org/wordpress/?p=220

Just a brief mention:

I've put a up a small embedded, interactive Google Maps® display of our trip up the San Jacinto River from Lake Stubblefield at The Big Room, since I don't think we can do that here on blogger.com. Comments welcome.

Where to put in, part 2: Lake Stubblefield

If you have the time and the gas, up by the Stubblefield campground in Sam Houston National Forest is a great place to put in for no money. Now a 20 foot kayak like ours can be a bit of a challenge to manuvere in the some of the tighter spots this far north in the narrow channel of the west fork of the San Jacinto River which feedw the north end of Lake Conroe. Officially, the water up here is wither the river or Lake Stubblefield, an ox bow lake connected to the river. Officially, Lake Conroe is considered to start 5 miles to the south. There are power boats up here, but nothing like the south end of Lake Conroe proper, even in the Summer. There are a lot of places to paddle and and explore and fish up here. Did I mention fish? Not that I like to fish or anything like that, but there is fishing up here and lots of fish to catch too. You do need a state fishing license to fish at Stubblefield. As far paddling up here, well, that's another post...

Directions: Stubblefield Campground and the adjacent bridge and boat ramp and river bank are on the north half of Stubblfield Lake Rd. To get there, you can either take your best route to Farm-to-Market Road 1375 and go north on Stubblefield Lake Rd. about 3 miles, or you can take your best route to Farm-to-Market Road 1374 and go south on Stubblefield Lake Rd. about two miles, depending on whether you're coming up from Houston and points south or from Huntsville and points north, respectively. Both FM 1375 and FM 1374 connect up with I-45, so either way, it's pretty easy to get to. Be warned that it's very very popular with the fishing set and on a Summer day, the walkways on the bridge bristle like porcupines with fishing rods.

Standing on the bridge on Stubblefield Lake Rd. looking west. There's a NFS notice board on the left right before the walkway over the bridge. Behind it is my SUV parked on the south side of the road, along the one place you could easily put into the water. Behind is where you can park along the road - both sides of the road. In the far distance is the entrance to the NFS Stubblefield campground. The campground is a fee area. The parking along the road, the river/lake bank and the little boat ramp on the east side of the bridge is free.





This is what the end of the little boat ramp looks like on the east side of the bridge at Stubblefield. The top of the little ramp is paved with aging asphalt. The bottom is dirt with gravel.

There is even more free parking on both sides of the road on the east side of the bridge too. Just don't park too close to the bridge in the no parking zone, which is adequately marked with no parking signs






I just can't leave this with no mention: I have to protest this sort of blatant discrimination! No fishing with more than three Poles? What are they afraid of? Air pollution from four Poles farting after eating too much kielbasa? What about three Poles who are overweight? Or three Poles and a Ukranian? The Ukraine used to be part of Poland after all...

I have to wonder: what if I'm fishing by myself and four Poles wander by. If a ranger stops at the same time because there are four Poles present, am I guilty by association? These rules and regulations are getting really ridiculous.