The Savage Traveler: Winter Trip 2015: Sea Rim State Park

Fri. Feb. 13: Marv managed to wake himself and then me about 7:00. We wanted to eat breakfast and have the camper down and ready to hitch up by 8:30 in time to make the Woods Bird Hike—and we did it! The same couple was leading the hike that began at the bird feeding station at the other end of the drive on which we were camped. It was a large group which made it a little unwieldy to walk along together and get much information (at one point we passed another park volunteer who quipped, “Hey, what happened to the wheels of your bus?”) The leaders, Jane and Les Halls, were disappointed in the number of birds we were seeing but we did manage to add a few new ones to our list. When we left the group just before 10:00 many others did too and as we pulled out of the park we saw they were down to just a handful of people. It was another very long day of driving, including about an hour just getting around Houston. We stopped at a Subway for lunch and once mid-afternoon at a McDonalds to get online and post a couple of entries on the blog and do some other things. We missed a turn near the next park so we went about 6 miles out of our way but eventually found our way to Sea Rim State Park, which was a delightful surprise. Marv had made a reservation here when Village Creek St. Pk. was full. It is mostly a day use area right on the Gulf shore, but last year they added 15 water/electrical sites. Only about 10 were taken when we arrived and so we got one beside the shore with only a low dune between us and the water. There was a steady wind and the temperature was down to about 55° but the sun was shining. We set-up and then walked down to the beach to watch a good sunset, where, once a girl and her dog left, we had the beach to ourselves as far as the eye can see. As it got dark we made kielbasa and beans with a big tossed salad for dinner, called Marv’s mom, and did dishes before watching another The Newsroom on the computer, looking forward to a full day in this nice park.

Sunset

Our campsite, taken from the nearby pier over the dune

Sat. Feb. 14: HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! The temperature only got down to the mid-fifties so it was quick to warm into the sixties with a sunny sky for the day. We tried to eat breakfast at our picnic table but the mosquitoes drove us inside. As the breeze came up the mosquitoes became less of a problem so we walked to the end of the camping loop to access the beach, walked up the shoreline to the picnic area, took the ¾ mile long marsh boardwalk and then returned to the camper making it a two mile hike. The boardwalk was really impressive and we saw lots of coots, ducks, and ibises, but none of the alligators we were cautioned not to “tease”. As we relaxed and checked email we found out from Ann that MSU had a basketball game. We could get it with Spartan Access on my phone so we sat in the sun and listened to the first half. We made lunch during halftime and ate it outside as the second half began. Unfortunately, the later it got in the game, the poorer our signal got until we lost it entirely, just as OSU tied up the game. Since we couldn’t get the rest of the game we drove the truck over to the “Marsh Unit” of the park and inflated our kayak to paddle the shortest (1 mile) of their three marked paddle trails through the marsh on the north side of the park road. The trail was very shallow and we were warned by a dad and son just returning that they couldn’t get into the small lake at the end because of the mud at the entrance. The stiff breeze was to our backs as we set out, seeing a Great Egret and then following a Great Blue Heron down the straight waterway. Sure enough when we got to the lake we barely managed to enter it before we became hung up in the mud. We sat for a while enjoying what we could see of the lake and the peaceful setting. We managed to get out of the mud and began the paddle back, this time into that wind. It never felt like we couldn’t make it, but it was a challenge to keep moving. The Great Blue Heron again proceeded us most of the way, letting us get within about 20 yards before flying a bit further ahead each time until it took off and left. We finally returned to the truck, found out that MSU had beaten OSU 59-56 when Denzel Valentine hit a 3 pointer with 3.5 seconds left, and dried off and deflated the kayak before going back to the campsite. We both really needed to wash our hair, which we had left to do at Sea Rim before we found out that it has no bathrooms with water. We managed to do it using our outdoor shower and leaning over a large tub to catch the gray water, which we poured down our drain into the holding tank to dump later. It actually worked pretty well and we were glad to learn that we have that option when needed. We read in the sun for a while and as it began to cool off, we drove the truck on the beach as far as we could go before pilings in the sand stopped us. After a short walk on the beach we returned to the camper to make spaghetti to finish off a Vegetarian Day as the sun set. We watched one Newsroom and couldn’t resist watching another, leaving just the final episode of the good series.