Photo by Brandt Mannchen
I was nervous about leading the hike, our first in 25 months, but my Houston Sierra Club companions made me feel at ease. It was March 12, a cold 34 degrees, but sunny, as we set out for 4.5 miles on the Lone Star Hiking Trail.
Gathering at the Sam Houston National Forest district ranger’s office, we admired the redbuds and early spring wildflowers, including violets, lyreleaf sage, bluets, and crow poison.
Then we shuttled a car to Osborn Road, where we would eventually end our hike, and drove back to the trailhead near Lake Conroe to begin the hike.
As we hiked along the trail, I pointed out beautiful blooming Carolina jessamine vines, a large sassafras tree, and an upland hardwood forest with many southern red oaks. This upland hardwood forest was a rare treat to see in the national forest due to past logging and management for pine trees.
We walked through a buffer zone that had been used in the 2010s during a U.S. Forest Service project to protect the Lone Star Hiking Trail from logging impacts. The Sierra Club is currently collaborating with the Forest Service to get a similar buffer zone in place to prevent mulching along the trail and its viewshed.
We crossed woods, roads, ephemeral streams, multiuse trails, and Forest Road 204; climbed pine-covered ridges with red-cockaded woodpecker cavity trees; and eventually descended the slope toward the Green Branch and Caney Creek bottomlands. We had a relaxed lunch before entering these moist forests.
These floodplains have an entirely different suite of trees and plants, including oak, sweetgum, and elm flats with dwarf palmettoes and other water tolerant trees. Backwater ponds and sloughs near Caney Creek were filled with images of reflected trees, like water hickory.
We crossed foot bridges, the much larger and structurally complex Caney Creek bridge, jumped across swales filled with water, and tiptoed through muddy stretches of the Lone Star Hiking Trail. All great fun and an adventure to cherish on this beautiful, halcyon day.
We finished our day by watching a group of Boy Scouts and their leaders march past us on their way to their vistas of the future.
The Houston Sierra Club is back and is glad to be leading local outings again. Hope to see you soon in the forest and outdoors!