By Brandt Mannchen

I blame it on the weather folks.  I had checked the weather early, before I left to carpool with people to see Dow Woods and Sea Center.  Rain in Houston but none in Lake Jackson.  Perfect!  Wrong!!!

I picked up Elizabeth and Sati and headed for Dow Woods in Lake Jackson.  We turned onto SH 288 from the South Loop and around Pearland everything changed.  The rain came and got heavier and heavier. Lisa called me earlier and said in Webster it was pouring, but I told her the Sierra Club outing was on.

Now I had my doubts, as the white lane lines began to disappear due to the downpour.  We soldiered on and finally made it to FM 2004 and then Old Angleton Road, now called Business 288.  We drove about a mile and turned into the Dow Woods parking area.  Water was collecting in the parking lot and Lisa was there.

It kept raining as our 10 o’clock meeting time came and went.  Lola and Karen called and said they were on their way, but it was raining hard. After a while I called them and they said they were turning back because of the heavy rain.

I decided that we’d reverse the order of our outing.  Instead of hiking at Dow Woods first, a drenching experience, we would go to Sea Center, where it was dry and air conditioned, see the aquariums and created fresh and brackish wetlands and if we were lucky, take a fish hatchery tour.

That’s what we did.  Sea Center was great after going through lots of splattering, windshield wiping, rain.  We asked about the fish hatchery tour and were told that it should occur soon.  As we waited, we visited the “touch pond” and saw hermit, blue, mud, and stone crabs, small fish, and sea anemones.  It was fun to watch children express surprise at these beautiful living creatures, so different but so like ourselves, just trying to make it through the day.

We viewed the large aquariums and saw salt marsh habitat with baby Southern Flounders, reef habitat with Red Snapper, Black Drum, and Redfish, and open water habitat with swimming Tarpon, large Redfish, Jack Crevelle, and a Nurse Shark!

Finally, it was time to take the hatchery tour. Dave, our guide, was astounding. He was very good asking us questions so that he could reveal the secrets of hatching, growing, and releasing millions of fingerling Redfish, Spotted Seatrout (Speckled Trout), and Southern Flounder.

He took us from eggs to young fish to fingerlings and showed us how Texas Parks and Wildlife Department each year raised these fish to resupply our bays and estuaries with tasty, I mean important, fish.

We visited the created fresh and brackish marshes and marveled at the blooming native Saltmarsh Mallows, large white hibiscus, and the beautiful and outstanding Crinum Lilies.

Because we were starving, we drove to a local restaurant and had a great lunch and then, because the rain had subsided, went back to the 338-acre Dow Woods, a unit of the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge and part of the Columbia Bottomlands.

We walked about 2 miles on a crushed gravel-like trail that for much of its length followed Bastrop Bayou.  Birds were singing and flitting through the huge Live Oaks, Pecans, and other trees.

It was impressive how much water the floodplain of Bastrop Bayou stored due to the rain.  About half-way through, we approached flooded parts of the trail.  We gamely sloshed on and enjoyed the vibrant green plants in the forest that the rain enhanced like the back-from-the-dead Resurrection Fern.

Several Green Anoles were seen along with hearing chorus’ of frogs happily singing and thanking Nature for the rain.  We also saw a ribbon snake that had recently dined on some unsuspecting prey.  How cool is that.  A friendly Yellow-Crowned Night Heron greeted us as we began our hike and when we ended it.

All in all, a great Houston Sierra Club outing, if a bit wet.  Ha!!! Despite the wet, we had a fabulous time and enjoyed each other’s company.  Thank you Sati, Elizabeth, and Lisa.

I look forward to meeting more great people and embracing the beauty of Nature in future Sierra Club outings.  Don’t fight it, join and enjoy our natural heritage. It heals and reinvigorates our souls and hearts.