Baytown Trash Bash & Kayak Mash-Up!

Whew!  My abs feel like I did five hundred crunches after joining other members of the Baytown Photo club yesterday to pick up trash in our designated area on Tri-city Beach Road.  I think this is my fifth time to do this farthest stretch of road, which runs past Evergreen Road to the cow chute a third of a mile further on out and the worst of the five times, as far as the amount of trash I found.

Baytown Photo Club Grubbers on Tri-city Beach Road.

 The temp was “hot” to say the least with our normal humidity and what?  No wind?  I sweated buckets and it didn’t help that a bush-hog had mowed, shredding every bit of litter it encountered.  By far, the worst thing I saw was copious pieces of chopped Styrofoam coffee and cola drinks.

Gary Erwin working the back forty.  He was almost hit by a truck pulling a boat, that swerved over close by.

 People who drive this road appear to have a passion for McDonald’s and Burger King, Bud and Miller light – cans, not bottles, and cigarettes.  On one side of the road was an explicitly labeled porn DVD case and on the other, a page out of the King James Bible in the book of Luke.

A beautiful sunrise greeted us while we prepared to launch.

Kayaking geocachers prepare to launch at George White lake

The "Smilies" mark the location of the geocaches.  You get the smilies to appear after you find and log them.

 Today, I met with a good group of people on Highlands Shores Road at George White Lake, in the Kathryn J. Whitmire Preserve to go geocaching in kayaks and canoes.  We came from as far as Willis, Houston, Beaumont, and of course, Baytown.  Beaumont has a group of “cachers’ who love to travel all over and geocache and they are very pleasant people I enjoy bumping into.

Safety is paramount and we take safety very seriously.

 We launched a little after seven AM and were back to the starting point before ten, just as the sun really began to beat down.  It doesn’t sound like much, but my forearms are cramping as I write this Blog.  The series of caches, which number fourteen are “owned” by Bryan Wilpitz, with the exception of one and are not meant to be difficult to find.  The adventure part is paddling to find them and Bryan found the perfect place to put these “soda tube” type containers.  A soda tube is an unexpanded soda bottle and is very firm and water-tight.

The water was beautiful and my son-in-law, Cache'magnet drove our yak like a pro in his new Tilley hat.

I was sweating bullets (not literally) and loving every second of our adventure.

  One again my son-in-law and I were in the company of veteran cachers (and kayak'ers) who have a vast storehouse of experience under their geocaching belts and it was a real pleasure to join them.

"Blindzman" Jason Sosa paddling his awesome kayak.

BizzyB digs her paddle into the water and heads her canoe toward the next cache.

Elisa (Georeyna) in her new kayak dubbed "Salty" by an "expert" geocacher.

 I think our next mash-up will be on bicycles in north Harris County and since I bought a new helmet and bracket to carry my GPSr unit, I am really looking forward to it.