Not so much a trip report. More notes and photos:
Last weekend my friend Matt and a co-worker of his joined me to hike the 17.5 mile Turkey Creek trail in the Big Thicket National Preserve. We had planned on hiking this trail a few years ago but then hurricane Rita hit and the park service was forced to shut the trail until they could clear it. Two years later we finally got to hike the trail. It is a beautiful trail. Rather than just a few types of trees, shrubs, etc, this trail is extremely diverse - the reason it is part of the Big Thicket. The area is known as the ecological crossroads. Here are found plants that occur nowhere else in Texas. There are carniverous pitcher plants and sundew, several type of pine, beech (which is a Northern tree), blackberry, cherry, yucca, prickly pear, palmetto, cypress, many types of oak, tupelo, magnolia, and many others I cannot name.
The reason for this gathering of different plants is that a millenia ago this area was an ocean. As the ocean receded, different soil types were deposited at slightly different elevations. The different soil types are favorable to different communities of plants. Hence one might see prickly pear and yucca within sight of a cypress swamp.
There are 9 or so units in the preserve, each chosen for it's excellent demonstration of a unique habitat. The Turkey Creek unit has several habitats and is the largest of the units. The Turkey Creek trail runs through it parallelling the Turkey Creek trail, which drains into the larger Village Creek towards the end of the trail. Village creek itself is an interesting treat. I have canoed it and along the brown-tannin stained water you will find large white sandbanks with sand that resembles the sand you would find in Florida. The Neches River a few miles east has these same white sandy banks - and was named the "Snow River" by Native Americans because of the white sand.
On a sad note, one of the units, the Beech Creek unit is noted for it's proliferation of Beech trees. Beech trees were dominant with very little understory of smaller trees and shrubs resulting in a very open, shady forest. Hurricane Rita made a direct hit and toppled almost every Beech tree in the unit and since most are relics from a cooler time, they are not regenerating. A great loss for the park and East Texas.
Turkey Creek is not a trail you would do between June and September - if the heat didn't kill you, the mosquitos would. On this hike we only encountered one mosquito and one biting fly. We didn't even have to use our bug spray. The weather was perfect - 40 at night and 70 during the day.
I am no naturalist, but fortunately for me my two companions are both environmental scientists. The entire 17.5 miles they were naming plants and trees that I would have had not hope of identifying. It made for an educational hike.
We hit the trail at 11:20am on Saturday and made camp 11.6 miles later at 5pm. Our camp was a small clearing off of the trial. Turkey Creek was not far away and at dusk we were serenaded by a multitude of frogs and insects that had some of the prettiest songs I have ever heard. At dawn we were serenaded again, but this time by birds - a lot of birds that had an equally beautiful song. I was a treat - very different from the calm silence of Big Bend.
There were lots of fallen trees from the hurricane. Some were just snapped in half. Some had fallen onto other trees and snapped those trees in half. Others had been uprooted and left gaping holes and 6-8 foot tall roots sticking out of the ground.
This photos is from a different trip, but it shows one of the trees ripped out of the ground by the hurricane:
Sunday we hiked the remainder and got back to the car at 11:20am - 17.5 miles in 24 hours.
And now, the photos:
Turkey Creek trail
Turkey Tail fungi on a rotting log. These fungi help the fallen trees deteriorate.
Hiking the trail
Sundew carniverous plant - these are the size of a dime - easily missed if you don't know what you are looking for.
Pitcher Plant - another carniverous plant.
Water so tannin-stained it is black!
Turkey Creek
Inlet of non-moving water that meets Turkey Creek. Note the line of dark-tannin stained water from the inlet.
Camp, after 11.6 miles of hiking.
Dawn hits the trees at camp
Turkey Creek in the morning
There is a bench every mile or so along the trail. Most are normal benches. This bench, oddly, was so high that even my feet (I'm 6'2") could not touch the ground!
Giant leafcutter ant colony we found next to the trail in a sandy area.
A leafcutter ant.
A baby long-leaf pine. These trees are becoming rare as they require fire to make the seedling emerge from the seed. Since most fire is surpressed, new seedlings are not growing. This seedling was next to a charred older tree, the result of a controlled burn by the NPS to assist in the sprouting of long-leaf pine.
One of several bridges the cross Village Creek. Turkey Creek drains into Village Creek.
Symmetrical Cypress trees. Notice how both trees are almost mirror images of each other.
Lots of Cypress knees - scientists have still not determined the exact purpose of Cypress tree knees.
Musclewood tree - named for obvious reasons
Woodpeckers really like this tree.
I believe this is a Lovell Violet - it was the only blooming flower we encountered.
Louisianna Yucca
We had purposely taken a side-loop called the Sandhill loop to see prickly pear and yucca. They are supposed to be common in this area. However, we did not see them. Back at the ranger station I inquired. The ranger said they were all over and we must not have been looking. I told her we saw the leafcutter ant colony and she remarked: "you saw the colony but missed the cactus?" It told her we had all been very observant and looking specifically for prickly pear and yucca. "Have you never seen a prickly pear?", she asked. "Um, yes, plenty, but I want to see a prickly pear in East Texas." It's silly, I guess, but it would just be cool...and it would make me feel like I was home in Big Bend just a little bit.
She seemed incredulous that we had missed them but told me to drive down a dirt road alongside the park a few miles away and I could find some. I did so and found some yucca - but no prickly pear. Maybe I'll come back in May when they are blooming to see if I can find them again.
