Trip Report:  North Padre Island, Texas.  November 25-28, 1999

Synopsis:  Marilyn Kircus, Wayne Greer, and I (Natalie Wiest) paddled the west side of Padre Island over the Thanksgiving holiday of 1999.  All three of us paddled sea kayaks, under ideal conditions.  Lowest temperature was about 40°F the first night, with temperatures rising throughout the trip to approximately 75°F the last afternoon.  The cool temperatures kept mosquitoes down, we only had a few bites the last day.  Under warmer temperatures, they can be a major annoyance.  Rain clouds lifted as we drove to the put-in and clear blue skies prevailed for the rest of the trip.  Wind speed and direction absolutely in our favor - northerly as we started and headed south, and turning to southerly to blow us back to the putin after we headed north to the takeout (putin and takeout are at the same spot).  Distance traveled, approximately 25 miles.

The three of us met over Thanksgiving dinner at a cafeteria in Corpus Christi, and proceeded to the Padre Island National Seashore.  We purchased entry and parking passes at the entrance, and drove to Bird Island Basin, which was to be both starting and ending points.  We were in our boats and paddling by 3 p.m.

We paddled about three miles, and set up our tents on a small beach as the sun was setting.  We had chosen the west side of the island for our trip to be away from 4 wheel drive traffic, which is permitted on the Gulf side, but not on the Laguna Madre (west) side of the island.  We never saw another paddler on our trip, and most motor boats stayed closer to the Intracoastal Waterway dredged channel a mile or so away.  Both commercial and private boat traffic were light.  Most of the land to the west of the Laguna Madre is private, and a big chunk of it belongs to the King Ranch.  The lights of Corpus Christi lit up the night sky to the north, and thousands of stars and the Milky Way shone overhead.  Many nights the moon didn't rise until after bedtime.  Each night's camp provided an unobstructed view of the sun setting to the West.  Hundreds of ducks, geese, and sandhill cranes flew past us to their night roosting spots as the sun set.

The wind shifted during the night.  As it turned from northerly, to westerly, it piled sea foam on our beach. 

The photo to the right was taken the next morning.

Padre Island's dominant geographic feature is the shifting sand dunes on this longest of barrier islands on the Gulf coast.  Coastal storms including hurricanes and other tropical weather create "washovers" where water from the Gulf flows over the island and moves sand into the Laguna Madre.  One of the last tropical storms to hit the Texas coast was in the Kingsville area, and Baffin Bay that we could see to our west at the southernmost extent of our trip.

Below is Marilyn paddling by one of the prominent dunes on the island.

Yes, the blue colors of the sky and water are accurate.

To our chagrin, as we headed farther south, we found that washovers and general dune migration had filled our side of the Laguna Madre with sand.  We got far more practice at "kayak walking" than we'd bargained for.  As Marilyn puts it, "when the water is knee deep to an avocet [a small wading bird], it's too shallow for kayaks".

       Here is Marilyn taking her kayak for a walk.

Coastal Texas is known as a birding "hot spot" for migratory birds, many of whom overwinter here.  On the photo below are hundreds of snow geese, and in the foreground a willet in search of a meal.

We saw many kinds of ducks as well - and saw and heard quite a few hunters close to Baffin Bay.

The waters were quite clear.  On the left is the shoreline in front of our camp.  Center is little bluestem  grass in its winter form, one of the predominant grasses.  On the right is a "cabbage head" jellyfish that got stranded on our beach.  They are quite pretty close-up. 

Wayne under way.                                               Bird Island Basin - putin and takeout

Report from Natalie Wiest, January 2000