Galveston Island State Park by Kayak

     500 years before my first kayaking experience at Galveston Island, a people called the Karankawas, who paddled these waters in their own dugout canoes, encountered a shipwrecked Spaniard by the name of Cabeza de Vaca. De Vaca provided the first written description of native Texas inhabitants, including these nomadic fisherman, who hunted and fought with long cedar bows and were also known as "the wrestlers" for their grappling competitions. Although De Vaca would go on to interact with many tribes and eventually lobby against their exploitation, later Europeans would not be so civil. The French-American pirate Jean Lafitte finally devastated the Karankawas in 1819 when his small army kidnapped one of their women and then crushed those who retaliated with cannon fire at an area less than 5 miles from the State Park.

   Although humans have fished and paddled the shore and bays around the island for centuries, I still felt like an explorer as I searched the sprawling bay for unsuspecting redfish and speckled trout among the seagrass. The Galveston Island State Park paddling trail is divided into 3 smaller trails that wind through adjacent sections of the bay, and are only divided by muddy masses of marshland. The trails aren't distinct paths (or maybe they are and I was bad at finding them) but rather seem like suggestions on how to navigate the mostly open water.

Seagrass (pictured terribly above) is the natural habitat of baby shrimp and other small creatures that are scientifically classified as "bait"

   My kayaking buddy, Jadd, and I arrived at the park around 8:30 am, and picked out one of the 3 kayak launches to start from. Since we ended up wasting so much time fighting heavy wind and current trying to find the best spots, I've included the park map and our eventual path. We launched at Como Lake, intending to follow the first part of the Dana Cove trail and then jump over to the Oak Bayou Trail. But as soon as we were on the water and I tossed my first live shrimp into the channel east of the trail, my line tightened as my shrimp shot under the kayak. "Fish On!" I taunted, but Jadd was already hooked up as well. I landed a beautiful speckled trout to start the morning, but I could tell it was an inch or two short of the limit and tossed it back. Jadd had similar luck with two undersize reds, but the wind kept sweeping us back to the bank so we decided to get back to the trail. Again, I was reminded that I really need to start bringing an anchor for the times when I find a good fishing spot...

The actual trails are marked with lines and numbers, I marked our path in green. The fishing spot is marked with the appropriate internationally recognized symbol.

   Unfortunately for us, we spent the rest of the day attempting to follow the coastline, but getting disoriented between masses of grass. The water was shallow, maybe 1-2 feet deep in most places, and the abundance of seagrass on the bottom was promising, but we had a hard enough time just fighting the current and the wind, let alone finding any fish. Eventually, Jadd had had enough, and I spotted him dragging his kayak into the mud (I wonder why this gave me deja vu). Pointing out "tire tracks", he suggested we leave our kayaks, walk back to the car and pick them up, since we had obviously gotten lost on our way to the second kayak launch. It quickly became clear though, that this was not a road at all, and that we'd have to drag our yaks quite a ways to get back to the parking lot. Maybe it's a good thing these trips never go too smoothly, or else they'd get boring.

Jadd pouting

Discovered a new species, which I shall call "rattlesnake grass"

  We finally saw the parking lot and kayak launch where we should have ended up, and got back in our yaks to cross a small section of water to get there. From there, we left the kayaks in the bushes, hiked back about 1/3 of a mile to the car, and came back to pick them up. We still had some shrimp, so we tried our original spot one more time. Sure enough, the fish were still biting, but after struggling to catch one fish, we realized the wind was way too strong by now and without anchors, we'd have to call it a day.

Can you spot the snake?

How about now?

How about now? No? Please see a doctor.

   All in all, Galveston Island State Park seems like a cool place, even though the paddling trail proper didn't have much in the way of diverse scenery to offer. There are certainly fish to be caught nearby, and the rest of the park appears to offer decent birdwatching and hiking serenity. There are camping sites too, but I'd only recommend them if your idea of camping is pitching a tent in a grassy glorified parking lot next to an RV.

Jadd beaming with pride with his non-even-close-to-the-legal-limit redfish

    As per the last time I drove by Clear Lake, I stopped back in at El Lagos Coffee Shop on the way back, and also discovered a new hole-in-the-wall worth a recommendation. Stompy's burger shop in Seabrook definitely hit the spot after an arduous day of paddling against the wind with their unique burgers, quality beef, good fries, and a choice of wheat buns. (That's 4/5 on my burger joint list, the 5th being huge burgers. These were merely decent sized).

Just about 56 trails to go!