We loaded everything into GeoJeep and left about 10 am on Monday morning. That worked well to avoid heavy traffic, since we had to go directly through Dallas. We went south on I-45 as far as Huntsville, then east on US 190.
Martin Dies State Park
About 3 pm we pulled into Martin Dies State Park, just west of Jasper. It is on the shore of the Steinhagen Reservoir, part of the Neches River. The park and the reservoir are still sometimes referred to by the locals as "Dam B", the original name given to it by the Army Corps of Engineers. We got maps to the trails and were quickly on our way, although we had to fight the many black "lovebugs" that were now on the Jeep.
We first hiked the Slough Trail and found six caches. We did not get a good look at it, but we also scared a fairly large (small dog size) animal near the end of the trail. We don't know what it was, but the ranger guessed it might have been a feral hog.
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| Trails at Martin Dies State Park. To enlarge the hiking trails, the 6 mile paddling trail on the left (light blue) is cut off. Note north is to the right. |
Island Trail
After completing the Slough Trail, we looped through the park. It was essentially empty late on a Monday afternoon, except for a lone deer that wondered what we were doing there. The park is actually quite large with many RV sites, cabins, canoe rentals, etc. However, the highlight of the visit was our trip to the island on the north side of the park (right side of the map above, north of US 190). There are two bridges leading to the island. The water surrounding it is a quiet cypress swamp.
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| Cypress swamp near intersection of Wildlife Trail (green) and Island Trail (red) as seen from the bridge to the island |
We stood for quite a while watching from the bridge on the east side of the island (on the map where the green Wildlife Trail goes over the yellow Walnut Paddling Trail). It was amazingly still and quiet. We saw several large turtles and one smallish alligator.
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| Three turtles as seen from the bridge. The middle of the three has his noise above the water. The cypress tree in the picture is a reflection on the very still water. |
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| Alligator gliding away from us |
There was also a couple in a kayak that went directly under us while we were watching from the bridge.
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| Struggling to make it through the plant growth on the top of the water. |
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| Clear paddling to the east on down the Walnut Paddling Trail, as seen from the bridge. |
First Evidence of Hurricane Damage
We then made our way around the Island (red) Trail, but it was getting surprisingly dark back in the heavy woods as the sun got lower in the sky. We did see many large trees down in the woods, although they had obviously been there for some time. This was the first of lots of hurricane damage we observed on this trip in various locations, either from Hurricane Rita in September 2005 or Hurricane Ike in September 2008.
Based on some research after we returned home, I discovered the park was closed due to Hurricane Rita from September 2005 until the following Easter. However, that was probably minor compared to the problems in nearby towns. Jasper, which is about ten miles to the east of the park and our destination for the night, was hard hit by Hurricane Rita on September 24, 2005. They were apparently without power for over three weeks.
This is a partial report from from the Lufkin Daily News about Jasper on September 27, 2005:
JASPER — This is a city without power and in peril, rescue workers said Monday, citing a worst-case scenario of two months without electricity for the town nicknamed “The Jewel of the Forest.” The curtain of trees surrounding Jasper became her enemy when Hurricane Rita roared through.
"We sustained hurricane winds of about 100 to 120 mph for about a nine-hour period, so we have thousands of trees down within our city," said Jasper Police Chief Todd Hunter, who paused during a hectic day to sound a shrill note of alarm. "Our city is without gas. We have no gas except to run emergency vehicles, This city is without food. There were some MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) brought in yesterday, but it was not enough.
"People are becoming desperate. They've been three days without water. They weren't prepared," he added. He asked people to call their state representatives and senators and "try to encourage them to get our food and get our water to us, because we're desperate and we need them now. People have been without all basic needs for days."
Denise Kelley, Jasper's acting city manager, warned the emergency cannot be quickly resolved. "We are told it could be anywhere from one to two months before we get power again," said Kelley, speaking outside the city's Emergency Operations Center. Jasper's electric provider is based in Beaumont and — until Beaumont is up and running — all the repairs in Jasper are useless. "We never thought we'd get hit this hard being this far inland," Kelley said. Without power, the city was left incapacitated. Without power, the city's water wells stopped pumping, leaving 15,000 residents and evacuees without running water for three days, according to Hunter and Kelley. Without power, grocery stores closed, and the perishable food left within them has spoiled.
I also found this partial first hand report of the damage on October 1 of that year:
The storm was still a category 2 hurricane when it went directly over Jasper. We are approximately 110 miles from the coast of Texas and this is the first hurricane to ever hit this area.
We have water (have to boil it before drinking) and natural gas but no electricity. Cell phone service is working but cell phone system seems to get overloaded at times. We are fortunate enough to have regular phone service at our house but about 75% of the homes do not have phone service. Oddly enough, my DSL line is working fine. Of course cable TV is completely out and only 1 of the 2 local radios stations is up, I suspect the other station lost their tower.
There is limited gasoline available but we have not waited over 15 minutes in line for that.
Wal Mart has managed to get open but there is no perishable food available.
The National Guard and Red cross are here as well as a lot of policemen from other cities and utility crews from as far away as Ohio to help restore power lines. It looks like it could be a couple of weeks before we get electricity back at our house but will be longer for some other folks.
National Guard is handing out ice, bottled water, and a couple of kinds of pre-packaged meals. You would be surprised how fast you can learn to like Chef Boy R Dee(sp?) Beef-a-Roni at times like this.
About 20% to 30% of the homes in town suffered major damage, mostly from falling trees. Another 30% or more suffered minor damage (missing shingles, damaged rain gutters, etc.
I was pleasantly surprised that not more serious damage was done to more homes given the number of trees we have here. Most of our trees are pines and average 50 to 70 feet tall so they can take out a lot of things when they fall. We have seen hundreds of "near misses" where a tree missed a house by a couple of feet or the house was hit by the branches of the tree top which resulted in little or no damage.
About 75% of the power lines, including the main feeder lines bringing power into town, were destroyed. Probably 40% to 50% of the power poles will have to be replaced.
Actually, if I had read these descriptions before our trip, I would have probably looked more closely at the town.
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| One last look back towards the bridge before returning to GeoJeep for the short trip into Jasper. |
We finished our hike around the island, then wandered back to the Jeep for the quick trip into Jasper for the night.
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