Parks nearby The Woodlands for Rainbow Trout Fishing

Would you like to take your child fishing for fresh water Trout? Or maybe you would like to grab your fly fishing equipment and fish for them yourself. Unfortunately, The Woodlands does not have an agreement with the state to stock them, but two other nearby parks are stocked annually! This year, the schedule you might want to make note of.:

Burroughs Park near Tomball - January 14, 2011. That is today folks! On Huffsmith Road near FM 2978.
Carl Barton Jr. Park Pond in Conroe - January 11, 2011. Off Loop 336 east of I-45; on right east of 1314.


Both locations can be fished now! For adult fishing, these are community lakes and you must abide by state regulations requiring a fishing license and a trout stamp. Read the documentation fully in the link below.  


Full list of stocked ponds for Rainbow Trout (and rules)

Spring Creek Bike Trails added at Flintridge Trail Head to George Mitchell Preserve

Happy trails again bike riders! Talon Trails was commissioned by the Greater Houston Off-Road Biking Association (GHORBA) to design natural biking trails in George Mitchell Park, right off of Flintridge in Indian Springs. This is the second set of trails to be provided in the preserve. There are now three miles of biking trails available in addition to the hiking trail. With the water and mud we have in this area, I am a bit concerned about the potential damage bikers can cause by rutting the surface material. But the bikers might stay off of the walking trails now (I hope,) so that the two miles of loop trails remain fit for walking and running. I believe walking is also permitted on the bike trails but it can be dangerous for pedestrians and do not recommend it. Leave those trails for the bikers. I did it today when I took the photos. A note of safety - the bike trails have root stubs on the trail, overhanging branches of trees and very narrow paths, with trees on either side. The ground is purely natural and has a lot of sand and leaves on it. That makes the surface slippery. ALWAYS, I mean ALWAYS wear protection equipment when biking here. A head against a tree is very dangerous. Every person riding a bicycle on the trails must wear a helmet. Wear your helmet and ride cautiously! An overhanging limb can knock you right off the bike, or you can upend yourself with a tire slipping in the sand.

Theoretically, the organization's members do not ride on wet trails. GHORBA is asking now for comments on this new bike trail in their members' forum.

Map of the trails can be found on the commissioner's web page. Here is a link to the PDF file.

One can find an intersection to the bike trails by following the walking trail to the far left from the trail head. You will not need to go far to find it. There are several bike trail intersections with the hiking loop. The bike trail is well marked.

George Mitchell Preserve and nighttime activities in The Woodlands

Some residents have been murmuring lately about undesired people and sounds coming from the deep forest of the George Mitchell Preserve. I decided to take my dogs for a walk out there right before dark this past week, to see what I could see. Not too far from the entrance, I came across some teenagers playing war, dressed in camouflage clothes. One was wearing some cloth over his face as to conceal his identity. I did not pose any threat to them. Their weapons mimicked assault weapons, automatic or semi-automatic weapons. These were simply paint ball guns which looked something like this. I can see how some residents would not like to see this and quite frankly, I was a bit startled at first. I guess parents these days permit their children to play war with this equipment and let them go anywhere with it. Personally, it does not seem like a reasonable thing to do in our public parks. "Nonpowder guns (ball-bearing [BB] guns, pellet guns, air rifles, paintball guns) continue to cause serious injuries to children and adolescents." ¹ The issue is not the paint ball material but the velocity of the projectile and the consequences to others.

Then I went deeper into this wonderful natural forest arriving at a place where there was significant standing water and decided I had better get back home. It was turning pretty dark. I had taken some photographs of Hurricane Ike's damage and felt that I had a pretty good handle on how the trees fared there. So on the way back, some other teenagers approached me, heading into the forest with sleeping bags and backpacks. Then I overheard a conversation. "We are going to have a campfire pretty soon. It is sure getting cold." I then asked them when they arrived where I was standing, "are you headed into the park?". They responded, "sure". I told them "the park is closing right now. You should be heading the other way". They said of course, "I did not know that". They continued to move into the forest, so I told them, "I will inform the parks department when I get home that you are here". I left them and then in a few minutes observed them following me back out of the park. I went on another path to see what I could see there and the group went on to the parking lot. In 10 minutes I returned to the parking lot and they were still there, sitting in their car. One of them was on a bicycle going back into the forest but when he saw me, he returned and all of them left. I did not report their activity to the parks department, trusting that the kids would not return. A few minutes earlier, I also saw three boys leaving the forest with a guitar case. I am unsure what was inside but since it was dark, I could not be assured that they were not the same three boys who were having the paint ball wars. I knew there were more than three boys engaged in that activity, because the boys were yelling to another group to come to them. My suspicion was that there were paint ball guns in the case.

This was a Saturday night and I expect to see teenagers there even though the park is closed and they should not be there. However, it is obvious that their activities are not exactly what we would like to see in a public park. Paint Ball wars are not good for the elderly nor for babies and the paint would not likely affect the environment, because of the natural ingredients. The boys probably were not intending to harm anything.

I became convinced that indeed there are nighttime unsupervised activities there which need to be contained. Where do boys go for a camp-out around here? We do not want fires in our forest for obvious reasons. There are no campsites that I know of and no rangers to supervise the children. Let's be reminded that our parks resemble areas where kids go camping in Boy Scouts. There is plenty of firewood, so the threat of having a major forest fire is definitely there. We need to take some action to quiet the parks at night and lower the risks of fire and other consequences of our teens playing unsupervised in the parks at night. There have been rumors of drug dealing. I am aware of pot smoking in the parks but not major drug deals. We need to see some police work in these areas, or at least some presence of rangers who will contact the parents and inform them about the issues of their children being in the parks after closing. Communicating about the safety hazards of paint ball wars and camping in our parks might be a good project for someone.

References
¹Injury Risk of Nonpowder Guns

This park is managed by Montgomery County.

George Mitchell Preserve at Spring Creek The Woodlands Texas

George Mitchell Preserve consists of approximately 1700 acres along Spring Creek in Southeast Texas. It is part of a much larger regional project. See the link below. In a flood zone, along either side of the creek, the preserve has weathered development and construction, but maintaining most of its natural integrity even to this day. Lately, a large initiative has been launched for the largest park in Texas, called Spring Creek Greenway. Now, George Mitchell Preserve is being developed, section at a time, into a series of natural paths and creek-side amenities for nature lovers. This area will be preserved with its savannas, large pine trees, Cypress and other native forest plants as a haven for deer, squirrels, Possum and other wildlife. It is intended to provide a means for humans to appreciate the forest.

In one spring walk, I took photos along the paths of this preserve and have made them available for readers. See some of the photos below.

One can easily find the trail head of the northern trails from Flintridge Rd. A sign along the road marks the trail head of George Mitchell Preserve. Please be careful to carry out what you take into the forest. It is a pristine area. Keep on the marked paths and do not wander off of them, so the plant life will not be harmed. Please leave it as you found it or cleaner.

Enjoy the solitude away from city noise. Sometimes you will have to put up with the noise of airplanes flying overhead and sometimes the hammers and machinery some distance away where construction continues nearby. But the birds will sing; the butterflies will flutter around you; the squirrels will break the silence and startle you in the nearby brush. A deer might even be alarmed and run out from the brush if late in the evening or early in the morning. A visitor walks on dirt here, not concrete. Walking is thereby easier on the joints and generally more quiet. Walk with a stealth gait and you might see a little more wildlife.

The photos below are randomly selected for your viewing by the software. There are a number of photographs in the folder. If you wish to see more, just click on one of them and all the photos will be made available for you to view and you can see larger pictures.

Links: Spring Creek Greenway

www.flickr.com

Introduction to the Parks blog of The Woodlands Texas

I will be visiting many parks, taking photographs and commenting on their uniqueness. I hope this has value for residents and potential residents alike. You can see the pictures more clearly and in more detail if you click on the one you want to see in its entirety. For The Woodlands parks, you will notice that each is characterized by its designed role. Using this criteria as a filter, you can filter oout all posts except those pertaining to Village parks, for example, by clicking on "Village".