Project Clearwater — Expedition Twenty-Two
Project Clearwater — Expedition Twenty-Two
Last week the bayou was as low as it’s been in quite a long time. Then Friday the rains came… Read more…
Project Clearwater
Expedition Twenty-Two [upcoming]
RAIN! We finally had rain again! :)
Bayou Fountain has jumped back up onto the gauge at Bluebonnet, so we’re going to try to get out to the park at the usual 8am (instead of the previously considered 10am) to take advantage of the conditions (and to make time for dealing with any shifting that may have occurred due to sudden high water). If you were planning to come out for 10am, we can still do that, too. Just call, email, or post to let us know to look for you, or just come out to enjoy the much less shallow bayou.
Project Clearwater — Expedition Twenty-One
Project Clearwater — Expedition Twenty-One
The bayou’s quite low, so we planned to have a day of working the shallows. Then we got a message about a new obstruction. Thankfully, it wasn’t that bad. Read more…
Project Clearwater — Expedition Twenty
Project Clearwater — Expedition Twenty
After last week’s amazing cleanup, Saturday was back on the bayou again. With so little litter remaining and not a single complete blockage, not even a small one, it seemed like a great day for a marathon scouting paddle. Read more…
Paradise Louisiana (9pm Wednesday on Cox4, or check local listings) will have a major segment covering our big cleanup event. Set your DVRs, order a pizza, call your friends, console your cats [Ed: Bear doesn’t like hearing my voice coming from the TV],…
Project Clearwater
“The Great Bayou Fountain Easter Egg Hunt”
After Friday’s pre-cleanup adventures, we arrived at the park early Saturday to get the big day going. It didn’t take long before our expectations were blown clear out of the water by a completely amazing and diverse group of volunteers. Read more…
Project Clearwater
“The Great Bayou Fountain Easter Egg Hunt” [pre-cleanup update]
So, tomorrow is the big day, so we went out today to finish the Easter eggs and give the bayou a once over. This is what we found about 3/4 of a mile in:
The rest of the check trip went great, so back to cut a few limbs….
And just a bit more off the top…
I came. I sawed. I conquered.
Now everything should be ready for the morning. Hope to see you at Highland Road Park for The Great Bayou Fountain Easter Egg Hunt (cleanup).
Project Clearwater
“The Great Bayou Fountain Easter Egg Hunt” [upcoming cleanup]
All hands on deck! All hands on deck!
We first scouted Bayou Fountain last October. Since then, we’ve spent two dozen very full work days and uncounted man-hours doing hard labor on the bayou. Along the way, various people have come out to lend a hand (or put us in the media), some even more than once. To all of you, you have our considerable gratitude and sincere thanks. When Project Clearwater was started, the task seemed daunting, but all the effort has paid off in spades. The two dozen impassable blockages, from #15’s massive 65 yards of logjam to the tangled messes of the 20s, are now wide open.
Bayou Fountain is now paddle-worthy, but the years of neglect have left it with a bit of a litter problem. While it is not nearly as bad as Ward Creek, there is more litter than we ourselves can easily collect. We need help. We’re asking, imploring if it makes a difference, for any and all paddlers who can possibly make it out to come join us 9am Saturday, April 19th, at Highland Road Park. We’ll rig the Canoemaran to carry the full bags so you don’t have to. We’ll help you launch and recover. We’ll even bring homemade cookies if that’s what it takes (just let us know by Thursday so we have time for baking).
We have gladly spent five months working on the bayou to make it paddleable. We now need your help to knock out the accumulated litter to make it presentable. It’s already a beautiful run. Help us remove the asterisk.
(Note: We have not yet found any actual Easter eggs on Bayou Fountain, but we’re going to do our best to collect all the litter that may be hiding them. Oh, and did we mention that we think the bayou might have a drinking problem?)
Project Clearwater — Expedition Nineteen
Project Clearwater — Expedition Nineteen
With the Great Bayou Fountain Easter Egg Hunt (a.k.a. cleanup) coming up, we’ve been working overtime to make sure the bayou’s ready. Instead of a single work day, we doubled up on Expedition 19 with a Sunday reprise. Read more…
Project Clearwater
Expedition Nineteen [upcoming]
With the high water this weekend, we expect to encounter at least some areas of shifting. We’ll work those as we come to them, and we’ll hit anything else that presents itself. (If the water drains quickly, we may even be able to tackle another submerged log on the hit list.)
We’ll be hitting the bayou on Saturday at 8am from the usual spot by the archery range at Highland Road Park. We *may* also head out for an encore Sunday, same time and place, so if you’d like to come then, speak up or stay tuned. (It’ll be on our Twitter feed as soon as we know on Saturday.)
Also upcoming is The Great Bayou Fountain Easter Egg Hunt. While we’ve never seen any Easter eggs out there, join us on April 19th to collect as much litter as possible, and we’ll see whether anyone finds one. We’ll launch from Highland Road Park at 9am. (Yes, *9am*, not 8am, so you don’t even have to get up very early.) Prizes will be available for Most Desirable Collected Litter. (Note: Prizes provided by “finders keepers” — you get to keep any litter that you think is cool.)
If you don’t have a canoe or kayak and want to join in, let us know and we’ll try to play matchmaker. We’ll be there to help you with the entry and exit (but there will also be plenty of mud, so high heels and suede leather are not suggested). There’s plenty of beautiful bayou out there for everyone. Let’s see if we can fill it up with boats and empty it out of litter.
PaddleBR 