By Brandt Mannchen

Sometimes getting out of town is the hardest thing for a Sierra Club outings leader to do when traveling to meet others for an outing. This was one of those days!

After dealing with I-69 being shut down to one lane in Downtown Houston, maneuvering to I-45 to get away from the traffic, reconnecting to I-69 at Beltway 8, and talking with participants who were waiting and wondering where I was because it was past our 9 am meet time, the four of us finally made it in our carpool to Big Creek Scenic Area (BCSA) in Sam Houston National Forest.

It was a beautiful, overcast, spring day (later with sunny overtones) with yellow pollen everywhere, including on forest vegetation and my car.  I was glad that the pine trees and other vegetation were having a lovefest.

After introducing ourselves we set out for our hike. This day, besides seeing pine trees flower and mate, we found Sabine Wake-robin, Spring Cress, Carolina Jessamine, Cherry Laurel, violets, and other plants blooming in the forest.

BCSA, for over 63 years, has provided a scenic view of the “Big Thicket” area and vegetation.  In addition, we saw the single-leaf Southern Cranefly Orchid, with a purple leaf underside, as it grew, along with greenbrier, and rose in scores from the forest floor for their spring ephemeral sun-fest.

Spring ephemeral plants bloom early in the year before trees and other vegetation leaf-out and shade where they grow.  In this way, they gain enough via the sunlight they photosynthesize to store energy in root systems and create beautiful flowers to spread seeds.  

Big Creek was energetically flowing through its floodplain although we saw several places where the Lone Star Hiking Trail that we hiked on was eroding into this stream.  Not good for soil and water clarity!  But tannin-stained Big Creek, along with margins that were lined with new-growing ferns made us feel like we were in the “Garden of Eden”!  Delightful to see and experience.

Thanks to Sarah, Steven, Dany, Lisa, Taylor, Jane, and Linda for the great day!  I’m looking forward to more such outings in the future.