When April Showers bring May Flowers, our thoughts often turn to hitting the nearest crick with paddle in hand. In this case, the crick in question is beautiful Village Creek, just north of Beaumont, where, come May 14th, you’ll find yourself floating in lazy solitude past towering pines and gorgeous white sandbars. If, that is, you consider having a few dozen of your favorite geocachers along for the ride as true solitude!
Lumberton’s Village Creek State Park will play host to our many adventures. To enjoy the full program, plan on arriving on the afternoon of Friday, May 13th (insert your favorite Friday The 13th horror story here). Please note that a $2.00 per person Day Use Fee will apply, plus $6.00 per night for tent camping. Disregard the Day Use Fee if you have a Texas State Parks Pass.
Event headquarters will be located along the bluffs of Village Creek at the Walk-In Primitive Campground. You’ll find water and chemical toilets nearby; full-service bathrooms and showers are a bit further away but still readily accessible. Bring all the usual camping equipment: tents, sleeping bags, lanterns, camp stoves, chairs, and so forth. The campsites are a couple hundred yards from the parking area, but if you need assistance getting your things in we’ll have plenty of eager locals to help lighten the load. After checking the facilities map, reserve your site here, or contact TPWD directly at (512)389-8900.
*** SPECIAL NOTE ***
During the month of May the park is frequently booked solid far in advance. Only 16 total walk-in campsites are available; we are reserving six of them ourselves. If you plan to attend, you should make your reservations ASAP to ensure getting a spot. We should have a little slack to account for procrastinators, however, as each site can have as many as eight campers, for a total of 120 campers if we get all 16 campsites reserved.
If you’d prefer a bit more luxury, you may find a couple of RV sites still available if you hurry. For the real anti-campers, check with local hotels for more comfortable surroundings.
The highlight of the event will begin bright and early on the morning of Saturday, May 14th. Set your (battery powered) alarm clocks in advance; we’re planning a potluck breakfast at 7AM. Then, allowing time for cleanup, showers, and so forth, at 9AM we’ll gather in the parking area to meet the folks from Pineywoods Canoe Outfitters. They’ll be shuttling us upstream to the Highway 327 Bridge in time for our 10AM launching. With the group rate, canoes should run about $20.00 each. With two in each canoe, plan on $10.00 per person for the rental fee. If you have your own canoe, kayak, inflatable raft or flat-bottom boat, feel free to bring it along.
Never navigated a canoe before? Don’t worry; it’s really not that hard. Our canoe outfitters will provide a few quick lessons before we hit the water, and life jackets will be provided in case worse comes to worse. Village Creek typically offers a rather sedate paddling adventure, with lazy currents and gentle bends. The total route will encompass some 14 miles (as the boat floats).
Bring your GPS and plan on doing a little caching as we “Float Down The Crick.” We expect to have fifteen geocaches hidden along the route by the time of the event (most are now in place, although a couple will be activated just before the weekend). Those into Terracaching will find three more along the way. Bring a sack lunch; we’ll stop along some lonely sandbar for a mid-day respite. Other items to include in your daypack: water, soft drinks, “adult beverages,” snacks, bug spray, sunscreen, sunglasses, and a camera. If you’re into birding, bring a pair of binoculars; Village Creek offers some excellent opportunities for spotting a few rarities.
If you would like to enjoy the terracaches but are not yet a member of terracaching.com, you'll need to register ASAP; email one of us and we'll see that you get the necessary sponsorship posthaste. Here's the list of our stops, in order from our launching point back downstream towards the State Park:
Village Creek Artesian Springs Earthcache (GCN6Z5)
It's A Jeep Trail Thing (GCMADK)
It's A Jeep Girl Thing (GCGK0K)
Country Store (GCMX6D)
Smoke On The Water (TCSW)
Rocket Science (TCSJ)
The Devil's Pitchfork (GCND39)
Micro Island (TCPB)
Micro Sandbar (GCND70)
Cripple Creek (GCNDJH)
Baby Galvez (GCHK7X)
Way Over The Crick (GCNDJR)
Cache In The Crick (GCMM45)
Cache Across The Crick (GCMM3W)
Cache Over The Crick (GCMM3T)
Pseudo Shortcut (GCNETM)
Gilligan's Island (GCNETD)
The Home Stretch (GCNERZ)
We plan on having a "sag wagon" waiting at Baby Galvez landing, which is about one-third down the total route. This will give people who aren't sure what they're getting themselves into one last chance to wimp out!
Once we float back down to the State Park, an old-fashioned hamburger/hot dog cookout will be on tap. We’re renting the Group Pavilion, so we should have plenty of room to spread out and socialize until the wee hours. And for those who can’t make the canoe trip itself, feel free to stop by on Saturday evening for some grub and gab.
Sure, everyone’s gonna be tired after a long day on the crick, but don’t plan on hitting the sack just yet. After we’ve had our fill of food and tall tales, we’re heading out for a group assault on some local night-cache highlights: Swamp Lights, Road To Nowhere, and Old Voth Sawmill. And could another elaborate night-cache pop up just in time for the event? Only the shadow knows!
Sunday morning will certainly involve some catching up on lost sleep, but don’t tarry too long. Village Creek State Park itself holds even more caching adventures. We’ll try to have at least ten active caches for everyone to enjoy (five are already in place). For those needing a serious GeoFix, you’ll also find more than one hundred nearby caches in Lumberton, Silsbee, Kountze, and Beaumont.
If you plan to attend all or part of the event, please post a note ASAP indicating the number of people in your group so we can plan accordingly. Hope to see everyone somewhere along the crick!