I invite all of you to attend the spring 2012 SC Chapter field trip, located at Sam Houston National Forest, Texas. The trip will be held the weekend starting Friday, April 13th, so mark your calendars. Sam Houston NF encompasses over 160,000 acres with 3 developed campgrounds, and is located approximately 60 miles (straight line) north of Houston, TX.

Driving times from a few cities, according to Google Earth:

Houston: 1 hr 15 min.
Dallas: 3 hrs 25 minutes
San Antonio: 4 hrs 21 minutes
Baton Rouge: 4 hrs 48 minutes
Oklahoma City or Little Rock: about 7 hours

Forest service map and more info on Sam Houston NF
http://www.fs.fed.us/outernet/r8/texas/ ... 10_web.pdf
http://www.fs.fed.us/outernet/r8/texas/ ... info.shtml

This is a great change to meet fellow field herpers and hopefully view some awesome herps in the proccess.

Please let me know if you plan to attend, and if you will be camping, by leaving a comment or sending me a message. Also let me know if you have any suggestions for the trip. I will add more details soon.

Hope to see you there,
Jeff

Summary as of 4/13

If you are camping Friday or Saturday:

We have campsites B through E on the Briar Loop at Lake Livingston State Park. Each site can have a maximum of 8 people and has hookups for water. Other campsites within the park have full hookups if you want to bring a camper. Currently, there are 8 people definitely camping, so there's still plenty of room for anyone else who wants to camp. Site numbers are not assigned in advance of arrival, but I will post which campsites we have when I check in at 2pm Friday. Also, according to the reservation confirmation sheet, the park does not have a gate, so nobody will get locked out after dark.

If you are driving in on Saturday:

We are meeting at the parking lot of the Woodland Trail in Big Thicket National Preserve at 9am.

Hope to see you there,
Jeff Weinell

My husband and I want to come. We probably won't camp, though, unless forced to at gunpoint. Is this outing only for South Central members?

Tamara, you and your husband are welcome to join us. We won't force you to camp

Unless anything changes with work, Melina & I should be there. Preferably camping if weather allows.

Chris

Sheena & I will play it by ear. With an infant around our schedule is hard to set. We might see if my parents will watch him for the day and come up and hang out on Saturday. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for setting this up guys!!

Matt

Sounds like a great trip, Jeff. I should be free that weekend, so I'll try to make it. But, I'm already traveling quite a bit in April, so we'll have to see what happens. It depends a bit on how much work I can get done between now and then. I'd definitely be camping if I can make it.
-Eric

13-15th?? Do you guys look at my schedule in advance and say "let's see when Chris can't go" to choose a date?

I could have done almost any weekend this spring other than 15th of April.

Oh well, have a great time and find some great herps. I've herped a lot in SHNF. There are some neat critters there.

I might be able to make it for 1 or 2 days. I would camp, I'll let you know when it gets closer.


Curtis

Boy this is tempting... long drive for me though. It would be a good excuse to meet up with family (in the Conroe area).

Hmm...

-Chris

Put me down for 'maybe'. Got some personal things going on right now keeping me from being able to commit this early.

I'll be on a family vacation that weekend but I hope you all have fun. It's definitely a good time of year to herp the area....and hopefully the rain keeps falling.

Shane

Disregard me and Ray inviting ourselves. Our own chapter field trip is looking like it will be that same weekend. Wish I could be in two places at once.

Just come herp Baton Rouge one of those other weekends your free.

-Jeff

Hey Guys,

I was speaking with jeffro this past week and it sounds like he's a little slammed with school work at the moment. Since he hasn't had the chance to sit down and follow up, I figured I'd make sure we got this thread back to the top of the page.

Based on the replies above and PMs we've received, it sounds like we have between 6-10 definite attendees with at least a half dozen others who have expressed interest based on their schedule. With the trip less than 4 weeks away, we need to make some decisions on accomodations. Jeff posted previously inquiring about reserving a group camp ground, but received no response. Would anyone be interested in this option? If so we probably need to reserve soon. If not, I'll post a few campground options shortly and we can decide where we would all like to meet.

If anyone has any suggestions please post them.

Chris

I'd be very interested in attending this. I am new to NAFHA and the forums, and I think it would be great to meet all of y'all from this area.

I have camped at Sam Houston Park once before when it was very busy, though I don't imagine it will have as many people this time of year (I went during spring break last year). A group campground would be nice as we would all be able to stay together.

Kyle

I won't be able to make it as I had already committed to another herp trip in east Texas that weekend. There has been talk recently of closing some portions of the Sam Houston National Forest due to dead timber, tree snags and other hazards caused by the 2011 drought. It looks as if some of the camping grounds will indeed be closed down now at least for the time being.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/texas/hom ... rdb5359719

Just wanted to post an update for everyone still interested in taking part in the upcoming SC Chapter field trip to Sam Houston NF.

Based on Scott's link above, we've decided to reserve 4 campsites at Lake Livingston SP just northeast of Sam Houston NF. The daily entrance fee for the park is $5/person and campsites are $10/night. We can fit multiple tents on each campsite, so site costs can be split between whomever is sharing a site. If you would like me to mark your name down for space on one of the four reserved sites be sure to PM me this weekend. We should have more than enough room, but it will be first come first serve.

Here is a link to the park page:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/find ... ivingston/

Below is a list of folks who have expressed interest that I've compiled from speaking with Jeff. Anyone that I've missed please chime in.

Definites:
Jeff (Jeffro) & Alyssa
Chris (Gretzkyrh4) & Melina
Glenn Manning & Jeremy Sloan
Kyle (Soopaman)

Probable:
Eric (Ritt)
Jeff LeVan (HornedFrog44) & girlfriend
Tim & Stephen Bischoff

Maybe:
Matt Abernathy (Saturday only)
Eric (ebs121781; saturday only?)
John Andermann

I'll be out of town till Sunday evening, but feel free to PM with any questions or feel free to post any suggestions.

Chris

Have we nailed down where we're planning on meeting up and going throughout the day? Looks like most, if not all, of the trails are closed due to the tree danger.

Jeffro was looking into some options last I checked with him. Hopefully, he'll put up some info soon.

Chris

The plan is to hike in Big Thicket National Preserve. The Kirby Nature Trail is the only trail that is currently closed at BTNP. The Big Sandy Creek Unit of Big Thicket is 20 miles from the Lake Livingston State Park, and includes the Big Sandy trail, Woodland trail, and the Beaver Slide trail.

Lets meet up at the trailhead of the Woodland trail at 8:00am Saturday. To get to this trailhead, travel east on HWY 190 from Livingston for 11.5 miles. Then, turn south onto Farm to Market Rd 1276, for 3.4 miles. The trailhead will be on your left. There is no fee to enter the preserve.

The Woodlands trail has a 3.3 mile loop, 4.5 mile loop, and a 5.4 mile loop.

If you want to meet up at another time, please send me a private message and we can exchange contact info.

Here is a map of Big Thicket

http://www.nps.gov/bith/parkmgmt/upload ... ap7-09.pdf

-Jeff

If 8am is too early for those driving in for the day, let me know your opinions on a different time. My main reason for meeting at 8am was to try to get out before it gets too hot.

-Jeff

I think 9am is probably a better start time to give anyone driving in a chance to make it up. It's over an hours drive from Houston, so that would save those folks from having to crawl out of bed too early. Looking at the forecast, they're currently projecting highs in the low to mid 80s with a temp of 79 at noon.

Just my 2 cents. Hopefully a few of the guys driving up for the day will chime in.

Chris

Big Thicket sounds good. I've been all over the Turkey Creek trail but have yet to see any of the other units besides the Hickory Creek Savannah unit.

And 8am or 9am is fine with me. It's about an hour and a half drive from my house.

I look forward to meeting you folks!

-Kyle

Lets make it 9 then.

-Jeff

Not gonna make it to this one, fellas. Was looking forward to it, but got talked into doing something else for the weekend.

I edited the original post ^^^^^ to include a summary of when/where to meet up.

-Jeff

What is the plan for Friday afternoon/evening for those that may want to come up and camp?

I get out of lab at 2pm at the latest on Fridays, and am still debating on whether or not I should camp Friday. If there is organized night herping, then I would be more inclined to do so (I've never been at night, so that would be exciting).

There aren't any organized hikes for friday because I am not sure when everyone is planning on getting there. I will be there early in the afternoon and will probably hike some of the state park trails. Just let me know what time you think you can be there and we can meet up. I think some of the arkansas herpers plan on being there early friday too, so I'll try to find out what their plans are also.

-Jeff

Just have campsites B through E on the briar loop.