Neches Salt Water Barrier Launch Beaumont

This kayak paddle trail starts at the Salt Water Barrier on the Neches River near Beaumont Texas. There is a short TPWD trail here, Cooks/Scatterman (which connects via the white line in map above). However, the route here is longer and goes around the Beaumont Unit of the Big Thicket National Preserve, first up the Neches River, then down the Neches Canal which connects at the top. Midway down the canal the route takes an inlet going east and when that ends there the route portages across to the other side of the island before continuing south. The location of the portage was chosen because the map showed a couple interior channels sat kind of head to head which might shorten the haul (the alternative, no portage, go all the way around, which was a longer paddle). I got kind of disoriented during the portage however and that took a bit to get resituated. And at one point two very large dogs showed up, angry and barking. There was a gully between us and they didn’t cross, thankfully, but how how did two dogs get on the island, doing what, is there someone else here? A bit disturbing. And when I got back to parking lot at the Salt Water Barrier one of the tires on my car was flat. Well.