Nine Months After Tropical Storm Hermine Flooded The Trinity River Fort Worth's Gateway Park Trails Are Still Closed

I do not think I'd been in Gateway Park, in 2011, til today.

My last time in Gateway Park may have been in October of 2010, when I pedaled my bike past the Trail Closed/Do Not Enter signs to see why the trail was closed.

The Gateway Park trails were damaged by the flooding Trinity River, swollen due to Tropical Storm Hermine, way back in September of 2010.

I was surprised when I pulled into the Gateway Park parking lot, 9 months after Tropical Storm Hermine, to see the trail still barricaded, with a "TRAIL IS CLOSED TEMPORARILY FOR MAINTENANCE DO NOT ENTER" sign.

Well, I was in a scofflaw sort of mood, so I entered.

When I pedaled my bike in to see what was closing the trail, way back in October of last year, the damaged parts of the trail were blocked by logs laid across the trail. It was not much of a barrier. Now, 9 months later, I guess as part of the extensive maintenance project, chain link fence blocks off the damaged areas. As you can see, in the picture, it is very easy to go around the area where the rampaging river has eroded the river bank right up to the trail.

Above is another section of the trail, damaged, blocked off by chain link fence. And easy to get around.

Above we see a section of the Gateway Park trail that is not part of the Tropical Storm Hermine damage. This area was damaged and repaired years ago. Note how easy that repair is. Simply lay some new sidewalk  on the non-river side of the trail.

So, 9 months later, why has this not been done to the Tropical Storm Hermine damaged areas? And, in the previously repaired section, why has the chain link fence not been taken down and the old section of sidewalk removed?

How much did all that chain link fence cost, plus the labor to install it? As opposed to the cost of installing a new replacement trail?

There seems to be a pattern with Fort Worth's parks. When a Fort Worth park has a problem, the city puts chain link fence around the problem, like what's been done to downtown Fort Worth's Heritage Park.

And calls it "MAINTENANCE."

Inner Tubing With The Alligator Gar In The Trinity River Is Perfectly Safe

This afternoon CatsPaw sent me a link to a Blotch entry in FW Weekly, by Jeff Prince, that she thought I might find interesting.

The Blotch entry is titled "200-Pound Gar Caught On Rod And Reel In Trinity,"

In the Blotch Jeff Prince writes about his childhood memories of encounters with Alligator Gar.

And mentions that Joseph Williams of Cleveland, Texas set a new rod and reel record for fishing in the Trinity River by catching the 7 foot 9 inch prehistoric monster you see in the picture, somewhere near Athens, Texas.

Williams' scale only weighed in 50 pound increments, weighing the Gar at 200 pounds. Williams says the fish really weighed 230.

That is big. Really big. I've never weighed 230. And currently I don't even weigh 200.

I'd be no match for an Alligator Gar in the Trinity River.

When summer comes and J.D. Granger starts having his Happy Hour Inner Tube Parties in the Trinity River, are rod and reel going to be supplied to fish for Alligator Gar?

I have only seen an Alligator Gar once in the wild, that is if you consider Village Creek in Arlington to be wild. The Gar I saw was between 2 and 3 feet.

My swimming in Texas lakes ended after I was up at Lake Grapevine, talking to a pair of girls, laying on the dock at the end of my Horseshoe Trails bike ride.

The girls told me that a friend of theirs had stepped on a Gar, right near the dock. The teeth cut up his feet badly. He had to go to a hospital.

I have never been in a Texas lake again.

Maybe a TRVB study found that Alligator Gar are deathly afraid of inner tubes and that is why the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle promotes inner tubing in the Trinity River as a safe and sane activity.

Yeah, I'm sure that is it.

Drinking Water Comes From The Trinity River Basin So Jump On In The Great Trinity River

Apparently Fort Worth's White Knight went to Fort Worth's Mayfest on the Trinity River this past weekend where he saw the sign you see here.

The White Knight then put his picture of this sign on his Facebook page's "Wall" with the comment...

"BS fest at Mayfest. Seriously, encouraging people to swim in the Trinity Cesspool is cynical at best, downright dangerous at worst. Is there anything the TRWD won't do to promote their billion dollar heist?"

You reading this who do not live in this heavily polluted zone of the planet, TRWD is the initial way of saying Tarrant Regional Water District. TRWD is in cahoots with TRV, that being the Trinity River Vision, often referred to as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, to do what many believe to be serious damage to the Trinity River and the area it flows through, by taking down the current fault-free levees and replacing them with an un-needed flood diversion channel and a little pond known as the Kay Granger Puddle.

All in a massive billion dollar public works project, that is abusing the perfectly legitimate concept of eminent domain, that has never been approved of in a public vote and is actually a massive public works project to benefit private business.

The propaganda sign you see above was likely paid for by your tax dollars, along with all the other propaganda signage TRWD and TRV seem to like to be constantly foisting on the public in their ongoing ever more feeble attempt to justify what they are doing.

But, telling people to jump into the Trinity River because "Our river is great!"???

That is just grossly and grotesquely irresponsible.

Drinking water may come from the Trinity River Basin. Treated drinking water. But treated drinking water is not what is in the Trinity River as it flows through Fort Worth. The Trinity River has enough toxins and contaminants in it that fish caught in it are not safe to eat.

Alligators have been known to swim in the Trinity River.

Alligator gar swim in the Trinity River. Alligator gar are big fish with nasty sharp rows of teeth.

Snakes swim in the Trinity River.

Including J.D. Granger and his flotilla of Happy Hour Inner Tubers. I hope they've all had their tetanus shots.

Today I Learned That Tubing The Trinity Is The Latest Craze In Fort Worth Among Other Things

A couple days ago I blogged about a slick propaganda brochure from the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle that had arrived in my mailbox.

I blogged about the brochure before I actually read through the entirety of the propaganda.

Yesterday I blogged about Water Baby's possible spotting of an alligator in the Trinity River, right at the location pictured in the TRV's slick propaganda brochure of crazy people Inner Tubing in the Trinity River.

I bet you did not know that Tubing on the Trinity is the latest craze in Fort Worth. I know I sure didn't. I can't actually think of anything I'm aware of in Fort Worth that is a craze.

The brochure earnestly suggests I grab some friends & head out for a Trinity River floating event. Anyone reading this in Washington, where the rivers run clean, want to fly down to Texas to do some tubing with me? It's the latest craze in this fine town I'm living in.

Yesterday after I blogged about Water Baby's gator I got a few good comments regarding critters in the Trinity River.

Unca Mikey said...Y'think maybe it was a nutria? We've seen lots of nutria in the Trinity, and when they swim they leave a wake like that. We've even seen herds of Nutria grazing along the river below the Taylor St. roundabout.

Anonymous said...Or an alligator gar. Trinity is home to them, some of them weighing up to 200 lbs. The tributaries are full of snakes, some of them bigger than you care to think about. 

CatsPaw said...Hey, that's my 'hood. Considering a nine-and-a-half footer was caught, tagged and released in Lake Worth last summer, alligators are entirely possible here. They're here; they're just stealthy and usually feed at night. Just have some night tubing and this location can be featured in ChowBaby.

And then there is the gem below that I missed upon first perusal of the slick TRV Boondoggle propaganda brochure.

When I blogged about the slick TRV Boondoggle propaganda brochure I did make note of the part that mentioned over 2,500 people toured a Streetcar when it visited Fort Worth.

Anonymous then commented that it was odd that the slick TRV Boondoggle propaganda brochure neglected to mention that the Fort Worth City Council killed the streetcar project.

I'd not noticed the part of the brochure above, where the caption says, "A modern streetcar was parked outside the TRVA office from Nov. 16-28 for citizens to gain firsthand knowledge of the transportation option."

Or the picture next to that of Fort Worth's Ruling Despot, Mayor Mike Moncreif, with the caption saying, "Mayor Moncrief and other local leaders unveiled the streetcar Nov. 17 and announced a public town hall meeting to discuss the possibility of having streetcars in Fort Worth."

Yes, it really does seem odd to me, now, that the slick TRV Boondoggle propaganda brochure made no mention of the fact that the Fort Worth Streetcar had died.

You in other parts of America are likely wondering how a modern streetcar happened to be in Fort Worth for knowledge gaining purposes.

Well.

Now, you are going to think I am making this up. I assure you I am not. Just like I'm not making up the fact that the latest Fort Worth craze is Inner Tubing in the snake, gator, nutria, alligator gar infested Trinity River.

It is also a fact that, bizarre as it seems, the TRV Boondoggle, in cahoots with a couple other entities, shipped a streetcar from Portland, Oregon, so that locals, who have never seen such a modern wonder. Or been to Dallas. Could see such a marvel.

I'm surprised only around 2,500 people took advantage of the opportunity to gain this once in a lifetime knowledge. I would have thought the number would have been in the 100s of thousands, just like those humongous crowds that filled the Sundance Square parking lots because ESPN was broadcasting from a Fort Worth parking lot.

I'm done now.

Looking At The Litter In Two Flooding Rivers With One In Texas & One In Washington

Above you are looking at a railroad bridge across the flooding Skagit River, from the Mount Vernon south side of the river, a couple miles from my Washington abode. This picture was taken yesterday.

A log jam has built up against the bridge that has caused some concerns. Bridges in Washington have often been badly damaged by log jams.

The Skagit River is a bigger river than the Trinity River, which is my current neighborhood river. The rivers styles of flooding are quite different. Note how clean the Skagit River water looks. Do you see any litter besides those vexing logs?

I have been looking at a lot of pictures of the current flood event on the rivers of Western Washington. I have not seen any litter floating in the flooded rivers. Not in any pictures or video. I am sure there is some litter floating in the current flood, there would have to be.

But not in the astonishingly copious amounts I have witnessed in the Trinity River.

Above is a picture of the Trinity River during its most recent flood. The picture was taken from the south side of the river, at Quanah Parker Park, about the same distance from my current abode as the first picture, above, was from my Washington abode.

Do you notice any differences? To my eyes the Skagit River appears to be clear, clean water, while the Trinity River looks to be rather dirty, with litter floating in it.

I have boated on the Skagit River, long floats on my rubber raft. I've eaten fish caught in the Skagit River. I have inner tubed the Skagit River. These are things I can not say I have done in the Trinity River. Though inner tubing in the Trinity has become a bit of a fad among life-risking daredevils.

Below is a video of the most recent flood event of the Trinity River. In the video you will see a lot of litter float by. Ironically, this flood occurred a short time after the more dire flood that was caused by the remnants of Hurricane Hermine. One would have thought the supply of Texas litter would have been a bit in short supply for a flood following so quickly after the biggest flood I've seen since I've been in Texas, but one would have been wrong, the supply of litter had been re-stocked, totally ready for the next flood event.

Texans seem to pride themselves on being World Class Litterers. We  like World Class stuff here. Soon we will have the World's Premiere Wake Boarding facility. Where people can come from all over the world to enjoy the fragrant waters of the Trinity River....