At Shady Glade Cafe they tipped us onto an experienced captain for a very reasonably-priced cruise through the cypress swamp, but it turned out that Todd Arnold knew stories about people and history as much as the wildlife. Although we came to hike, the boat ride was one of those experiences to be remembered with the perfect 70 degree winter sunshine and a hint of coolness of the lake as we navigated seemingly impossible channels between stumps and logs through moss-draped cypress stands that line every edge of water.
True to Texas, we slowed and gave the friendly wave to every fisherman, and a quiet question as to their success. Passing the cluster of fancy bass rigs on a bend, "they all think this is the best hole in the lake, but I ain't tellin'". That, it turns out, was by the downed oak up ahead near the Devil's Elbow, just after the channel that went "clean to Jefferson" and before one enters the old hand-dug canal from civil war days. Todd had even guided Geographic photographers.
It was indeed a glorious experience to creep past the haunts of Panthers and 'gators with sunlight on the rare stands of grasses and with sunlight lighting the Spanish moss, and alternating stripes of bright and shadow on the calm, calm water.
