Archive for June 20th, 2008

Outdoor Story: Mark White

Friday, June 20th, 2008

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Mark White, founder of Austin based Luna Kayak School, never thought his neoprene booties would serve as a tasty meal while camping on Matagorda Island.

A couple of years ago I paddled from Goose Island State Park out through Cedar Bayou into the Gulf and camped on the Southern end of Matagorda Island.

I was at a real nice campsite in the sand by myself when I heard a little rustling in the night, but I didn’t think anything of it. I got up in the morning and there were coyote tracks all around my camp and my shoes were gone. The coyote decided that my smelly, neoprene booties were something that he or she was interested in and went off with them.

So I ahead and packed up, got in my boat barefooted and paddled back through the surf to Cedar Bayou. I was surfing in back through the cut in between the islands and I looked to my right and there were two dolphins surfing the wave along with me back into Cedar Bayou.

Seeing coyotes and dolphin on the same trip–priceless. So what’s your story? Go to passporttotexas.org and submit your outdoor memory, and if we use it, we’ll send you a Life’s Better Outside t-shirt.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Alanna Jones… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.