best places to ride around houston?

I am moving to houston and there are so many places to look at. When you talk to people about riding, I seem to get some conflicting answers for good water. I prefer freshwater, and I like places where there is enough shore to quell the kinetic energy of the wakes from both my boat and others. Any suggestions? Pros and cons for each place? I am thinking about scouting out some places while looking for a house, and any places with high marks will be on my list of places to visit.

Wayne, H town will welcome you big time no worries. Check out the local forum http://d3564468.u89.jodoshared.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=1 for GCWA. Lots of good folks eager to help. They'll even give you advice on things you dont ask about I'm sure. There's is a ride & drive this weekend, if you're in town stop by and meet some of the locals.

Here is a link to the Houston forum so you can get more details on riding areas. http://www.gcwa.com/

I use to live right near Lake Houston and would ski the Upper San Jac there. Over the years on the weekends its become over crowed for me. Since then we have moved to the North Side on Houston in The Woodlands area... Lake Conroe is about 20 mins from my house but because some days is a pain to find smooth water we dont ski there either. We drive 45 mins up to the Trinity River where the is miles and miles of smooth butter around every corner. Once you ride up there once most people find a boat storage nearby and just keep going back. You could have 300 boats on the river one weekend and maybe pass a total of 15 that day.

Here is the link to a great spot to drop in at and store your boat if you make it up that way.
http://www.bethycreek.com/

Hey everyone, thanks for the posts! I have been online looking at some of the water and the big areas (conroe, houston, etc.) have been mixed results. I really like the sound of the Trinity river with storage. I will check it out for sure!

The "T" for sure!

hands down trinity is the best

here is my little .02 - if you are looking for a place to ride on a day to day basis, the kingwood area is the best bet. anywhere in kingwood is within 10 min to the smooth waters of the upper san jac. the river is pretty shallow and its best to take some time to learn it well. the river is only a few miles long and gets pretty crowded on the weekends but is a good close community with some beaches where you can hang while the mid day wallies take over the river... from kingwood, the trinity is about 1:15 away.

the very best place to ride is the trinity. endless butter and the river is a consistant 25-40 ft deep.

depending on where ur working, the very north part of the woodlands to the south side of conroe is a great area with some nice new subdivisions. there you are close to all the woodlands (IMO the nicest and most up and coming part of houston) and you are a still a reasonable distance away from a weekday evening set on lake conroe. conroe is known as the bay of conroe and is worthless for riding on the weekend but depending on wind direction, you can find some nice water during the week. from conroe, a weekend trip to the trinity is only 45 min away..

i used to live in the woodlands and now live in kingwood. both areas are great but i couldnt be happier now that im over here in kingwood. whatever you do, id stay on the north side where you have a reasonable drive to the trinity..

I will be moving to the Deer Park, Pasadena area of Houston and I don't see anything that is super close by, so if I have to drive it might as well be worth it. I have seen the Kingwood posts online, but the san jac posts have been all shallow and props torn up if you are not careful. Maybe I will have to go with some in the know before I take my boat out there. Here in Shreveport the Red River is the same way--Super deep and sweet in some areas, then around the bend 2ft deep with sandbars--you had better know where you are riding... So far the trinity sounds sweet, What part of it gets ridden, as the river seems to be pretty long if you look at a map?

we usually put in either at the I30 bridge or the launch at Bethy Creek. From there you can go up or down the river for miles

oops my bad its the Highway 19 bridge... i was like half asleep.

HIJACK!

Hey, i am currently in Iraq and have been trying to find a piece of property in the trinity to use as a place to put an RV and eventually build a ramp. I would like something around Highway 19 outside of riverside, anyone know of a realtor in that area? sorry,

To answer your question, by far the trinity is the nicest place to ride....deep, long and mostly empty of other riders, especially during the week. I have rode during the week and gone the whole day without seeing another wakeboat. The only down side is that we had someone get hurt before and it is a long way to get help. Also, where we put in, there is no dock, so in the early season swimming out to the boat is a pain. It is the best place to ride though. Goodluck.

ummm brooks ill get info.. there are places at bethy u can keep a rv on, but im not sure if you are wanting your own lot/land etc... i think the name of the realtor that some of my neighbors use is brooks or brooks prime or something like that..

here are some pics of the sweet t!

Sorry for the thread hijack but I recently flew into Houston for a flight transfer and saw this perfect river winding through the area with not a boat on it. I could tell there was no wind and it was a Sat!

That would be impossible in CA!

The pictures look great! I can't wait to get out there and get on the water! Thanks!

The best place in the area to ride is the San Bernard river. Its a haul but epic conditions. For daily riding on the south side there are some buttery spots, but they are brackish. You also roll the dice on the south side because of Brio contamination. Dont want to get in the water with any open wounds. Brio site was a toxic waste dump in the 50's-70's back in the day when we just buried toxic stuff. In the 80's the land was bought and subdivisions built, but the people who moved in were affected by everything from deformed offspring to death. its Houston's mini version of Chernobyl as the subdivisions are now fenced off and abandoned. Many of the tributaries are still toxic to this day depending on rain fall and soil saturation.

"Sorry for the thread hijack but I recently flew into Houston for a flight transfer and saw this perfect river winding through the area with not a boat on it. I could tell there was no wind and it was a Sat!"

San Jacinot River. My house is on the lake the river feeds.

adam, i think you u should change your profile pic... throw up a pic of what people might actually see you driving around in... the toon with a banana tube behind it...

Ok, I went down this weekend and went to Lake Conroe, Lake Houston, clear lake, Trinity, and the San Jac. The conditions at Conroe were horrible! There had to be 1-2ft swells in the center of the lake. I talked to some of the locals and they assured me that in certain coves it could be ok. lake houston looks shallow and stumpy with lots of sand bars and islands. To get to the river you have some navigating to do at the north side of the lake. Clear lake is brackish and looked crappy, so thats it for clear lake. I liked the look of the trinity, however, it will be about two hours of driving time from deer park/pasadena. Drove through kingwood and those homes look great! I believe that from what I have seen I will have to stay around lake houston and San Jac because its close to where we are planning to live. I only want to drive about an hour for most weekends, however, I WILL trailer up for 2-3 hours when I have the time. I want to thank everyone who posted and I look forward to seeing some of you in person. If anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to let me know. I will now be keeping an eye on the gcwa board!! Thanks again!

Wayne,
I live in a development called Summerwood near the south end of lake Houston. There are some good deals to be had on newer homes in the area. In additon, it has close access to Upper/Lower San Jac, and other riding further away on the weekends. Duessen Park is a nice public park with a free public boat ramp near the lake Houston Dam. It is nice to have the ramp 2 minutes from my house where we can even ride after work during the week if needed. The other thing is that it has easy access to Beltway 8 for the commute to work. PM me if you want to know more about Pros/Cons and traffic patterns.

we drove through summerwood area too, The houses are great back there! we are going to be looking at those homes also. its only a couple minutes to the toll bridge, the commute is not bad at all. I will be driving into pasadena, and my wife is looking at getting a job in the schools (elementary school teacher). We loved the way the communities are laid out there, and the schools are small community schools! Looks great all the way. We are talking with Remax over there, but if you know the name of a good person, let me know!

^^^ My neighbor just listed his house for sale. Should be on HAR.com in the next few days. House is barely a year old. on the water just south of Skier's cove on the east side fo the lake ( Crosby).

Wanna say he's asking around 375k ish?? 2500-2700 sq ft one story.