A lake weekend in Conroe
Conroe is forty miles north of Houston, where the suburbs give out and the pines begin, and Mallard Mile sits on a neighbourhood lake with its own walking trail. Here is a weekend the way my friends do it.
Saturday
Walk the trail before breakfast. It runs along the bank from the house, past the geese on the lawn and the herons along the shore, and it is the best part of the day. Breakfast is the coffee bar and whatever you brought; the kitchen has the pans and the spices.
Drive fifteen minutes west on Highway 105 to Lake Conroe, the big reservoir: Lake Conroe Park for the beach and the picnic tables, Waterpoint for the marina, boat rentals and lunch on the water. If the children want a water park, Margaritaville Lake Resort has one, and the resort's restaurants look across the lake.
In the evening, The Woodlands is twenty minutes down I-45: dinner along The Woodlands Waterway, a walk through Market Street, and a concert at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion if there is one on. Home to the patio and the dark, quiet street.
Sunday
Sam Houston National Forest begins half an hour north. The Lone Star Hiking Trail runs for a hundred miles through the pines; pick a trailhead and walk an hour out and back under the trees. Closer to the house, W. G. Jones State Forest has easy loops fifteen minutes south, with red-cockaded woodpeckers if you are patient.
Lunch is Southern Star Brewing back in Conroe, with food trucks and a lawn, or downtown around the courthouse square and Founders Plaza. If there is a show at the Crighton Theatre, the 1935 house on Main Street, take it. Then fish from the bank until the light goes, and let the ducks have the last word.
When to come
Spring and fall are the lake's best seasons; summer is for the pool at Margaritaville and the air conditioning at the house; the fireplace earns its keep for a few weeks in January. Mallard Mile asks for three nights, and a working week with the office and the internet is the quiet way to see it all.