CAJUN COUNTRY

We originally planned to include a hike in Louisiana in our 2017 Spring break trip. After hiking in Mississippi that morning, we were on our way to central Louisiana when the weather went sideways. A massive line of thunderstorms rolled towards. In fact, a tornado passed within a mile of us. That scared us off. We changed plans and headed on to Arkansas.

When it comes to hiking, I only have a few goals. One of them is to do a hike in every state. By the Spring of 2018 I only had seven states left. A work assignment near Shreveport in May gave me another opportunity to hike in Louisiana. It was a 4 day job, scheduled to start Tuesday morning. I needed to fly out on Monday to meet that schedule. Instead of flying that evening, I went earlier so I could spend the afternoon hiking.

My plans were nearly thwarted by Delta. I flew from Charlotte to Atlanta. When I reached the gate for the flight to Shreveport, I found out that it was overbooked. They were looking for volunteers to take a later flight. The compensation was up to $900! I jumped on that, even though it would mean missing out on my hike.

I thought I was in the money, but someone didn’t show up for the flight. That meant that they didn’t need my seat after all. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

From Shreveport I drove two hours southeast, towards Alexandria. My goal was to hike part of the Wild Azalea Trail in the Kisatchie National Forest. It is a National Recreation Trail that runs 31 miles across central Louisiana. The trail is open to hiking and mountain biking. I picked out two segments of the trail to hike. First, I would hike to the Wild Azalea Seep. A network of connecting trails would allow me to visit Kincaid Lake, too. Then I planned a second, shorter hike to the Castor Creek Scenic Area.

I arrived at the Evangeline Camp trailhead at 3pm. I had 5 hours of daylight, but I was prepared to hike in the dark if necessary. It was a hot, sunny afternoon. 90 degrees is awfully hot for hiking, but I was hopeful that I would be in the shade most of the time.

The first part of the trail passed through an area that had recently burned. It may have been a wildfire, but it looked more like a controlled burn. After a mile or so I descended into the Wild Azalea Seep. This is a pleasant area with big trees and pretty streams. Lamotte Creek was even nicer. I noted some nice, sandy campsites on the bank of Lamotte Creek, too.

A bit later I crossed a dirt road. A short distance beyond, I turned right on a spur trail to the Kincaid Lake Recreation Area. That led me to Mack Branch and on to Kincaid Lake, which is lovely. This part of the hike featured a surprising number of wildflowers. I eventually looped back to the Wild Azalea Trail.

I backtracked to the car. Along the way I enjoyed a couple of major wildlife sightings. First I spotted a deer that bolted as soon as I approached. Back at Lamotte Creek I was thrilled to spot several wild pigs. They were black and incredibly large. At first I thought they were bears! Unfortunately, they scattered before I could get a photo.

By the time I returned to the car, I didn’t have time to hike from Evangeline Camp to Castor Creek and back. Instead, I drove to a different trailhead that was much closer. That enabled me to hike to the Castor Creek Scenic Area and return before dark. Castor Creek was the prettiest part of the day, with a large blackwater stream running through a forest of huge pines. It would be a great place to spend the night, though the mosquitoes might be deadly. The bugs were pretty bad throughout the day, but definitely got worse that evening.

I stopped at a Mexican place in Alexandria for dinner. Then I made the 2 hour drive back to downtown Shreveport in time for a few hours of sleep before work the next morning.