I'll begin this little outing at the corner of La.10 and Choctaw Rd. Choctaw is an invaluable contribution to getting there from here. I use it to the point oncoming pickups are becoming familiar. Try to obey the speed limit on this road as people can become vindictive.
As is the norm I headed north. I reached La.426 and decided to go east a bit, getting tired of 426, not because it's a bad road, it's not. In fact, as it approaches the slope down to the Pearl it becomes very interesting. It was just time to go north for a while. I did on Seven Mile Road. I must have been on the last mile or two of it because it didn't last that long. I decided to take up a church theme and turned onto Central Ch. Rd. I remember going by Bill Penton Rd. as "Penton" was a racing bike back in the day. At that point I had changed churches and was now on Hill Top Ch. Rd. which was going east again. Hilltop is where I shot the old house picture, maybe. Down Laverne Crain Rd. I went. Now going west until I ran back into La.62. I was back on a main road, but headed north. Did I want to go north? It was after 12:00 and I was again going to get lost in outback MS. I followed La.62 to its end at La.424. Louisiana lets 424 take you to the MS state line because the road is too embarrasing to be called a two digit highway. I crossed over into MS and didn't have a plan or interest. The church road game had gone south and I was headed north on Twin Bridges. I crossed MS 48 and of course the road name changed. This time to Thad. I'll keep my comments to myself concerning that name. Yea, right. "Thad" is a terrible abbreviation of Thadeus, a proper, proud name. Sorry, just venting. I was wondering if the adventuring majic was gone, having arrived on Thad. I was soon to reach my first faith saving, inspiring view, Mount Bethel. The downhill spiral started at the church, as did mine. Mount Bethel ran into Hurricane Creek Church Rd., one I would see again in another setting. It crossed Hurricane Creek Rd. Oops, don't confuse them like I just did, I would see Hurricane Cr., not Ch., again. It turned into Mount Carmel Church Rd. Then I arrived at hated MS 35, the staightest most boring route in MS. The only positive attribute it has is that it parallels the Pearl River and Canal.
That would be the plan. I would head up to Morgantown and then return south, hitting as many of the deadend river access roads I could. I knew stuff was down those lanes. Most of the time what is found is closed hunting club gates, but what the heck, I'd give it a try. After circling up into Morgantown I started the search.
Names would show up, historical names with no connection to the present. Jamestown? Drakes Landing?
Ah, somthing "old" did exist in the present. I found Old Highway 35 which travels closer to the Pearl. I felt "in the groove". The road was low with swamp on either side and hunting camp gates. I came to the terminus of Hurricane Cr.Rd. This time the name meant something as damage from Katrina was everywhere. The "groove" returned to new MS 35. Oh, well. What I needed was a historical marker to spark things up and one appeared, be it a home grown one telling of the Ball family settling in about 1810 and noting that the land was "a freedom worth fighting for". Why didn't I pick up on that statement? Seems like I had inadvertently found one of Ray's Revolutionary Soldier's cemeterys and didn't even know it, nor ventured in. Warren Cemetery Rd. leads to it. I guess I should have checked the list. But, I didn't have it with me. So I just shot the sign and followed Warren down to the gated oil leases. I noticed all the homes on the road were pretty nice. Guess old Ball had hit a strike. Oil that is. "Texas Tea" and he hadn't moved to Beverly, Hills that is. (if you didn't understand that, you probably ride a crotch rocket)
After that stop, another chance to leave new MS 35 presented itself and I turned southeast on John Ford Home Rd. I went down Hart road and it sputtered out. These roads look like they make it to the river but I didn't have a swamp buggy with me. JFH turned into Old Columbia Rd. after it crossed Rankin Creek Rd., headed to Bogalusa. I saw La.438 show up on the GPS and got excited as it looked like it headed to the Pearl. If that was state maintained, it is low level maintenance. I quit before the
"maintenance" did. Balltown Rd. cuts off of it. I'm sure there is some history there. I followed Balltown southwest where it rejoined Old Columbia Rd. Lots of little roads swirl away toward the Pearl, but they are either soggy sandy roads or just nothing. Old Columbia runs into La.1071 going south, as I continued. I came to one gravel road that looked like a possibility. There was a guy walking toward me on the road and I stopped and asked him if I could get to the river and I'd like to see what it looked like. He said,"That depends on where you're going". I had to reset. Me just wanting to look at the river probably caused him to have to reset, also. So, I made it clear that my destination was "looking at the river". That he could explain and I went to the end of the road where there were the usual junky camps blocking the view of the river. I was thinking this game was hopeless. I returned to 1071 and headed on south until I ran into 436 which was blocked by a FEMA gang picking up tree balls. Having a gps, I saw there was a detour I could take though the flagman offered none. He said that it would be "a while" and "a while" I wasn't willing to sit there even though tree ball picking is fairly amazing.
My next road of interest was Pigott Crossing Rd. The "crossing" part reeked of historical significance. On the gps, sure enough, there was a corresponding road on the other side of the Pearl. I'd have to check this out. The matching road on the MS side connected to familiar MS 43, the east side highway.There was yet another gate barring my investigation and I turned around. Coming at me was a fire truck and four accompaning vehicles. What was going on? I fought the urg to follow and won. They hadn't motioned for me to follow and I figured that I didn't want to be where I wasn't wanted. Weird. Yippee, I next joined La.21, MS 35's continuance south, same deal, just worse. I sensed I was in Bogalusa. I've never been to the Bogalusa Cemetery, why not, I was in the mood. It is bordered on one side by a golf course and on the other by the sanitary landfill. I love that designation. Yes, funeral processions could be interspersed with golf carts and garbage trucks, I suppose. Next road south of Bogalusa was Riverside Drive. That sounded nice. It did go to a landing but the perceived park didn't pan out.
I did take a picture as the effort demanded one.
The next road actually discribed a landing being at the end of it. There I saw the sign. It was in the middle of the Pearl, unreadable from the shoreline without telescopics. It was only to be read by those using the landing.
I guess. The day was full of suppositions. You noticed?
Back to 21, south of Bogalusa, a much traveled road, by me and others. It is one I take when no other will do. That's as nice as I can put it. I knew several places run by the Corps of Engineers were along here and I could re-check them out. I'd told "da wife" I'd be back by 5:00 and it was 4:00. I ran down a couple of more disappoint- ments. There was even an "Old River Road" that was nothing more than a subdivision developer's lie. I could see this thing ending badly. Then I remembered one of the things that had swayed me to river, Henry's recollection of a favorite camping spot on the other side of the Canal. I now had a new purpose and needed to find it.
|
