It's Saturday and it's raining, and if it wasn't, my back hurts too bad to think about taking a ride. So, I'll relive one and let you come along.
Back in May we'd been hit by pretty hard rains and there was a lot of flooding. All the rivers and bayous were out of their banks. I decided that this was the perfect time to leave the safety and boredom of civilization's paved tentacles and reach down some gravel roads into who knows what. This came to me as I was riding along. Rarely do ride ideas originate prior to the ride. No plan, no disappointment.
Or, just the fear of disappointment.
Too deep.
Many years ago, when I was in my very early 20's, two friends of mine and I tried out this suppose to be "trail riding area" that was just north of Bayou Chicot (the town of). Long story short, we got lost and thought we were doomed to be eaten by armadillos. One of the guys found the route out as we were rubbing sticks together. Not a proud outing.
I have gone by that gravel road a thousand times, wanting to take another look. Today was the day, as I had again found myself in that area. ("found myself" is loosely used in a geographic sense, only.)
To set the stage, as you leave Bayou Chicot going north, look for a sign to Vander-something cemetery. This is Frontier Road, what a great name. It is gravel, but you can handle it. If staying at Chicot St. Park and you just want to forest cruise and see "out back" south central La., here it is.
Proceeding down Frontier, nothing looked familiar, why should it, I have no memory of where we went in 1970. So, that will stay a deja vu, lost. Onward.
Forward to the present. The road is obviously traveled. This is not National Forest. There are hunting clubs which use the land. Lumber is extracted here, but seems not to be "clear cutting". Beware of crazed timber truck drivers.The ups and downs got to be steeper. I was going off the Kisatchie Wold, the uplift that borders the Red River/Atchafalaya Valley to its west. I was decending to the Cocodrie (crocodile).
(Text continues below)
Frontier Road dead ends at Bayou Touraeau Rd. (spelling is correct) I took it to the right, south. I could see that La.115 was on the other side of Bayou Cocodrie, but the bridge is being rebuilt, actually constuction was under water, not a good sign, but, my road was still high. I continued south to where I saw (on the gps) that there was another bridge. Good that I did because there were some very nice examples of early constuction there. Remember, in Louisiana, if you want to see history, stay close to the water.
When I got to 115, I turned left, north, following the bayou along a great hard topped motorcycle road. The curves are wide sweepers. When approaching small communities, farms, etc, slow it down, please.
I checked out a couple of roads crossing the bayou, Lone Pine Rd and Blood Bend Rd. They dead ended or got to looking like private property, although there were no signs. So I reversed and headed back to 115 which is a fine road and definitely interesting.
When I got to 181, I took a left, northwest. La.181 parallels I-49 and is a thing of dark beauty as it crosses a swamp, this time a flooded swamp.
It soon hits I-49 which I jumped on, going north to rejoin La. 167 south. I wanted to see if I could find another road to penetrate the highlands above the Cocodrie.
Going south on 167, I again crossed the Cocodrie, but first I took a right, just before the bridge and went to the landing which lets you access the bayou, previously pictured in the Winter Ride article. The water coming over the dam was amazing. Lake Access is not possible here. So where's the picture?
Returning to 167 I proceeded up the hill and saw Clearwater Loop calling.Of course I took it. I turned off the loop and went down Hubbard Brake. Where do these names come from? Did you have to put on the brakes going down the hill? If it was a break in the wilderness or the hill, then spelling would be different. This is one of the facets of discovery I really enjoy. More pretty La. lurking right off the road and you can see it, too, if you take the time. As you can see, Hubbard is old, it cuts through the hill, not a bulldozed cut, a cut made by wagon and tractor traffic. You can tell.
I returned to the Loop and exited from the little Clearwater Community back onto 167. I knew that big Lake Cocodrie was was to my right, west. I wanted to take a look. So, I did. The gps identifies this road as a "road", so I can't tell you what its name is. It did take me to a landing which was submerged in the flood water.
This lake is dark and mysterious. It is not to be floated without a map and a compass, better a gps. I'm not going out there. This is were some corpses were dumped a few years ago. How were they found? It is also famous as a hideaway for draft dodgers during the Civil War. I'm sure it has a history as dark as its appearance. |
