Blue Goose ~ Day 221

January 3, 2015 ~ Eunice, LA to Natchez, MS

It rained most of the day, very very hard all afternoon as I wound on two-lanes through eastern Louisiana. My target refuges were two: Catahoula and Bayou Cocodrie. I wondered as I was driving how the non-paved roads were holding up in the rain. The side roads I passed looked like raw wounds - wet, rutted and reddish.

There are two units of the Catahoula NWR with a 9-mile auto-route on the Headquarters Unit, which I drove and which was fine.

Catahoula NWR - LA

I saw a big opossum waddle across the road and a Great Blue Heron standing perfectly still in a bayou but not much else. This is riverine bottomland with Bald Cypress, oaks, gum, ash, Spanish moss and quiet dark water. The levels of the Duck Lake Impoundment are manipulated (drawn down) for growth of vegetation for waterfowl. It's all very southern to my northern eyes. A bit spooky. The water is murky and still, pinkish-brown like dilute tomato soup. This time of year, the alligators and snakes are not moving about like they would be in warmer weather, but they are here nonetheless.

Catahoula NWR - LA

I listened to a live Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Hansel and Gretel for two hours while driving. The music and the swampy milieu were incongruous, but the story fit right in...lost in a forest with creatures that could do harm.

Bayou Cocodrie was unnerving. I followed the directions and turned down a road which became gravel within the mile....with water-filled potholes and very soft shoulders, beyond which was wooded swamp. I followed my progress on the iPhone, persevering in part because I didn't think I could turn around without getting stuck. It got creepier and creepier and in places, water was starting to cross the road. No wonder, with the heavy downpour for hours on already saturated ground. I passed three immense lumbering vehicles in a muddy morass staging area and really, really regretted starting down this road.

Bayou Cocodrie NWR road - LA

I finally came to the refuge but only turned around...praying I wouldn't meet an oncoming vehicle. Prayers were answered and I got back on the high ground.

While reading about these bayou refuges, I noted that big corporations (Fisher Lumber, General Electric, American Motors) owned the land. This 12,000 acre refuge, for instance, was sold to The Nature Conservancy and then to the USFWS.

I was close to the Mississippi River, crossed over and got to Natchez in the rain, in the dark, and wandered about, totally lost, through what were probably delightful historic neighborhoods and some not so delightful before stopping to get Siri and myself oriented.

I am reading another zuzu book, so I got settled under a huge tree in a parking lot and read for a couple of hours, a total a waste of time, although options are limited in a van in the dark in the rain. The characters were good; the story line preposterous; and the overall impression that of an author who writes well but needs to refine her intrigue and make it credible.

When I awakened in the early morning hours, I noticed a car had pulled in smack behind me, way too close. Not that I was frightened or uneasy but even car campers - parking lot squatters - want a measure of privacy.


WWW.FWS.GOV

The bottomland hardwoods at Bayou Cocodrie NWR have been noted as some of the last remaining, least disturbed timber in the Mississippi River Delta.

Along the road to Bayou Cocodrie NWR - LA