Leap Day in the Teche Bayou National Wildlife Refuge

Happy Leap Day!  It's February 29, 2024, and we finally have nice enough weather, without social obligations, that we could plan a longer outing.  It was too cool and windy for a paddle or bike ride, so we chose to hike.  The trouble with Cajun Country is that there just aren't very many longer hiking trails in the nearby area.  We finally found an interesting one about an hour's drive away, in Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge.  It was so exciting we jumped for joy!

Bayou Teche is a 125-mile-long waterway in Louisiana which was the Mississippi River's main course when it developed a delta about 2,800 to 4,500 years ago. Through a natural process known as deltaic switching, the river's deposits of silt and sediment caused the Mississippi to change its course to its present location.

Bayou Teche is named after the Teche Band of the Atakapas nation—represented, fittingly, by the snake—who, for thousands of years, were at home among the lotus flowers there, settling in encampments along the bayou’s ample ridges, smoke-drying deer meat and hunting alligators. The name Atakapas—which means “man-eater” in Choctaw—originated as a slur toward the tribe, rumored to practice cannibalism. In their own language they call themselves Ishák—meaning “The People.” The last speaker of the Ishák language died in the early twentieth century, taking the living language with them, but today descendants of the Ishák nation continue to call southwestern Louisiana home.

Once described as the “most richly storied of the interior waters, and the most opulent,” Bayou Teche was the center of a booming cypress industry in the early 1900s. The Teche winds its way through four parishes and ends in the Atchafalaya Basin, an essential source of food, timber and fur, a refuge for escaped slaves and a natural resource for enterprising Cajuns and Creoles.

One of the more celebrated groups of South Louisiana’s many colonial immigrants came from Acadie, which is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada. These people of French descent were exiled from their homes in Canada by the British when they refused to abandon their Roman Catholic beliefs to worship as members of the Church of England. Rejected even in their home country of France, they were dispersed along the Atlantic coast of present day U.S.A. Some found their way to south-central Louisiana and settled along the banks of the Bayou Teche. Many customs in south-central Louisiana have their roots in the traditions of the Acadian settlers. Descendants of this group are still in the area and are proud of their Acadian (now corrupted into the term “Cajun”) heritage.

Our hike began at a flood control dam on Bayou Teche, in what is now the Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge (note that our loyal Jeep Dusty is waiting patiently for us in the far right of the photo below):

Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge comprises 9,028 acres of wetlands, water and bottomlands forested with hardwoods and cypress-gum forests. The endangered Louisiana black bear is relatively abundant throughout the refuge. Other wildlife species include alligators, wading birds, ducks and bald eagles. In the early 1990's, the native black bear's numbers had fallen, due to habitat loss, to about 100 bears and was listed as an endangered species.  Bayou Teche NWR was established to combat this population decline.

Where we parked for our hike, there were still some remnants of old industrial activity, or equipment used to construct the canal and levee at the spot on Bayou Teche where we started our hike:

The main trail in Bayou Teche NWR runs atop a long levee alongside the bayou.  We had swamp on one side, bayou on the other, and meadow up top:

Toward the beginning of our hike, we came across a boardwalk nature trail festooned with informative signs explaining the wildlife that is common in the Refuge:

The boardwalk was a short quarter mile or so, exposing visitors to the interior of swamp lands.  One very unique bird box perched above the still waters of the swamp:

As we walked the boardwalk, Kathy spotted movement in the water below.  David got his camera ready, and captured this photo of a swimming muskrat (or was it a nutria?) emerging from under the boardwalk:

Having finished our boardwalk experience, we turned our focus to the main trail along the levee.  We were surprised to find that Spring is starting to visit this area.  We first noticed a bush of pretty little flowers along the water:

A little further along, the bayou, which was narrow at this point, opened up into a broad, shallow pond inhabited by ducks and other waterfowl:

Thistle are starting to appear and blossom along the levee:

Other small wildflowers are appearing, such as these white coneflower-like blossoms --

-- and these pink-fuschia cuties:

Several pipelines and other utility lines cross through the Refuge, and are responsibly marked by signs cautioning against interfering:

Along the way, we spotted yet more wildflowers, these bright yellow:

In some places, the swamp, festooned in variegated greens, looked more like a pastel watercolor than reality:

Spanish moss hung everywhere from live oak and cypress trees along the levee.  One mass of Spanish moss was so large, and hung so low, that David was able to give it a hug:

We reached the turnaround point of our 5 mile hike and stopped for a hot lunch of beans, rice and crawfish.  After a short rest, we turned around and hiked back the way we had come.  Perhaps it was the angle of the sun, or perhaps we were not so distracted by the views on each side; but, on the way back, we spotted several places where animals had tracked up one side of the levee from the marsh, and down the other to the bayou:

We were surprised that we hadn't seen these tracks on the way out, but in any event, looked more closely at the tracks.  We could see where they exited from the swamp.  David followed one track back into the swamp and could not determine what had made the track.  We finally surmised that these were alligator slides.

We also spotted what might have been a fox den dug into the side of the levee, and stretches of levee occupied by what appeared to be a city of gopher holes.

At times on our walk, we gazed at pairs of hawks, either hunting along the bayou, across the swamp, or chasing off vultures or crows or other birds trying to encroach on their territory.  We never had much of a chance to photograph the hawks before they flew off, but we finally snapped this photo of one of them:

All in all, we saw more wildlife and wildflowers than we had expected.  Levee walks can get boring if there are no special attractions along them.  In this case, we had the flora and fauna, as well as the bayou and swamp on opposite sides of the levee, and the hike was done before we knew it.

This stay at Betty's RV Park involves mandatory Happy Hour, so we had to head home to walk Ruby Cat and do other chores, including preparing some snacks for the Happy Hour attendees.  It turned out to be a busy and productive day.

See you next adventure!
 

Jungle Garden Hike 2024

Monday, February 26, 2024

Hi Blog!

After leaving Davis Bayou in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, we made our way to Betty's RV Park in Abbeville, Louisiana. After getting settled in, we had a wonderful weekend with our friends Dan and Susan from Illinois. More on those adventures in another blog. 

After two days of eating and drinking, we felt we needed to stretch our legs a bit. One of our favorite places to hike in the area is the Jungle Gardens on Avery Island. Avery Island is home to the world famous Tabasco Factory. It was also the home of Edward Avery McIlhenny, the son of the founder of the Tabasco Factory, who created the 170 acre gardens with plants from around the world.  We have visited Jungle Gardens twice before -- once in 2018, and another time in 2020.  No matter how often we visit, each visit is special and we see things we hadn't seen before.

The three mile trail starts at the Gift Shop. Other than day use fees at various state parks, the Jungle Gardens is one of the few hikes we actually had to pay to hike. However, it's a small price to pay to help the local economy and maintain the gardens for future generations.

We started our hike under a canopy of live oaks. As we made our way along the park road, we decided to take a side trail known as the Bayou Petitie Anse or Marsh Trail. No sooner did we get on the narrow trail, than we saw momma gator sitting in a pool by the side of the trail.

There were two baby gators. The smallest took off as soon as we approached. Junior was not inclined to move from his sunny spot on a small island next to the trail.

There is a series of ponds that run along the bayou. The gators enjoy sunning themselves on the banks of the pond.

We call this photo, "The Three Amigos."

A snowy egret keeps one eye on the Three Amigos as it fishes for lunch.

This little blue heron didn't seem to notice there were three gators sharing the same bank.

The Great Blue Heron was enjoying having this little island all to himself.

The Cleveland Oak is over 300 years old. It was named for Glover Cleveland who hugged the tree when he visited Avery Island.

 The path from the Cleveland Oak led us to the Asian Garden.

Along the way, we saw this turtle sunning himself at the edge of the pond.

At the end of the path, we came upon a beautiful shrine housing a 900 year old Buddha. The Buddha has became a focal point for visitors and still serves as a centerpiece at the Gardens. In recent years, the shrine has become an active place of worship for local Buddhists, who conduct a number of ceremonies there throughout the year - most notably on Buddha’s birthday.  We were astounded at the large amount of money offerings in open dishes around the shrine -- none of which had been disturbed.

Just below the shrine, a Great White Egret fished for lunch.

There are thousands of camellias in the Jungle Gardens. They bloom from December to March. While most of the blooms had past, we were still able to find a few.

The azaleas are just beginning to open up.

This massive live oak seems to be sheltering the lovely pink azaleas.

After strolling through the camellia study gardens, we made our way over to Bird City. This famous rookery began as a bird colony in the 1890s. Alarmed by local plume hunters who were killing thousands of egrets to use their feathers for ladies’ hats, Mr. McIlhenny gathered up eight young snowy egrets and raised them in an aviary that he built on Avery Island. The birds were released in the fall to migrate across the Gulf of Mexico, and six of the birds (and their mates) returned to nest in the spring. Today, hundreds of snowy egrets call Bird City home.

There are even a few Great Egrets in the mix.

When we finished our hike, we made our way over to the restaurant next to the Tabasco Gift Shop. After enjoying our Cajun crab cake smothered in crawfish etouffee, we proceeded to shop for the latest hot sauce creations. 

As with most adventures when staying at Betty's RV Park, we ended the day with another Happy Hour with our fellow RVers.

 

Here's to more adventure!

Paddling Davis Bayou Again

We were last here at Gulf Islands National Seashore, in Ocean Springs, in 2018, when we paddled portions of Davis Bayou the first time.  We weren't entirely happy with the visit, because the tide was low and we didn't have a chance to explore deeply into the estuaries.  We hoped that, this time, we might hit the high tide and paddle up further inland.

We didn't quite get our wish.  We could only get out one of the days we are here, and the tides were not entirely favorable.  We were able to paddle at mid-tide, which let us paddle a little deeper into the bayou.  However, the weather was cooler and the sea breeze was stiff, so we had to deal with the added elements of wind and waves.

Still, the day was beautiful and brilliant.  We worked our way against the wind and waves, out into the deep, outer reaches of Davis Bayou --

-- and then around a point and into the estuarine channels:

Our first stop was a small bridge that we had visited in our 2018 paddle.  It looked just the same:

We couldn't help taking another photo of our passage under the bridge --

-- and of Kathy's sweep back under the bridge back on our way out of the backwater:

But there were new experiences this time.  As we reached the boat ramp dock area, we spotted this fellow pulling in a crab trap.  He had been successful, although the crab was on the small side:

We wanted to get over to the Visitor Center and its fishing piers and boat moorage, so we made our way out into open water.  This cormorant had beat us to the punch, and sat himself on one of the channel signs, looking for signs of his next meal:

Kathy chose another channel marker ("red right returning") so that she would be in the deep channel as we paddled out into the deeper water:

We rounded a point past the Visitor Center and had the Park Service fishing dock and boat moorage in sight, when Kathy spotted this osprey on a large, dead tree, feasting on a fish it had caught:

David was able to get a little closer, but the osprey started to get nervous, so we paddled on without further disturbing its lunch:

We turned to the NPS fishing dock --

-- and the moorage where the Park Service had constructed a breakwater to protect its patrol boats:

We hadn't realized how many boats this NPS unit had until we paddled past the breakwater and spotted all of the boats, large and small, fast and faster, moored under shelter and ready to go:

Thus having satisfied our curiosity about the NPS infrastructure, we turned back.  The wind and waves had picked up, and it was a bit of a challenge to maintain our heading back into calmer water.  As we paddled, we spotted Biloxi and the Biloxi Bay Bridge out across the water, in the background in the photo below:

The Park Service has a boathouse on one of the bayou channels, perched on pilings down a long boardwalk from the Visitor Center building.  We had learned the other day that the boathouse is closed to visitors.  It appeared that the boathouse and its boardwalk access had been damaged by a recent hurricane, and have not had an opportunity to be repaired yet -- thanks to the insufficient funding the National Park Service gets from Congress in these penurious times.  Still, the boathouse looked intact and capable of functioning.  It has beautiful lines:

The Visitor Center, too, is an attractive, low profile building that nestles into a grove of trees on a peninsula of David Bayou.  We spotted it as we paddled past:

We didn't expect to see a lot of wildlife, but did hope for some shorebirds and raptors.  As it turned out, we weren't disappointed.  The whole last half of our paddle was graced by one sighting of birds after another.  This bald eagle soared over our heads as we paddled back out from inspecting the boathouse:

We headed back to the vicinity of our boat ramp, and found a side channel with some pelicans diving and fishing.  We decided to work our way closer to watch them.  While we couldn't get an action photo of these skilled skydivers, we did find one fat and happy pelican catching his siesta on a fence pole by the water:

Our campground is set at the end of one of the arms of the estuary in David Bayou.  We paddled over to see if we could spot our RV perched high above the water.  Kathy finally spotted it, but not before we ran into a Great Blue Heron fishing quietly at the end of the cove:

He really wasn't happy with our approaching him, and before too long, he took flight, squawking in indignation as we got closer:

He didn't fly far, however, and we ran into him again as we worked our way back to our boat ramp.  We got close enough for a photo or two, but assured him that we were not going to approach as closely as we just had.  He accepted that assurance and remained steadily focused on his fishing, with just one eye on the human intruders.

It was a short paddle back to where we put into the water.  As we got to the boat ramp, two other groups of kayakers suddenly appeared and paddled in to debark.  We were surprised they came back this quickly, because they had not set out until we had completed half our paddle.  Perhaps the wind, waves and cooler temperatures were not to their liking.  In any event, all three paddler groups quietly packed up their kayaks and equipment and headed back to the campground -- us to plans for a tasty dinner of chicken, onions and Moroccan carrots.  It warmed us right up after a cool outing.