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!