Made an overnight camping trip to the Elm Hall Wildlife Management Area this weekend. It's a relatively new state WMA that borders Lake Verret. The only access is by boat, which I like. It's about 85% cypress and tupelo swamps interspersed with high oak ridges. In this neck of the woods, a high ridge is anywhere from 1 to 12 INCHES above the surrounding swamp.
I put in at my old hometown on Grand Bayou and paddled downstream for 3 miles until I hit Bayou Canard( French for Duck Bayou), and followed it until it opened up into a 150 yard wide bay. I say downstream,but Grand Bayou's current is measured in fractions of miles per DAY.
About halfway down Bayou Canard, I spotted movement in the grass on the edge of the water. I head popped up and then disappeared. There was some more movement, this time it was the flopping of about a pound and a half bass. I must have disturbed somebody's meal. After a minute, I spotted two otters running away from the water. I've only spotted otters two other times in my 40 or so years in the outdoors, so this was a treat.
In the next hour I spotted a coon, a few woodducks, a couple of squirrels, and few white and great gray herons. The bayou eventually opened up into the lake and I took a left and skirted the shore until I got to the designated camping area. The camping area was the levee surrounding a short canal coming off the lake that had been dug about 60 years ago. There were no signs anywhere so it was a good thing I brought the map of the place I copied off of the state website.
I knew it was going to be a good trip when I stepped out of the pirogue and the first thing I heard was a bald eagle screeching overhead. I looked up as he flew by at 75 yards.
I set up my small 2 man(who thinks this tent holds two people?) tent. I wanted to travel light, so I left my 3" foam sleeping pad home and tried something I read about 30 years ago. I laid out the tent and figured where the sleeping bag would lie and then folded the tent back and dug a shallow depression about 14" and 1 1/2" deep where my butt would be. This depression takes the pressure off of your lower back and it worked like a charm. When you get it right, it almost feels like you have a mattress under you because it spreads out the pressure over your whole body instead of a few pressure points. Try it out .
Yesterday evening I saw a flock of about 150 white pelicans out on the lake. They must have been feeding, because I could hear their beaks clicking even though they were 3 or 4 hundred yards away.
I broke camp early this morning after a couple of cups of coffee and a Little Debbie cake---breakfast of champions! I saw the same two otters on the way back. They were in the middle of the little bay and would come up and look at me and give a little snort and go under to pop up a few yards away and do it again.
About a half mile from the landing I met a couple of buddies coming back from a muzzle loader hunt. They asked me where I went, thinking I had gone just a little ways down the bayou. I kind of smiled and said "You probably won't believe where I went this weekend. I camped out at Elm Hall WMA." They looked at each other with a shocked expression. Even though the pirogue originated around these parts, most people use the short, wide, heavy rockered pirogues for duck hunting , etc. and not for trips longer than a 1/2 mile or so.
Got home before lunch and plotted my trip on Google Earth and figured it was 8.35 miles one way. I timed myself for fun going up there and did it in 2hours 45 minutes which averages out to be just a hair over 3 miles per hour. I was a happy camper( pardon the pun).
Later Joey
I put in at my old hometown on Grand Bayou and paddled downstream for 3 miles until I hit Bayou Canard( French for Duck Bayou), and followed it until it opened up into a 150 yard wide bay. I say downstream,but Grand Bayou's current is measured in fractions of miles per DAY.
About halfway down Bayou Canard, I spotted movement in the grass on the edge of the water. I head popped up and then disappeared. There was some more movement, this time it was the flopping of about a pound and a half bass. I must have disturbed somebody's meal. After a minute, I spotted two otters running away from the water. I've only spotted otters two other times in my 40 or so years in the outdoors, so this was a treat.
In the next hour I spotted a coon, a few woodducks, a couple of squirrels, and few white and great gray herons. The bayou eventually opened up into the lake and I took a left and skirted the shore until I got to the designated camping area. The camping area was the levee surrounding a short canal coming off the lake that had been dug about 60 years ago. There were no signs anywhere so it was a good thing I brought the map of the place I copied off of the state website.
I knew it was going to be a good trip when I stepped out of the pirogue and the first thing I heard was a bald eagle screeching overhead. I looked up as he flew by at 75 yards.
I set up my small 2 man(who thinks this tent holds two people?) tent. I wanted to travel light, so I left my 3" foam sleeping pad home and tried something I read about 30 years ago. I laid out the tent and figured where the sleeping bag would lie and then folded the tent back and dug a shallow depression about 14" and 1 1/2" deep where my butt would be. This depression takes the pressure off of your lower back and it worked like a charm. When you get it right, it almost feels like you have a mattress under you because it spreads out the pressure over your whole body instead of a few pressure points. Try it out .
Yesterday evening I saw a flock of about 150 white pelicans out on the lake. They must have been feeding, because I could hear their beaks clicking even though they were 3 or 4 hundred yards away.
I broke camp early this morning after a couple of cups of coffee and a Little Debbie cake---breakfast of champions! I saw the same two otters on the way back. They were in the middle of the little bay and would come up and look at me and give a little snort and go under to pop up a few yards away and do it again.
About a half mile from the landing I met a couple of buddies coming back from a muzzle loader hunt. They asked me where I went, thinking I had gone just a little ways down the bayou. I kind of smiled and said "You probably won't believe where I went this weekend. I camped out at Elm Hall WMA." They looked at each other with a shocked expression. Even though the pirogue originated around these parts, most people use the short, wide, heavy rockered pirogues for duck hunting , etc. and not for trips longer than a 1/2 mile or so.
Got home before lunch and plotted my trip on Google Earth and figured it was 8.35 miles one way. I timed myself for fun going up there and did it in 2hours 45 minutes which averages out to be just a hair over 3 miles per hour. I was a happy camper( pardon the pun).
Later Joey
