We’re back to riding again, and wow, does it feel wonderful! Hurricane Ike blew in a cold spell that turned into the Louisiana fall. Weather is drop-dead gorgeous – it’s about mid 80s during the day, dropping down to the 60s at night, with low humidity and 5-10 mph winds. We’re up before dawn every day, in the pitch black, and we’re out the door by sunrise. We are doing two separate rides, alternating – one is 16+ miles, the other is 22+ miles, in a big square around Gueydan, five to six days a week.
The scenery is extraordinary. We start by heading south, so we have the sun rising over the fields to our left. It’s absolutely beautiful seeing it rise slowly, changing from pink to orange to gold, with the mists still over the fields. We see our shadows off to the right, as we pass by a scattering of homes, a cemetery, and empty fields, with an occasional rice dryer. After 4 miles or so, we turn east, right into the rising sun. By now we are well into the country. We are surrounded by fields on all sides, as far as the eye can see. It’s primarily rice fields, with rice farms, equipment and rice dryers dotting the landscape, but we do see horses and cattle grazing. The cattle are often near the road, and one morning at a particular farm they came trotting over quickly to the fence as we rode by, lowing and crowding each other to get near us. We realized they thought we were going to feed them!
One of our favorite times of the ride is when we are just starting out. We are heading south, and south of us are the extensive marshes along the Louisiana Gulf Coast. The shore birds retire to the marshes at night, and then return again to the fields each morning. We see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of birds – blue herons, black ibis, roseate spoonbills, and egrets, flying north in loose V formations, with hundreds of stragglers doing their own thing. One morning this week we saw a series of Vs that quite literally stretched across the entire horizon from end to end, and out here in the flat rice fields, there’s a big horizon to fill! It was awe-inspiring. Yesterday we saw another set of lines like that – we counted at least 7 different Vs, with two of them headed right over us. We pulled off the road to watch, and we saw dozens and dozens of black (very black) ibis in the two lines, with two gorgeous bright pink and very big roseate spoonbills in each of the two Vs. It was just hilarious to see!
Depending on whether we are doing our short or long ride, we’ll head either north or south about 5 miles into our easterly direction. When we head south, we pass over several drainage/irrigation canals that are more like small rivers or creeks. Several of them have vegetation near the bridges, and the egrets and spoonbills and blue herons like to roost there, especially in one particular spot. We see great egrets out in the fields, with their heads sticking up from the rice stalks like periscopes, and we often startle blue herons into flight. And redwing blackbirds are everywhere! After a few miles south, we head east again, and then north, heading up Wright Rd toward Hwy 14. By the time we hit Wright Rd we are 13 miles into our 22+-mile ride.
Wright Rd is a fun road for us. We feel as though we have been adopted by the Hair family, and Wright Rd is where a big number of the family live. There’s Joe and Ann LeBlanc; Jane Hair; Lynn and Hansford (mom and dad) and Lea and James Hair (the kids); Trevor and Cathy Hair; Millie Hair (Ann and Hansford’s mom), and John and Iniani Dietz. Nearly everyone on the road is related! We stopped by Millie’s house the first time out and had a wonderful visit. That same ride we saw Joe on his tractor just coming out of one of the rice fields. Another time we were stopped checking out some roseate spoonbills when Hansford cruised by, and we ended up having a morning coffee get-together at Millie’s (Hansford’s mom), with Lynn coming by after her walk, and Mary Hardee and her companion, Kathy stopping by for a visit. We chatted for several hours, and then had an amazingly wonderful ride home.
After we leave our “party street”, Wright Rd, we cross Hwy 14 and get into more rice fields. We have about 2 miles due north, then we head west, jog north again, then west, then southwest back into Gueydan. Along the way are rice fields and more crawfish ponds. Just across Hwy 14, especially on Baker Rd, we are always greeted by swarms of red-winged blackbirds rising from the telephone lines, the trees, and the fields. One morning we were riding right in the middle of one of the swarms, until it broke in two and split apart. What a feeling it was – hundreds of birds all around us…
The crawfish ponds attract the roseate spoonbills, blue herons, and the great egrets, along with the black and white ibis. As we head north, there’s an area near the local “dam” that almost always has several spoonbills. It’s one of our regular stops along the route – hanging out quietly and watching the spoonbills. One day we saw perhaps 18 of them – not too close to us, but close enough to see them feeding, and in a few breathtaking moments they all lifted up, spreading those incredible bright pink wings. Our dream is to get close enough to a roseate spoonbill to take a wonderful photo.
There are a few Brahmin bulls north of town, masters of their acreage, and a few sections where cattle are grazed. There’s one section that reminds me so much of the high Sierra meadows near Lake Tahoe, with the big meadows and cattle grazing, and the intermittent cattle pens and chutes. The cattle egrets stay with the cattle, and one cold morning we inadvertently startled about 50 of them. They had been huddling in among the cattle…
The first week we rode was shortly after Ike, and the fields and roads were still flooded from the storm surge. In several sections we had to get off and walk carefully through on a high spot, but several other sections were just low enough that we could ride slowly. In the last few days, the water has gone down significantly, but the smell from the decomposing vegetation is awful in many areas. Every day is a big improvement in the water levels. By this time, almost everything is dried up.
We’ve been in southwest Louisiana now long enough that we have seen the end of crawfish season; the rice fields have all been harvested, with some fields almost ready for the second harvest; the hay is being harvested; the sugar cane harvest is just underway; and now we are seeing the beginning of crawfish season again! Just this morning we saw one field with all the traps carefully set out in the ponds. We also saw the first flock of migrating Canadian geese, heading south for the winter!
We almost always see 10-12 great blue herons at various points along our ride, and we see little green herons feeding in the drainage ditches along the edges of the fields. Last week we saw our first live nutria ever – okay, it was only the furry hind end and rat-looking tail, hiding in its burrow, but we saw it! We also have a photo of one method for catching alligators – hang a big piece of meat (like a whole chicken) on a big hook, hang it on a pole, and hang the pole on the side of the creek. The alligator reaches up to grab the meat and is hooked. Check out our photo gallery to see it (minus the gator, though).
One of our most intense riding experiences was my optimistic desire to “get used to riding on gravel roads”. I mapped out a route that would take us through some beautiful areas, but in order to complete the ride and not go on Hwy 14 (which we hate), we had to do 5 miles on Maree Michel, a gravel road running out through the fields. I had read that there are 800 km (the guy could have made a careless error in his number of zeroes) of gravel roads in Patagonia, and I wanted to make sure we could do gravel roads. Here we are, with a great chance to experiment! The first day went fine. It was hard work, and several sections had deeper gravel, causing a lot more work and focus, but we did fine because the road was pretty hard packed in most areas, and we could follow the truck tire tracks.
The next time, about one third mile into the gravel section, we saw a big road grader ahead. Foolish me. I was quite happy, thinking now that the grader had come through, our ride would be SO much easier! Wrong… All the grader did was to create a nice even, two-inch deep gravel surface. As one local put it – it was “fluffy”, and we found out that “fluffy” gravel is not something to voluntarily ride through. Whooeee, was that tough! We saw nothing in that part of the ride except what was right ahead of us…gravel, gravel, and more gravel. We did all five miles, but it felt like we had ridden 15 miles in that time. Yes, we were very proud of ourselves. As if that weren’t enough, the next day I suggested we try it again. I am nothing if not determined, and besides, we couldn’t figure a way around except by going on Hwy 14, and we really didn’t want to do that! So we rode it again.
We didn’t make the 5 miles this time. Our front tires were going one way, our back tires were going the other, and sweat was dripping down our faces and into our eyes. My strategy was to pick a track and go fast, but the tracks kept disappearing, and I’d end up wandering back and forth over the road, intently focused on keeping my bike up. Chelsea’s strategy was to go slowly and stick to the very side of the road, in the dirt area, which of course kept disappearing. Finally, most of the way through the second to last section, I stopped for a breath, turned around – and Chelsea was nowhere in sight. My heart sank. I couldn’t believe I’d have to go back and find her. I so much didn’t want to do that that I waited hopefully for a few minutes. Sure enough, after a short wait, here she came around the corner, slowly. I waited to make sure that she was okay, that she was keeping on, then I put out a burst of speed and focus to reach the paved road intersection ahead of us. When Chelsea finally caught up with me, she was in no mood to even consider going the remaining mile of gravel roads, so we revised our route on the spot.
Now our 17-mile days take us in a similar route to the longer days, but we go south a mile less, and go east a mile or two less. We do have to go on Hwy 14 for a mile, but we turn on all our bike lights and go as fast as we can. We turn north on Baker Rd, and we have come to love that stretch. We figure we will leave the gravel roads practice for another time – maybe when we actually have to ride them!
There are still more interesting parts to our rides, too. Did you know that donkeys make great guard animals for cattle, sheep and so on? Apparently donkeys dislike and are aggressive towards dogs, coyotes and foxes. They have exceptional hearing, excellent vision, and their sense of smell is well developed. When they sense intruders, they bray, bare their teeth, chase, and attempt to kick and bite dogs and coyotes. Some donkeys will also chase deer, bears, strange livestock, humans and other intruders in a similar fashion. We see donkeys all throughout the fields, hanging out with the cattle. There was one particular donkey that used to stand near the fence as we went by, just watching us, cocking his ears at us when we talked to him. Somehow it tickles me no end that donkeys are guard animals.
We went for a long time without having to deal with dogs, but now that we are in the back roads again, we are getting great experience sprinting away from dogs chasing us. By now we know all the houses where the dogs are likely to chase us, so we don’t say a word to each other as we approach, and then we increase our speed significantly so that we are already doing about 15-17 mph by the time the dogs see us and start running. One morning, on a new route, we got surprised by 6 pit bull/terrier type dogs, all in one yard, and that gave us a run for our money! We’ll have to think up new strategies when we are hauling the 70 lb trailers…
One Sunday morning we did a short 10-mile ride, heading out of Gueydan to the east and then heading north, and we spotted a bobcat right next to the town limits. It was easily the size of a medium dog. After standing in the road awhile watching us approach, it took off across the levee a short ways and stood again watching for a few minutes. It was very exciting! Many lifetime locals have never seen a bobcat here, so we felt very lucky.
This last week or so has been very foggy in the mornings early, so we’ve seen beautiful sights with the mists rising above the fields and the sun rising through the mists. We tend to see more birds with the mists, and everything stays cooler longer. We are SO in love with this area!
I can’t finish this blog with out mentioning our visits to Millie’s house. I already talked about the one visit, and perhaps two days later we stopped by again, at 8 a.m. Millie greeted us with big smiles and a fresh cup of coffee, but true to Cajun manners, before the visit was up, we had biscuits, bacon, fresh jam, a mosticcolli casserole, fig cookies, fruit, and more other food than we can remember. We laughed and talked and laughed some more and ate some more, and met everyone who came in and out. Millie is a soft-spoken 80-something, and is really bright. She’s a great conversationalist, and she’s very thoughtful and pays attention to things, so there’s never a loss of things to talk about. It was close to 1 p.m. when we finally left! We have gotten to treasure our visits with her, and we will really miss her.
The most recent funny thing that happened was last week. As we rode up Wright Rd we passed Lynn and Hansford Hair’s home. We always glance over at the houses we know in case someone is outside, but it feels rude to stare, so we just glance and keep going. After passing the house, we heard a car coming, so we kept close to the edge, and who should it be but Lynn. She pulled over ahead of us and stopped. She told us she had seen us go by, so she leaped in the car still in her pjs and caught us. We ended up standing there by the side of the road for nearly an hour just catching up on everything. It was a really great break for our ride, and a great way to start the day!
It’s now about 3 weeks since we started our rides, and we are enjoying every bit of them. The scenery is gorgeous, the rides are great, and the endorphins push us right through the day. We’re addicted. And we love it that we are getting in good shape to get back on the road.
Be sure to check out our photo albums. We’ve got some great photos in there, and it will give you a great idea of where we are and what we are seeing.