Atchafalaya

Friday, January 13, 2006

Found some great trails and potential island campsites east of Lake Palourde, on Bayou Cheramie. Went with Paula down to Burns Point, on East Cote Blanche bay. We motored slowly through some small bayous north of the point, and must have seen seven or eight alligators. Surprising for January, but it was a sunny day. We got out of there, got stuck, got unstuck, and continued in the bayous south of the state park. No alligators. These bayous looked like they get a lot more people, though.

Went on a kayak trip on the islands off the coast of Mississippi. From Pascagoula out to east Horn Island, then down to west Horn the next day. My old landmarks on Horn are gone. It's unrecognizable. I think the island has lost about half a mile of land from the east.

The next morning the wind was too strong, so we stayed on a little sand island we found just off the end of Horn. The wind was so strong, blown sand was filling in our footprints. We rounded up every scrap of stuff we could find on the island to build a wind shelter to hunker down behind. I read a book about Shackleton, the polar explorer.

The next morning the wind had calmed, so we paddled over to East Ship Island, then West Ship and Cat, where we spent the night. In the morning we paddled in to Long Beach, which has been destroyed.

James 6:03 PM [+]
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