Day 36: Saturday 04/09/16, DeRidder, LA to Opelousas. LA

In Louisiana as well as eastern Texas, every little pond has a dock on it, I assume for fishing catfish. Some of the docked ponds are so small that the dock goes right to the center of the pond. This larger pond had two docks and two homes on it. The amount of exterior lawns maintained and mowed are amazing, in even the humblest of residences.

 

Day 36 distance: 91 miles

Total miles:  1950 miles

Elevation gain: 826 feet

Map of today's ride:

Today was a slow ride for me. Since I got the flu 4 days ago, the worst symptoms are almost over, but I am still in the phase where my stomach and digestion system are out of balance. I am supposed to eat only bland foods, which is difficult when one cook is serving around 50 people, so I either pick and chose, or do as last night when a SAG member bought a can of chicken noodle soup for my dinner. Regardless, I knew my body was not ready for my normal style of riding so I slowed down significantly today, hoping I could stretch the fuel in my tank throughout the 91 mile ride. It worked, in either that I had, or created sufficient energy to complete the slow ride, but my digestive system didn't like the long ride and gave me other issues. Enough about health. Tomorrow is a new day and with another night of rest, I hope to be ready to ride the 67 miles scheduled.

When we left DeRidder this morning, our scenery was more trees for about the first 35 miles. Then we started seeing bigger streams and rivers which led into what I would call more of a wetland setting mixed with agricultural activities (not yet a "swamp."). In the wetlands, it took a while for me to figure out what I was observing, but it turned out to be one crayfish farm after another.  Interestingly, the crayfish were being raised in rice beds. I did not know growing crayfish and rice were two activities that closely intertwined. Overall, it was a very interesting day of riding.

This was typical of the roads we rode on for about the first half of the day's ride. Nice shoulders for the most part, but, in Louisiana, there is more trash laying on the road's shoulder than any other place I have ridden, so one needed to be watchful at all time. Due to the forest products industry activity in the area, the largest amount of debris was related to wood materials such as sticks, wood chips, and hog fuel.

OK, perhaps this amount of trash in one spot was not normal, but finding it on the roadside was not surprising. It was interesting in that this picture was taken at a County boundary, and on the other side of the road was a sign entering a new county that stated littering  was a violation of county law and was punishable by fines up to $3000. Obviously, the dumper must have thought it was OK to dispose of trash along the roadway in the next county!

According to a sign, this picture was taken as I was crossing the Quiska Chitto River. Seeing the canoes on the bank, it appeared canoeing must be a big recreational activity in this area. 

A half mile down the road from the Quiska Chitto River, I saw the first commercial canoe outfitting business. I liked how "Clean Restrooms" had been added to the sign. Apparently this businessman found out that clean restrooms are important to his customers.

This was a larger river a few miles further down the road. Note the man walking on the sand bar with his fishing equipment. I didn't see any canoes, but this looked like a prime canoeing river.

A short distance past the river, there was a very large canoeing business. School buses were leaving with canoes and people, and returning empty. I counted the canoes I could see and there still were slightly more than 200 canoes available for rent. If all the canoes were in the same river at the same time, that would make for some crowded water!

Next down the road was some agricultural activity; in this instance a field of corn had been planted.

Further on we entered the "wetlands."This picture is of a smaller crayfish/ rice field. The objects in the water are crawfish traps. If interested in finding out more about how crayfish are grown, see below for more detailed information, or skip it and go to the next photo.

Crayfish Farming: 

Louisiana usually accounts for 90%-95% of the total U.S. production of crayfish from year to year, either from wild waters of the state, or on farms. The crayfish are considered large if an average of 18 of them weigh a pound. A detailed description of how crayfish are grown can be found at: https://www.cajuncrawfish.com/how-we-grow-crawfish.htm  

The following is a short version of the cycle of raising rice and crayfish:

1. Grow a rice crop in a field of water from March to July.
2. Seed crawfish in the rice field in June.
3. Drain water and harvest the rice in late July/August.
4. Re-flood the old rice field and it becomes a crayfish pond in September/October.
5. Harvest the crawfish from November to July.
6. Drain, plow, and level the field to repeat the process in July to March.

This is the contraption used to get to the crab pots to harvest the crawfish.
Here is a larger pond of rice with no crab pots set out. Not sure if it was a straight rice farmer or if he was out of sync with the crawfish growing season. A lunch stop was scheduled in the town of Mamou, Louisiana. Next door to our stop was Fred's Lounge, the source of a weekly broadcast of Cajun music called Ajun Musk. We happened to be passing through Mamou when the broadcast was being made. The town was hopping with people who were there for this weekly event!  (Those of you who know Chandler, one of our bicycle mechanics, is sleeping in the chair. He must not have been too impressed with the music or else he was just tired!) On my ride out of Mamou I stopped at this house and asked this gentleman what smelled so good. He opened his grill and showed me baby back ribs and chicken on the grill. His wife (I assume) was just throwing some burgers on with the rest of the meat. She graciously offered me a piece of already cooked meat from the green container on the grill. I was very tempted, but with my stomach in its flu recovery condition, I had to decline. There would be nothing worse than accepting the offer with the chance they would see it reappear before I could leave! I love watching Ag aircraft doing their thing. This plane made about a half dozen passes over me while I took a "break" on the ride today. It always dropped below some trees after it went over me so could not determine if it was spraying or just scaring birds away. This is a dangerous occupation!