Day 37: Sunday 04/10/16, Opelousas, LA to St. Francisville, LA

A scene outside Opelousas on our way to St. Francisville, Louisiana.

 

 

Day 37 distance: 67 miles

Total miles:  2017 miles

Elevation gain: 975 feet

Map of today's ride:

Today's 67 mile ride from Opelousas to St, Francisville, Louisiana, was one of the best of the tour! We rode for part of the time on an old road through a swamp in the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area. It was beautiful! Then we rode about ten miles along False River, which was once the main channel of the Mississippi River, about 35 miles Northwest of Baton Rouge. With about 15 miles left before the end of the ride, we crossed a monster bridge spanning the Mississippi River.

We rode on what at one time was the primary highway that crossed a swamp in the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area. We were riding on the road the day of the opening of the Louisiana wild turkey season, and had been warned to not go off the road or we could be shot by a hunter. Yes, I thought, a Louisiana turkey hunter might consider a grown old man wearing lycra riding shorts and neon green clothing to be some kind of turkey! Actually, as it turned out, I was more concerned about being attacked by an alligator or snake if I had walked off the road, as you would have been standing in swamp water only a few steps off the road.

Here was my first alligator spotting.

Can you find the alligator in this photo?

Parts of small old buildings were spotted thru the trees on occasion. Right before this stop, I had stopped and was looking at the swamp for alligators when I heard several dogs barking in the background, along with an occasional voice or two. When I thought I started to hear some dueling banjos playing, I hopped on my bike and skedaddled!

I wonder how long before this turtle is going to be in someone's dinner pot? And BTW, if you have never tried turtle, don't knock it!. The couple times I sampled turtle, I thought it tasted a lot like chicken!

I don't know what kind of snake this is, but it was interesting to watch as when it slithered along, it held its head above the grass to see where it was going as shown in this picture.

Can you spot the snake? It actually was quite long.

Final picture just as we were leaving the old swamp road.

We quickly rode into higher and drier ground. This is a very large oil pump that must be pumping a lot of oil.

This is False River, an inactive oxbow lake formed in the early 1700's by the Mississippi River when flooding resulted in a new permanent shorter water flow route. The lake has an average depth of 21 feet and is 65 deep in its deepest part. It is a trophy fishing lake for stripers. This picture was taken toward the south end of the lake. As we rode along the lake to its northern end, the homes became very large compared to the ones at the southern end.

Two riders ahead of me pedaling up and across the Mississippi River. This bridge is an amazing engineering structure!

A view looking down the amazing Mississippi River from the center of the bridge.

On the east side of the Mississippi River we were on higher ground, and, once again, it looked very Midwestern to me. (Minus the snow currently in the Midwest! :) )