National Park in Ocean Springs, MS delights Louisiana hikers

    The smallish and cozy for a national park, Mississippi District of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, packs a lot of opportunity for outdoor recreation despite its size.  The park, bordering artsy-craftsy  Ocean Springs, offers a small developed campground, a fishing pier, biking, a concrete boat launch, a short paddling trail and group camping all offered in a footprint of about 400 acres.
       However it was the chance to hike through the park's compact coastal forest and walk the edge of a saltwater marsh that drew nearly 30 members of the Louisiana Hiking Club to the federal preserve, Saturday September 14, 2013.
       Gulf Islands National Seashore was formed in 1971 to include beaches in the Pensacola, FL area, several barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico and the Davis Bayou District (MS).   Locals show their love for the park by keeping it clean and quiet despite heavy usage of the shelters for reunions, picnics and just general socializing.  Runners, walkers and cyclists from adjacent subdivisions and packs of kids on afternoon training runs from nearby schools take advantage of the park-like setting of the former state park to get in aerobic workouts throughout the day. 
       Partly cloudy skies and warm weather greeted the LHC group as they trooped through the short and shady Nature's Way Loop trail and the out-and-back CCC Spur Trail.  The group took a breather at the William M. Colmer Visitor Center, where some watched a film about the seashore or ambled off to the nearby fishing pier for a snack.  Total distance for the out-and-back trek from pavilion #2 to the visitor center and back, including the two side trails, was about four miles.  Except for the two side trails the hike follows the road shoulders in the park.
     Some hikers bivouacked in the grassy and shady group camping area the Friday night before the hike and Saturday after the hike.  After the hike Saturday, campers forsook the joys of making dinner in camp choosing instead to sample the restaurant scene in nearby bustling Biloxi or upscale, casino-free Ocean Springs.  Back at the campsite, bugs were surprisingly scarce for a September evening but the raccoons, though few, were not shy.  Freight trains with blaring whistles rumbled on tracks about a mile away adding rhythm and harmony to the buzzing insects as the group hit the sack.
       Veteran hiker and LHC member Tom Rogers led the affair, making all of the arrangements for the primitive camping ($20 per night, reservations required, must be group of 10 or more) and guiding the group. 
      Campsites in the 51 pad campground (water, electric, hot showers) are $22 per site.  The campground does not take reservations (reservations are mandatory for the group camp) and the busy season is from January through March.  For more information about the camping call 228.875.3962.
      Three short water trails winding through the adjoining salt marshes radiate from the boat launch.  The three bayous, Stark, Halstead and Davis were designated the Davis Island Blueway in 2012.  It takes about an hour and a half to paddle all three in one trip.  More than 300 species of birds have been identified in the park (which includes a much larger unit in Florida and several barrier islands), and there are of course, alligators.
        Paddle craft can be launched through the marsh grass bordering the unpaved overflow parking area but the sharp-edged oyster shells carpeting the path and the shallows are tough on fragile paddle-craft hulls.  The stiff marsh grass makes it difficult to launch a canoe or kayak parallel to the shore so paddlers must float the boat perpendicular to the shore and board from shin-deep shallows.  There is a $3 fee to use the boat launch.
       Water levels in the bayous are affected by tides.  There may not be enough water to float some of the Blueway at low tide in winter.   Be sure to pick up a copy of the Mississippi Tide Tables from the visitor center when picking up the map showing the Blueway.  (The bayou trails are not signed but navigation is easy because of the landmarks in sight on high ground surrounding the basin.)
       Because of federal funding cutbacks, the visitor center is closed on Wednesday and Thursday but the park and its boat ramps and picnic areas, are open.  The campground is closed Thursday and Friday but you can camp the closed days, paying when the campground office re-opens.
     The park is at the eastern end of the Live Oaks Bicycle Route, (15.5 miles round-trip) winding through the park and the Ocean Springs arts and entertainment district. The route utilizes existing streets and is marked with green and white bike route signs.  Part of the route is a paved path along Ocean Springs Beach and runs by the site where some say Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, in the spring of 1699, built Fort Maurepas, the first capital of the French colony of Louisiana.  (New Orleans was named the capital of the colony in 1722.)  Roads in the park, all two lane, have recently been resurfaced and are a little wider than before.  The park connects to Ocean Springs via a short pedestrian/bicycles only path extending Brumbaugh Rd. to Shelter #2.  From the other end, bikers turn off Halstead Rd. on to Brumbaugh Rd.  A sign alerts riders to the turn but can be seen only if approaching from the south.
      For more information about the park call 228.230.4100.  When the Davis Bayou unit is closed (Wednesday and Thursday) call the Florida Unit at 850.934.2600. or visit www.nps.gov/guis.

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Sea Kayaker Magazine's "More Deep Trouble" is a warning to kayakers who do not make safety the most important thing for every outing

       No one launches a kayak hoping to be fighting for their lives against the forces of nature a few hours later.  But sometimes it happens that way and when it does sometimes nature wins.  Sea Kayaker Magazine's, "More Deep Trouble," a collection of 29 true-life kayak tragedies and near tragedies, tracks from put-in to rescue or recovery how quickly a life and death situation can develop when kayaking on open water.
        Each story begins with a narrative of the event including all the details that would impact the outcome:  What training and experience did the kayakers have?  Did their skills match the weather and sea conditions they were expecting?  Did they have proper safety or survival gear and had they practiced using them?  Were they prepared for a change in the weather?
       Facts were gleaned from survivors, witnesses on the shore, first responders and locals who participated in rescues.  The narrative is followed by a point-by-point critique by kayaking experts who describe in detail what measures could have been taken to prevent the circumstances that led to each life-threatening situation.
         Numerous sidebars provide valuable context. Explained are how rough water rescues are supposed to work, the economics of decision making, how to avoid being trapped in an overturned kayak cockpit and  how to select and operate EPIRB emergency signaling units, PLB's and VHF marine radios.  Several of these side stories address situations when the kayaker becomes the rescuer in crowded water when boaters, swimmers and kite boarders get in trouble.
       Its all there; the shock of hitting freezing water in a capsize, the rescue flares no one sees, the helplessness felt when arms, hands and fingers are too cold to move, and for the lucky, the feeling of relief when plucked from a stormy sea or lake by a rescue helicopter or heroic citizen boater.
       Each fail had a different genesis, such as grossly over estimating paddling speed when planning an 86-mile crossing of Lake Michigan or failing to study the latest weather forecast.  Small errors in planning (i.e. failing to put fresh batteries in electronic gear) compounded what would have been a minor problem on land into a major emergency on open water.  Failure to leave a detailed float plan with someone on shore delayed a rescue response for many hours in one story.  At least one kayaker discovered, almost too late, that cell phones are not waterproof.
       But in the end it was not being properly dressed for extended periods of immersion in cold water that killed.   Knowing and practicing self-rescue (getting back into a righted sit-in kayak cockpit and pumping out the water) would have saved some.  However the best defense against hypothermia is leaving the launch wearing clothing that insulates against the cold of an unexpected cold water immersion; wet suits or expensive dry suits.
       Just learning to paddle proved to be fatal in one case.  In Maine, a 51-year old male practicing a low brace during a six-hour sea kayaking course for beginning paddlers, capsized and drowned.  Suddenly dunked into 58 degree water he panicked, leaving him unable to remove his fabric spray deck and exit the overturned cockpit.   In the seconds it took for rescuers to reach him he swallowed a fatal amount of sea water gasping for air underwater.  The group had practiced removing spray skirts on land just hours earlier.
       Knowing what to do offered no immunity to disaster in some cases.  Those with safety gear--pumps, paddle floats, flares, VHF radios--often had these safety essentials sealed in a hatch and not accessible to them when they needed them the most.  Beginners not dressed for immersion in 50 degree water never got a second chance.  (Some VHF radios that fit in a PFD pocket are now waterproof and will float.)
        Many tempted fate and lost by not checking batteries in emergency signaling devices before launching or who waiting until capsized in freezing water before donning life vests.  But perhaps most frightening are the stories of cautious, veteran sea kayakers with years of experience and several bombproof self-rescue techniques and possessing essential safety gear suddenly seeing their life depend on somebody rescuing them, and quickly.  In a chilling first-person account, a surviving kayaker details the horror of seeing his partner capsizing into a 34 degree ocean with 20 foot waves off Greenland's rocky cliffs while he was prevented from reaching her by howling winds and big waves as she repeatedly screamed for his help.
         Local yakers can feel a shred of comfort from the fact most of the incidents involve kayakers in waters foreign to us here on the Gulf Coast.  The gray whale that chopped a kayak in half, "In Awe, In Trouble" is not likely to show up in Mississippi Sound.  Deer Island has snakes and alligators but no grizzly bears as in "Attacked by a Bear in the Middle of Nowhere."
        Here in the sunny south there are no dangerous tidal rips to suck us out to sea and there are no rocky cliffs preventing us from getting off the water in an emergency.  Unlike kayak Meccas in the Pacific Northwest, Maine, Canada and the Great Lakes where the water is cold year around and paddlers protect themselves from hypothermia by wearing wet suits even in summer, waters we paddle in are above 70 degrees three seasons of the year.  T-shirts and shorts are our summer paddling togs.
     But that does not mean we can ignore the lessons these paddlers learned the hard way.  Experts recommend paddlers know how to brace confidently before venturing on water with waves over one foot, a common sea condition in the shallow bays, sounds and lakes here.  Even on a calm day, boat wakes of two feet and higher are not uncommon.  Hypothermia, a theme in almost every incident in "More Deep Trouble," from Alaska to Costa Rica, can be experienced here in winter and even late fall and early spring.  And you can never be reminded enough how quickly a change in the weather or wind direction can turn a cruise to a white-knuckled passage for the unprepared or unskilled kayaker.
      Many of the "More Deep Trouble" tragedies had their roots in bad decisions we all can make.   Faulty reasoning combined with an outright arrogance of the power of nature are human failings not limited to the northern latitudes.  To err is to be human. 
     The book's vivid and efficient telling of these tragic events adds to their drama; there is no need for embellishment to drive the terror home.  This exchange in "Life and Death off Baffin Island", makes the point.  Near the Arctic Circle, as a novice kayaker is rapidly being blown into ever higher and steeper freezing seas by an off shore wind.  She shouts for help.  When told to keep calm,  she said that she was calm but didn't know what to do.  The response?  "Keep upright," she was told.  The body of the 43-year old globe-trotting management specialist was never found. 
        In many ways the stories in "More Deep Trouble," read like the classic tragic short story, "To Build a Fire," by Jack London. In London's 1904 tale of man vs. nature, a greenhorn is walking back alone to his buddies in camp on a bitterly cold winter's day (spittle freezes solid before it hits the snow) in Alaska's Yukon Territory.  As the story unfolds it is revealed that while nature will not go out of its way to help or hinder man, nature does not care if man survives or not.  A good thought to keep if going to sea in a small boat.
       "More Deep Trouble"is the second collection of narratives about good trips gone bad from the pages of Sea Kayaker Magazine.  "Deep Trouble--True Stories and their Lessons," was published in 1997 and became a best seller according to its publisher McGraw-Hill.  "More Deep Trouble" covers accidents from the late 1990's through 2011.  The stories in both books were edited by Christopher Cunningham, editor of Sea Kayaker Magazine.
       Two copies are available at the Barnes and Noble in Metairie, LA. and is available from Amazon.

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A 2014 South Coast Summer Fest in doubt

Sunday morning coffee on Deer Island during the South Coast Summer Fest held late June 2013

      Amid the muted slap of small waves on the sand at the public beach in Ocean Springs, MS, five paddlers landed their kayaks on the gently sloping shore.  Their arrival on the beach after finishing a two-mile crossing of Biloxi Bay that humid Sunday morning, after a night of camping, s'mores, shish kebabs and a campfire on Deer Island, brought to a close the last scheduled event of South Coast Summer Fest: ten days and nights that attempted to turn the Mississippi Gulf Coast from Bay St. Louis to Pascagoula into Planet Kayak with dozens of kayak themed events on the beach and in the water.
      All types of kayaking were promoted in the late June festival.  The variety of events included kayak trips to secluded natural sites, kayaking instruction, kayak fishing demonstrations, kayak rides for children, twilight group paddles and races.  Each day of the fest, award winning film shorts about paddling the world over were screened in Biloxi.
     But this year may have been the last for the two-year old festival.
     While successful at building a "kayak community" and promoting safety on the water, the fest was not successful financially, putting a Summer Fest for 2014 in doubt, said Cynthia Ramseur, who along with Leah Bray, owns Natural Capital Development, an environmental consulting and project management company based in Ocean Springs, MS.  The firm organizes and underwrites the South Coast Summer Fest to promote eco-tourism along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
      About 40 volunteers help with event.

Leah Bray

      Communities hosting festival events were enthusiastic but over all attendance to the five free community celebrations was disappointing, Ramseur said.   Paddle trips, most of them requiring a fee and appealing to eco-tourists wanting to go birding and see wildlife in the fragile environments near the coast, attracted about as many people this year as last.  Overall about 2,000 people, most of them from the local area, attended at least one of this year's events, she said.
     A final accounting of festival revenues has not yet been made but it looks like the festival raised about $2,000 to donate to the Mississippi Wildlife Federation, Ramseur said.
     The festival's fate could be decided late this summer when stake-holders in this year's fest meet to review the 2013 event, said Ramseur.
     Getting the green light for a 2014 Summer Fest is in part "up to the kayak community and if they want to support it," said Ramseur, one of three partners in South Coast Paddling Company, a kayak rental and eco-tourism business based in Ocean Springs, MS.
      However, more public money for production and publicity is the key to having a festival in 2014, Ramseur said.
     "We did not have the investment in local advertising.  We did not have paid marketing.  You have to have good financial support to run a festival this size," Ramseur said.
      Interest in kayaking along the Mississippi Gulf coast appears to be strong.  The Mississippi Kayak Meetup group, an informal Internet social network of area paddlers, has nearly 300 members in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.  Many of those members volunteered for Summer Fest, leading trips, offering kayak instruction and free kayak rides for children.
     Several kayak touring companies along the coast cater to eco-tourists who want to see the wetlands of the area and an alligator or two.  Kayak rentals are available in Bay St. Louis, Biloxi and near Ocean Springs.
      One of the highlights of the Festival was the twilight kayak parade in Pascagoula.  Ramseur said about 70 kayaks, some of them tandems, participated while 350-400 watched from shore as the group, many of them in lighted kayaks, paddled past Lighthouse Park.
     At the other end of the coast, a short paddle of the dark waters of the upper Jourdan River near Kiln, MS, a joint effort of the Mississippi Kayak Meetup group and the Bayou Haystackers Paddling Club from Louisiana, attracted dozens of paddlers in canoes and kayaks.
     Unfortunately, the festival climax day, the 4th Annual Ocean Springs Kayak Festival, MS fizzled after a powerful lightning storm moved through the area the night before knocking out power in some areas.  Attendance may also have been dampened by Saturday's weather forecast: on and off thundershowers all day.
     "We had more than 3,500 in Ocean Springs last year but I think the storm the night before and the threat of storms all day Saturday keep people off the beach this year," Ramseur said.  That morning's Strawberry Moon Duathlon went off as scheduled with nearly 80 participants but other events were either canceled or went on with just a few participants as there were few in the sparse crowd sprinkled on the beach that even knew there was a festival going on. 
     Optimistic about the role a well-funded Summer Fest would play in promoting environmental tourism along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Ramseur said the festival is a great way to highlight the beauty and diversity of scenery and culture along the coast.
     "There is so much diversity in such a short coastline.  The kind of culture we have, the many restaurants...it's a lot like New Orleans," she said.

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Bicyclists celebrate new bike lanes on Esplanade Ave. in New Orleans.

WHITE LINE FEVER: Several bicyclists ride the new bike lane on Esplanade Ave. toward City Park during an informal celebration "welcoming" the lanes to New Orleans.

       A re-striping of traffic lanes on Esplanade Ave converting two narrow traffic lanes in each direction to one wider traffic lane and a bicycle route was "welcomed" by an informal parade of bicyclists who rode up and down the lanes for several hours the evening of Friday June 28.
       About 60 cyclists recruited from social media sites such as the New Orleans Outdoor Meetup Group formed ad hock pelotons to ride the less than two mile stretch of smooth asphalt with a white line separating car traffic from the cyclists, from Bayou St. John to the I-10 overpass (Claiborne Ave.) and back.
     Bicycles of all types were used for the ride from single speeds and fat tire bikes to at least one racing bike equipped with a high end Campagnolo gruppo; making the pale green stunner worth thousands.
     Cyclists have used Esplanade Ave., connecting City Park with the French Quarter, for years despite the rough pavement and narrow traffic lanes.    While there is still about a mile stretch of Esplanade Ave. from N. Claiborne to Decatur St. near the Mississippi River without bicycle lanes, (one lane already but still a tight squeeze between the traffic lane and parallel parking) the new paving and striping is a big step in making New Orleans more bicycle friendly.
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Jourdan R. & Catahoula Creek Paddle 6-15-2013

Five kayaks beach at the confluence of Catahoula Creek and Bayou Bacon to form the Jourdan River in Hancock Co., Mississippi.

  I hope you had as much fun yesterday (6-15-2013) as I did.  I paddled my sleek kayak with the dark green deck up the Jourdan River (in Hancock Co. MS), from McLeod Water Park upstream to Catahoula Creek and a little beyond, a distance of about six miles, one-way.
     A paddle trip on the lugubrious but scenic blackwater river, designated a "blueway" by The Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain (LTMCP), had been posted on the Mississippi Kayak Meet Up site for at least a couple of weeks.  But I didn't make the decision to drive the hour or so from New Orleans to the park put-in until the morning of the trip.  Hank Baltar, a Gulf Coast native and property manager, birder and fly fisherman had posted on the Internet the night before his intention to get an early start on the trip and "explore."   I introduced Baltar to the stream's quiet beauty in April and on that day the Navy veteran and soon-to-be  certified kayak instructor dubbed the stream his favorite.
     Internet sites for both the South Coast Summer Fest (see below) and the Bayou Haystackers Paddling Club, the long standing canoe and kayak club for South Louisiana, listed the event so it was no surprise that there were over two dozen canoes and kayaks launching at the park's east boat ramp that morning.
     I missed the "early" start by about half an hour, so by the time I got underway, Baltar, and three other long boat paddlers; Barry Mends, Jim Rusch and Nancy Phillips, were long gone.  I had my work cut out for me if I was going to join their group.  Luckily it was a glorious morning for a workout; blue skies dotted with puffy white clouds and a gentle east wind rippling the water's surface.
     The Jourdan can seem like two completely different streams depending on where you are on the river.  The lower Jourdan is an estuary of St. Louis Bay to the south, so it is subject to a slight tidal flow but has no real current.  From the park to where the river empties into the bay, the broad, lake-like Jourdan is a playground for speedboats, water skiers and personal watercraft.
     But about three river miles upstream of McLoud, the Jourdan begins to narrow.  Each paddle stroke requires more and more effort to maintain forward motion.   In the water around stobs and stumps tell-tale "V's" pointing upstream confirm what a paddler's aching arms and shoulders suspect: there is now a current to fight.  To stop paddling, even for an instant, meant a sudden stop, floating motionless for a moment or two then a drift backwards.
         After paddling non-stop for nearly a hour and still no sign of the lead group, I resigned myself to the fact that I was living the old Chinese curse; that I had gotten what I had wished for.  I began to paddle with greater intensity and resolve, leaving in sepia colored stream waters evenly spaced little whirlpools where my paddle blades had been.
       With the increased effort came increased scenic beauty. The river had become creek-like with a series of 180 degree turns, each rounding a pristine white sand beach backed by an unbroken forest of pines and hardwoods.  No noise from the surrounding highways and roads intruded on the scene and that while the land flanking the river is private, it lies within the NASA's Stennis facility protective zone set up decades ago so there are no man made structures to be seen, only trees, beaches and water.
     The feeling of wilderness is enhanced by the absence of visitors.  While the water in the Jourdan and its major contributor, Catahoula Creek are deemed navigable by the state and so are public, the land flanking the two streams is private.  Floating downstream with the current to McLeod is not possible because there is no public access to either Catahoula Creek or the Jourdan River upstream of McLeod.
     Paddling upstream from McLeod is no day at the beach and takes the power of two strong paddlers in a tandem canoe or a committed kayaker to make the five miles to Bayou Bacon.  Even those in boats with motors generally avoid the waterway's upper reaches because the shallow water there is strewn with propeller-eating stumps and downed trees.

     (One does not have to paddle far up the river to enjoy it.  There are several sandbars just a mile or two upriver of McLeod that make great destinations for sunning, lounging and swimming in the river.)
      Finally after several promises to myself that if I don't see them at the next bend I'm turning around, I see their yaks pulled up on a sandbar at the confluence of Bayou Bacon and Catahoula Creek, the official headwaters of the Jourdan R.
     (This point is 0.0 for mileage markers placed downstream by the LTMCP.)
    After a break, a little chit-chat  and some fly fishing by Hank and Jim, the group of four, now five, pushed off to see how far up Catahoula Creek they could paddle.
     (In the picture Hank is holding a fish he caught with a fly he tied himself.  The fish would fit on a dollar bill with room to spare.)
     Progress is slow into the gentle but persistent current of the shallow creek.  Only about a foot deep, we could see through the nearly clear water to the stream bed where each paddle stroke raised a plume of tan sand from the bottom.  After about a mile of determined stroking everyone agreed the creek had won so we decided it was time to head home.   But not before taking a break to cool off lounging in the shallow tannin-tainted waters of Catahoula Creek on a warm early summer afternoon.

SINCE YOU ASKED...
    2nd Annual South Coast Summer Fest, June 13-22, southcoastsummerfest.com.  A 10-day celebration showcasing coastal Mississippi's waterway and local culture.  Small festivals, tours of local rivers and bayous and promotion of kayaking as a sport with free kayak rides and classes make up most of the events.  Some events have fees, some do not.    The fest winds up in Ocean Springs, MS Saturday, June 22 beginning with a duathlon (2 mi. run, 2 mi. kayak, 2 mi. run), kayak rides and kayak classes, ending with a twilight paddle to Deer Island and an overnight camp out.  A collection of award-winning  film shorts now touring the country, featuring paddling adventures from around the world will be shown daily for the duration of the Fest at the Biloxi Visitor Center, 1050 Beach Blvd., Biloxi beginning at 11 am.  Free. Visit the website for location.
     McLeod Water Park, 8100 Texas Flat Road, Bay St. Louis, MS, phone: 228-467-1894, has about a half dozen tandem canoes for rent at a reasonable rate.  There is a $2 entry fee into the park.  No alcoholic beverages are allowed in the park, owned by the Pearl River Basin Development District and operated by the Hancock Board of Supervisors.
     The closest kayak rentals are in Bay St. Louis at Bay Breeze, phone, 228-466-3333 or visit baybreezecoastal.com.  According to their website, they also rent single speed, coaster brake cruising bicycles for $7.50 a day, an astoundingly low daily rate.
   A map of the Jourdan River Blueway is posted at the website of  The Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain, www.ltmcp.org.  The water trail extends from Bayou Bacon downstream to Bayou Talla.  Because the Jourdan River is a popular destination for power boaters and personal watercraft operators, paddlers should probably limit their exploration of the river to up stream of the park and to avoid paddling in the center of the river especially in warm weather when there is lots of boat traffic.  The river through the park itself is a no wake zone 

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Port Hudson and Audubon State Parks cut open days to five

     Two significant and popular state historical sites in West Feliciana Parish (Louisiana) have cut their operating schedules to five days a week.  The Port Hudson and nearby Audubon State Historical Sites are now only open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday thru Saturday.  They are closed Sunday and Monday.  (See companion story about increases in fees to visit Audubon State Historical Site.)
     A tight state parks budget forced the two-day a week closing and staff at the two facilities picked which days to close, said Jacques Berry, communications director for Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne.
     Port Hudson State Historic Site encompasses a significant portion of the battlefield, where in the early summer of 1863, more than 30,000 Union troops repeatedly attacked an entrenched Confederate force of 6,800 troops fighting to keep Rebel supply lines across the Mississippi River open.  Unable to breach the Rebel defenses by force of arms, Union troops resorted to a siege, cutting off all supplies to the beleaguered Southerners.  After 45 days the starving Confederates, reduced to eating rats and mule meat, were forced to surrender.
     The defeat at Port Hudson, along with the fall of the fortress upriver at Vicksburg, MS to Union General U.S. Grant the week before, secured Union control of the Mississippi River, cutting the Confederacy in half, turning the tide of war in favor of the Union.
     (The cut in the park's hours of operation comes on the 150th anniversary of the siege; May. 23-June 9, 1863.  The siege at Port Hudson, LA is the longest siege in American military history.)
     The park has a fine museum describing the significance of the battle, a timeline of the battle and how the troops held up under the stress of war.  A section of the original 4.5 mile-long earthworks built by the defending rebels has been preserved.
      Six miles of well maintained crushed stone trail leading to existing Rebel fortifications winds up and down the many ravines in the well-shaded 909-acre park.  The trails are popular with hikers looking for a shady place to walk in warm weather.  A lack of understory growth in the park makes for fair to good birding.  A list of bird species found in the park is available at the park museum.
     Audubon State Historic Site is also known as the park with Oakley House, the plantation home painter John James Audubon briefly lived in the summer of 1821.  The over 200-year old West-Indies style "big house" and surrounding out buildings have been restored and are open for tours which run on the hour.  On the surrounding grounds are well-shaded picnic areas, a formal garden and a short nature trail.
     Hired to teach drawing to a child of the plantation's owner, Audubon drew inspiration and sketched many of the birds found in his famous "Birds of America" while living there.
     Both sites are south of St, Francisville, the parish seat of West Feliciana Parish.
     For more information about Port Hudson call 888-677-3400.   For Audubon State Historic Site call 888-677-2838 or 225-635-3739.

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Louisiana State Parks raises camping fees

    


The first night's camping fee at this unimproved camping site at Fontainebleau S.P will be $20 after July 1.2013 (fee includes $6 reservation fee.)

      Just in time for the July 4th holiday, fees will go up for campers in Louisiana State parks beginning July 1st.  The fee hikes do not include the $6 reservation fee tacked on to the first night's camping fee.  The one-time-per-visit reservation fee is charged for both campsites reserved in advance and for last minute drive-ups.
     Fees as of July 1, 2013.  October-March; unimproved-$14; improved-$18; premium-$20.  April-September; unimproved-$14; improved-$22; premium-$28.  Canoe sites will be $14 year around.
     Fees have increased at the Audubon St. Historic Site.  Entrance to the grounds and the house tour of Oakley is $8  Entrance to the grounds only-$4.  There are discounts for seniors 62 and older and students.
     Fees at Port Hudson State Historic Site are $4 per person.  Seniors 62 and older admitted free.  Discounts for students.
     Both Port Hudson and Audubon sites are in West Feliciana Parish, near St. Francisville. 
     The fee increases were announced in a June 3, 2013 press release from the Department of Recreation, Culture and Tourism.  For more information go to www.LaStateParks.com.

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