A Tranquil Hike

"Just follow LA 3177 south to Butte LaRose, then turn west on Parish Rd 196 to a pontoon bridge...." At this point, I lost the explanation from the Welcome Center staff member at Exit 121 on I-10.

"A pontoon bridge?" I ventured.

"Yes, some call it the Crocodile Bayou Bridge. It's been around since 1960 or so," was the reassuring reply.

(Fortunate-ly, she was reassuring because later research revealed that the substructure of this pontoon lift bridge was rated "Poor" and the bridge's overall appraisal was "Structurally deficient" [bridgehunter.com/la/st-martin]).

When we had crossed the bridge (without incident, by the way), I stopped to take these photo-graphs. As a truck approached, I wanted to photograph it midway across the bridge. With the camera positioned, I waited for the truck...and waited.

The driver, seeing me lining up a shot, had very kindly decided to wait until I had taken the photo. Realizing this, I quickly motioned the driver to continue and took the shot (photo #1 above), all the while marveling at the courtesy shown by this driver.

After the shot, we gave a wave to this egret(?), standing on one foot, and headed toward the levee.

At the top of the levee, we took this photo and then headed south for about 17 miles to Lake Fausse Pointe State Park.

There were very few people (well, actually, we saw three other people) at the park the day we arrived.

There are three primary trails from which we could choose for a walk that day. We decided to take Trail A, a 0.75 mile nature trail,
"Armadillo Ridge". It began at the trailhead right before the interpretive center and over the foot bridge. The habitat is mainly bottomland hardwood and fine views of Lake Fausse Pointe (bayounature.com).

January was not the peak color season, so we spent the hike looking for small scenes of color and/or interest.

About the only color other than the browns and grays of winter was the green of ferns and these fan-like plants.



A little color was added to this scene thanks to the reflection of the sky in this pool of water.

The "knees" of the bald cypress created a small gathering in the water.

We prefer to see these long strands of vegetation as contributing to the scene rather than as weeds that detract from the beauty.

Two small scenes are shown here. The pattern on the right is a close-up view of the bark of a tree and

the scene on the left shows a plastic ball or bobber among an array of leaves and other vegetation in the lake.

At some points, the trail offered views of the lake.

But for the most part, the trail offered the setting for a tranquil and contemplative walk.