I made it to the monthly Louisiana Hiking Club’s 1st Thursday meeting last night. The wife and kid went with me, even; they, too, were interested in the presentation on identifying local snake species. The speaker was Jeff Boundy, a herpetologist from Wildlife & Fisheries. He brought lots of photo- slides and had an entertaining style of presentation, so his talk was both informative and fun. I also picked up a copy of his “Snakes of Louisiana” publication. To top it off, I won a door prize! It was a lexan spork (a cute little plastic spoon, fork, knife combination). There are plenty of club activities going on; we got reports on several recent trips that sounded marvelous, and coming soon, there are some hikes and trail- maintenance outings that I would really like to participate in.
One of the upcoming trips is to Kisatchie National Forest. They are planning a short loop- hike out from the Evangeline Camp, with the first night at that campground and one night out. Brought back some fond memories! One of the funniest things that ever happened to me was right there at that campground. I met some friends there to camp one Friday night and hike the Wild Azalea Trail over the weekend. As we sat in the car Friday night, drinking beer and waiting for the other carload of our group to arrive, there were scads of little boys wandering around, back- and- forth. The gang arrived and we set up tents, started a fire, and passed a pleasant evening with few disturbances from the kids around the campground. With morning, we were up… not too early… and gathering our gear for the trail. The kids (they had to be Boy Scouts) were up and making their preparations also. I heard one of them exclaim, “Look, that’s a girl!” They had spotted Sylvia. Their camp suddenly went silent, and then was a constant buzz until we saddled up our packs and hiked out. I giggled the rest of the trip about that and, a quarter of a century later; it still makes me grin… I sure miss Sylvia.
One of the upcoming trips is to Kisatchie National Forest. They are planning a short loop- hike out from the Evangeline Camp, with the first night at that campground and one night out. Brought back some fond memories! One of the funniest things that ever happened to me was right there at that campground. I met some friends there to camp one Friday night and hike the Wild Azalea Trail over the weekend. As we sat in the car Friday night, drinking beer and waiting for the other carload of our group to arrive, there were scads of little boys wandering around, back- and- forth. The gang arrived and we set up tents, started a fire, and passed a pleasant evening with few disturbances from the kids around the campground. With morning, we were up… not too early… and gathering our gear for the trail. The kids (they had to be Boy Scouts) were up and making their preparations also. I heard one of them exclaim, “Look, that’s a girl!” They had spotted Sylvia. Their camp suddenly went silent, and then was a constant buzz until we saddled up our packs and hiked out. I giggled the rest of the trip about that and, a quarter of a century later; it still makes me grin… I sure miss Sylvia.
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