Shall We Gather at the River?

On Friday morning we arrived in Mittie, Louisiana for a day of family fun.  Right off LA Highway 26 is the Ouiska Chitto River.  As rivers go around here, the water is clear and cool as it is spring-fed.  The beaches along the shore are white-sand - what you see on Florida beaches.  We like to rent canoes and enjoy a leisurely paddle down the 8.8 mile river between the Hwy 26 concrete bridge and Carpenter's bridge.

Russ and Benjamin arrived at our house at around 9 AM and we loaded the ice chest with pizza and cut up cucumbers, cantaloupe, and oranges.  We packed along plenty of drinking water and some homemade peanut butter cookies.  We arrived at the canoe rental place around 10 AM.  Canoes rent for $45 per canoe.  They drop you off and pick you up.  It takes around 4 hours to paddle to the pickup, but we take a little longer as we normally stop off on sandbars to swim and snack.

About to cast off at the drop-off point under the Hwy 26 bridge

And we're off.  Tricia and I in the lead canoe and Russ and Benjamin following.

Water is a little low, but we never had to get out and carry the canoe like last time

In no time, the guys passed us up.  Since school started on Friday, we were the ONLY folks on the river.  I kid you not.  It was quiet and peaceful.  We didn't see another soul for 5 hours until we got to the end.

The "boys in the boat" overtook us

We kept a sharp eye out for sandbars in the shade.  We'd pull our canoes up and swim, relax and have good conversations with one another.

Russ on the log

Russ brought two pizzas that we had packed in zip loc bags.  We pulled up and ate them up.  The favorite was a Garlic Parmesan Spinach and Chicken pizza.  There was a gentle current in the river, and we would wade out and enjoy the cool water on a hot day.  Fortunately, we had sun screen on and escaped without sunburns.

Time for lunch

And we're off again.  I was nice enjoying the stillness - so peaceful and the scenery was beautiful.

There are lots of logs in the Ouiska Chitto.  The guy that dropped us off told me that from time to time, they have to ride the 8.8 miles in a boat with a chainsaw to keep the river passable.  After big rains, it takes a trackhoe to clean out the debris.  

Rolling on the river

The Ouiska Chitto is bordered by cypress trees and other big trees.  There's always shade to get under.

Looking Back when we reached the end

At last we reached Carpenter's Bridge.  This bridge used to be wooden and rickety.  They built a new concrete bridge a couple of years ago.

Russ, Benjamin, and Tricia

We called T&J Canoe Rentals to come pick us up and took more photos as we waited.

Tricia, Benjamin, and Russ

I can't close out this blog post without giving thanks to God for Benjamin.  It hasn't been that long since his accident.  He has two rods in each of his legs and rods in his back from when he fell and broke both legs and his back.  He sat in that canoe for hours, paddling with no pain.  All Glory to God!

Kyle, Benjamin & Russ

They'll close for the season some time in September.  Tricia has some friends coming in and she's thinking about doing this again with them.  If T&J is closed by then, we do have a 3-seater canoe of our own.  This is such a nice thing to do and only 30 minutes away from home.  We highly recommend canoeing the Ouiska Chitto!

Rowin', Rowin', Rowin' on the River...

A few weeks back Tricia and I, along with our two sons, Russ & Benjamin, went on a canoe trip down the Ouiska Chitto Creek in Mittie, Louisiana.  It's on Hwy 26 between Oberlin and DeRidder.   You may recall two months ago we decided to go on a Sunday afternoon drive and ended up in the Ouiska Chitto, walking through the cool water on a hot afternoon.  That sparked the idea to go canoeing.  We had a great time and decided to organize a trip with my sister, her husband and family.

We made reservations, and I took off work on a beautiful (but hot) afternoon.  We met at T&J Canoe Rentals at 9 AM sharp.  It ended up being 10 of us:  Tricia, me, Russ, Benjamin, my sister, Jenny, her husband, Brett, their sons, Conner and his wife Elle, Carson and Landry.  We got on a school bus and headed down to the creek.  We were given a sharpie and told to sign the bus.  

We highly recommend T&J Canoe Rentals, a family operated business.  They request that you not litter because, "It's our backyard.  A place where our children swim. It's our home."  The proprietor is very friendly and talkative.  Here we are launching from beneath the bridge in Mittie. 

We had five canoes total.  There was a nice current in the spring-fed creek.  It's approximately an 8 mile excursion, which takes about 4 or 5 hours, but you can make it last however long you want by stopping on one of many white sand beaches for a picnic.  Here's Jenny and Brett:

First stop was for snacks and lunch.  We had packed an ice chest with watermelon and cold pizza ordered the night before.  We like cold, leftover pizza.  There was a bag of Raisinettes that barely made it around the first bend in the river.

With Tricia in the front of the canoe looking forward, I tested a theory in putting my paddle in the boat and making random splashing noises while I relaxed and she did all the paddling.  The water level was a little low, and there were some obstructions (fallen logs) that we had to maneuver around or over several times, but it was fun and a challenge.

We pretended we were Louis and Clark, not knowing what was around the next bend, far from civilization, lost in the wilderness.

There is one other canoe rental company on the river.  All in all there was not much traffic at all on the river.  We had the river mostly to ourselves.  In our few interactions with other canoers, they were friendly.  Here is our family below, Tricia, me, Russ & Benjamin:

A heron watched with little interest as we paddled slowly by.

This photo shows how clear the water is.  That is crystal clear for Louisiana standards.  Most water looks more like chocolate milk.  The locals describe the Ouiska Chitto as "tea-stained water with white sand beaches."  The Creek is a true treasure - only 30 minutes away from home.

Here is Rose with a nice photo op by the Titanic.  "I'll never let you go, Jack."

We stopped by the rope swing that we swung on last time we were here.  The boys were swinging and jumping off.  This photo reminded me of "The Lord of the Flies."  I almost expected one of them to run out with a pig's head on a pole.

At around 3 pm we caught sight of Carpenter's Bridge in the foreground.  That's the pickup point.  It's a bridge that is closed and supposedly will go under construction soon.  Right now, with it being closed, it makes the trip from Oberlin to Kinder a LONG trip.

The owner of the Canoe Rental company agreed to take a photograph of our motley crew.  

What a great outing we had!

The Sunday Afternoon Drive

Sundays are generally a day of rest.  We wake up a little later, eat a big breakfast after morning chores and then get cleaned up for church.  Sunday School starts up at 10 AM sharp where we are studying the Book of Jeremiah.  Morning Worship begins at 10:45 and we are usually home by noon.  Sunday lunch is our big meal of the week.  Saturday night, Tricia made up some meatballs, made a roux, and added carrots, potatoes and onions and made a mighty fine meatball stew.  Served over rice, this is a meal that sticks to your ribs.

We sit around the table (Russ and Benjamin are usually with us) and we talk and then pour coffee.  We've been canning a lot of vegetables lately, so there was no dessert.  Usually we enjoy some dark chocolate truffles or some sort of homemade cake, brownies or pie, but it just felt like something was missing.  Sunday afternoon coffee without dessert is like rice without gravy or peas without carrots or James West without Artemus Gordon.  It's just not right!

I told the crew that I had an idea.  We'd do something old timey.  We'd pour our coffee into 'go cups' and go on a Sunday drive, stopping along the way and getting dessert.  I received a second to that motion.  All votes were in favor.  The motion carried.  As we were about to load up in the car, there was a knock at the door.  Our neighbors had picked mulberries and made homemade sweetdough mulberry pies.  They brought us four of them.  The Good Lord provided our dessert.  We love our neighbors!

We turned north on Highway 26 and enjoyed our sweetdough pies and coffee and just let the car wander around a bit.  Driving north out of Oberlin, we crossed over the Calcasieu River and looked down.  There seemed to be a few families sitting under canopies on the sand alongside the river.  We drove on.  Just north and west is another river called the Whiskey Chitto or Ouiska Chitto.  It is an Indian name, meaning "big cane."

The Whiskey Chitto is largely fed by springs, so the water is clearer than other rivers and bayous in the area and it has white sand beaches.  It runs for about 70 miles until it empties into the Calcasieu River around LeBlanc, Louisiana.  When wading in the Whiskey Chitto, you can actually see your feet!  We stopped, drove under the bridge, and took our shoes off.  We didn't bring towels, so we couldn't swim, but we waded and relaxed.

There was a family across the creek swinging on a rope swing and swimming.  Another family down the river was spraying each other with water guns.  A pickup truck under the bridge played Johnny Cash.  We watched a group of little minnows swim by.  Tricia and I then walked out on a big tree that had fallen and found a nice, shady relaxing spot to sit and watch the water run by.  Shall we gather by the river?  The beautiful, the beautiful river...

After a while, it was time to go, but as we drove back home on the 30 minute drive home, Tricia called to check on canoe rental service.  Just a mile down the road. there is a business that rents canoes.  They take up upstream and drop you off and then picks you up 4 or 5 hours later at a pickup point.  We're going to plan on doing that on an up-coming weekend.

Our evening services at church start at 5 PM, so we let the car wander on back home. It was a nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon.