Bayou Sauvage Ridge Trail (Orleans Parish, Louisiana)

I'm in New Orleans for a few days. This is not my first time in the big easy, but it has been a few years. This time around, I decided to extend my experience beyond the party scene and get out and enjoy a completely different eco-system. The swamps of the Mississippi Delta are so diametrically opposed to the high desert in which I live, it should make these next few hikes quite an experience.

For my first hike, I chose to drive to the Bayou Sauvage Ridge Trail, which is just a few miles east of my hotel in the French Quarter. As I know the humidity here will be miserable if I wait until it gets too warm, I leave the hotel and arrive at the trail head at around 8 AM. I park the rental car at the Madere Marsh Boardwalk and explore out into the swamp along the fabricated trail. Along the way, I see a number of small lizards and birds, before finally reaching a landing at the end of the boardwalk, which overlooks a vast swamp.

Instead of driving the quarter-mile or so down the road to another unit of the reserve. The first portion of the hike is along another boardwalk, which loops around the park structures and winds through the bayou. Eventually, the boardwalk dumps out onto a double-track gravel road, which follows along the top of a small levee. I'm amazed at the amount and variety of birds here. Not just waterfowl, but all sorts of avian species call this place their home. I see a few things in the swampy waters that I suspect might be alligators, but until I get back home to review my photos, I'm unsure.

From this point, the trail simply follows the levee cutting a path between a canal on my left (west) and more marsh on the right (east). As I crank out the miles, I take note of the diverse environment surrounding me. I occasionally here a growling sound coming from the nearby murky waters. I'm unsure if alligators growl or not, but I suspect that is the source of the noise. As I proceed a little further down the trial, I see a raccoon-sized animal cross the trail in the distance. I'm unsure of what the animal is, but I think it might have been a small wild boar, which are quite common down in this part of the country. By the time I reach the area where the brown animal disappeared, it is nowhere to be found.

Eventually, the trail ends at Interstate 10 and I turn and start walking back the way I came. This trail is really flat and the miles are incredibly easy. In total, I rack up 7.8 miles on this first adventure. Not a bad morning. As this is my first trail in the bayou, it is certainly interesting, but I suspect there are better examples available and I will try to find them during my visit.