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Sunday, November 18, 2001 - Zydeco
68 miles. Merryville, LA to Curley's RV Park and Catfish Pond, Oberlin, LA
We awoke to a cool, misty morning. We left
Merryville for DeRidder via LA-110. The first 20 miles were thru unbroken pine
forest with the heavy mist drifting thru the trees obscuring the rising sun. For
the rest of the day we did pass some homes, small farms and pasture but the
predominate image of the ride was that of an industrial forest, pine trees being
grown in a rigid rotation according to a set schedule with all the other natural
components of the forest i.e. the deciduous trees, eliminated as weeds in favor
of the hybrid pine.
Never in my life have I had a greater appreciation of
trees being grown as a crop. Huge areas of forest have been converted to a
sterile, monoculture of "farm land" trees. This may be inevitable and
in some ways even desirable but it will be important to retain some natural
areas as museums of a vanished natural heritage.
After lunch in DeRidder (pop. 9868) we rode the 35
miles on to Oberlin (pop. 1808) on gently rolling LA-26. The afternoon crowned a
perfect November day with clear skies and a high of about 80*. They don't get
any better weather down here.
We are staying in an RV park run by Creoles and they
have been very friendly to us. They are interested in what we are doing and were
playing zydeco as we rode in. They were favorably impressed by the fact that we
recognized the music and were enjoying it. As the sun went down they returned
and I had a few sips with them as we discussed deer hunting with them When they
think of Michigan they think of snow and our deer. Michigan has a considerable
reputation down here as a state with lots of sizable deer. They were most
impressed with number of car-deer collisions in Michigan.
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