On the way to our Memorial Day spot, we spent a few nights in the Caney Lake Recreation Area of the Kisatchie National Forest in northwest Louisiana, near the town of Minden. We had originally planned a two-night stopover but were enjoying ourselves so much, we extended for an additional night. We had a great campsite in the Beaver Dam Campground with a peek-a-boo view of Upper Caney Lake and plenty of privacy, as campsites are widely spaced, and the campground wasn't close to being full. We packed a lot of activity into just two full days. Although we ran into some aggressive loose dogs (pretty typical for the rural south, unfortunately) when riding our bicycles on the roads outside the park property, there is some good (dog-free) road cycling inside the Recreation Area with just the right number of rolling hills to get your heart pumping. And no traffic at the time we were there (mid-week). Score! There's also a five-mile trail around Upper Caney Lake, the Sugar Cane Trail. This National Recreation Trail is named to commemorate the fact that sugar cane used to be grown and harvested in the area. It's an easy trail through the woods and alongside the lake. We hiked the entire trail one day and mountain biked part of it the next. On the mountain bikes we couldn't make it all the way around due to swampy conditions and multiple large trees down, blocking the trail, but it was fun to do a little single track for the first time in two years. We are not technical mountain bikers so this "easy" trail was perfect for us. Barry is a lot braver about trying things than I am!
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Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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