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Backpacking the Wild Azalea Trail (near Alexandria, La.) - 3 day trip guide
Posted on 2/4/13 at 9:40 pm
Posted on 2/4/13 at 9:40 pm
One of my friends and I hiked the 27ish mile Wild Azalea Trial in the Kisatchie National Forest this weekend, and I wanted to post a guide here for anyone who may be interested in how we did it.
BACKGROUND:
Overall, the trail has great scenery with creeks and wildlife, rolling hills and nice primitive camping areas. The trail is a great start for hikers who want to get more into backpacking and is clearly marked, making it easy to follow.
We hiked half days on Friday and Sunday and a full day on Saturday, going about 9 miles the first two days and about 7 miles the third and final day.
The trail does NOT have clean water resupply points - you'll have to purify water from the many creeks along the way. The primitive campsites do not have built up fire rings or outhouses - some have charred rings from previous hikers, and you'll need to bring a shovel to dig a hole.
The trail is NOT a loop; if you hike the entire trail once like we did, you'll need to either arrange for a ride to pick you up or leave a car at the end.
We pretty much followed the (extremely helpful) guide outlined in Explorer's Guide: 50 Hikes in Louisiana by Janina Baxley, which cost $17 on Amazon. Baxley gives great information about the trees, plants and other wildlife in addition to some good directions.
The trail is also great for day hiking and mountain biking, and we saw several groups of people doing each.
GEAR:
We carried about 35-40lbs each in our packs, and the trip is easily accomplished with less weight.
--Backpacks - make sure you have some carabiners to hook stuff to the outside of your pack, and be sure to strap everything down tight to the pack. Gear that swings around off the pack too much can mess up your balance, and you don't want something to fall off without you noticing.
--We each brought two changes of clothes - one for hiking, one for sleeping - and a fresh change of socks for each day.
--We bought the flash freezed meals from Academy that are about $7-8 each. All you have to do is boil water and pour it in the bag. We each had a spoon to eat out of the bag and brought some Tony's to add flavor to the meals. Make sure you bring a measuring cup.
--To cook we used the MSR Pocket Rocket stove MSR Pocket Rocket stove with one canister and the Stanco Greasepot to boil water. Both worked great.
--We brought three tents to test out, which accounted for a lot of our extra weight. For a two person trip, we'll bring the Big Agnes Jack Rabbit SL3 Tent next time we go.
--We either each brought or shared: a sleeping bag, toiletries, sunscreen, basic first aid supplies, moleskin for feet, jacket, sunglasses, sunscreen, snacks, insect repellent, flashlights, toilet paper, shovel, and a few other items.
--I used trekking poles, but my friend did not. They helped with balance in shaky spots and on some of the up and down hill stretches, but you can easily make do without them.
--We kept our food in BearVault BV500 Food Container, but the "50 Guides" book says bears aren't an issue out there. We did, however, hear either armadillos or raccoons scurrying around at night, so they may try to get into your food if you leave it out.
--We each had a 3 liter platypus and four 32 ounce bottles of water (about 14 pounds total in water weight when full).
PURIFYING WATER:
There are no places along the trail where you can simply re-fill a water bottle. From the second half of the first day through to the end of the trail, including at both campsites, we came across plenty of creeks where you can purify water, but you do so at your own risk. Water from the creeks is NOT safe to drink unless you adequately purify it.
In all, we probably purified about 15 32 ounce bottles of water during the three day trip.
We used a SteriPEN Adventurer Opti Water Purifier and Clorox to purify water.
We first found a quick flowing creek with water about 1 foot deep and then scooped water into one of those cylinder zip lock tupperware containers with a bandanna on top to filter out the particulates. We then used both the UV pen and the bleach methods on each dose of water we purified.
LINKS:
Kisatchie National Forest via USDA Forest Service
Wild Azalea Trail via Town of Woodworth
Maps and brochure with map and info via USDA Forest Service
(Day-by-day hike breakdown in next post; see below)
BACKGROUND:
Overall, the trail has great scenery with creeks and wildlife, rolling hills and nice primitive camping areas. The trail is a great start for hikers who want to get more into backpacking and is clearly marked, making it easy to follow.
We hiked half days on Friday and Sunday and a full day on Saturday, going about 9 miles the first two days and about 7 miles the third and final day.
The trail does NOT have clean water resupply points - you'll have to purify water from the many creeks along the way. The primitive campsites do not have built up fire rings or outhouses - some have charred rings from previous hikers, and you'll need to bring a shovel to dig a hole.
The trail is NOT a loop; if you hike the entire trail once like we did, you'll need to either arrange for a ride to pick you up or leave a car at the end.
We pretty much followed the (extremely helpful) guide outlined in Explorer's Guide: 50 Hikes in Louisiana by Janina Baxley, which cost $17 on Amazon. Baxley gives great information about the trees, plants and other wildlife in addition to some good directions.
The trail is also great for day hiking and mountain biking, and we saw several groups of people doing each.
GEAR:
We carried about 35-40lbs each in our packs, and the trip is easily accomplished with less weight.
--Backpacks - make sure you have some carabiners to hook stuff to the outside of your pack, and be sure to strap everything down tight to the pack. Gear that swings around off the pack too much can mess up your balance, and you don't want something to fall off without you noticing.
--We each brought two changes of clothes - one for hiking, one for sleeping - and a fresh change of socks for each day.
--We bought the flash freezed meals from Academy that are about $7-8 each. All you have to do is boil water and pour it in the bag. We each had a spoon to eat out of the bag and brought some Tony's to add flavor to the meals. Make sure you bring a measuring cup.
--To cook we used the MSR Pocket Rocket stove MSR Pocket Rocket stove with one canister and the Stanco Greasepot to boil water. Both worked great.
--We brought three tents to test out, which accounted for a lot of our extra weight. For a two person trip, we'll bring the Big Agnes Jack Rabbit SL3 Tent next time we go.
--We either each brought or shared: a sleeping bag, toiletries, sunscreen, basic first aid supplies, moleskin for feet, jacket, sunglasses, sunscreen, snacks, insect repellent, flashlights, toilet paper, shovel, and a few other items.
--I used trekking poles, but my friend did not. They helped with balance in shaky spots and on some of the up and down hill stretches, but you can easily make do without them.
--We kept our food in BearVault BV500 Food Container, but the "50 Guides" book says bears aren't an issue out there. We did, however, hear either armadillos or raccoons scurrying around at night, so they may try to get into your food if you leave it out.
--We each had a 3 liter platypus and four 32 ounce bottles of water (about 14 pounds total in water weight when full).
PURIFYING WATER:
There are no places along the trail where you can simply re-fill a water bottle. From the second half of the first day through to the end of the trail, including at both campsites, we came across plenty of creeks where you can purify water, but you do so at your own risk. Water from the creeks is NOT safe to drink unless you adequately purify it.
In all, we probably purified about 15 32 ounce bottles of water during the three day trip.
We used a SteriPEN Adventurer Opti Water Purifier and Clorox to purify water.
We first found a quick flowing creek with water about 1 foot deep and then scooped water into one of those cylinder zip lock tupperware containers with a bandanna on top to filter out the particulates. We then used both the UV pen and the bleach methods on each dose of water we purified.
LINKS:
Kisatchie National Forest via USDA Forest Service
Wild Azalea Trail via Town of Woodworth
Maps and brochure with map and info via USDA Forest Service
(Day-by-day hike breakdown in next post; see below)
This post was edited on 2/4/13 at 9:42 pm
6
Posted on 2/4/13 at 9:41 pm to npersa1
DAY 1 (FRIDAY):
From Lafayette, we took I-49 North to exit 73 for Woodworth. At the end of the exit ramp, turn left and go straight down Robinson Bridge Road until it crosses highway 165 and turns into Castor Plunge Road. You'll pass Municipal Drive on the left and then a church on the left. Immediately past that church off Bayou Clear Road is a gravel parking lot in front of a cemetery. The parking lot has a small sign at off the road saying it's for the Wild Azalea trail. We parked here, hiked about 2 miles to the trail head and caught a ride back to our car on Sunday.
We started the hike by continuing down Castor Plunge Road through some neighborhoods on the sidewalks - keep going straight for a bit under 2 miles and the road turns to gravel and curves slightly to the right, where you'll see the trail head with a small covered bulletin board (it has maps and some brochures with a map you can take). The trail starts with two yellow blazes marked on the trees -- the double yellow dots/lines marked along trees clearly shows hikers where to go while four yellow blazes are for other portions of the trail that split off at points.
The first was about what we expected with pine trees and thick underbrush off a narrow trail that goes over hills and zig zags through the woods. By the late afternoon, we came across a creek where we purified some water and stopped for a break. We camped near Little Loving Creek, which is marked on the maps, and is about 9 miles of hiking from the parking lot.
The spot we camped in was right next to a little creek and in between two hills man-made bridges. The water was cold and nice enough to purify for drinking. We went the entire day without seeing another person on the trail. In the morning when we were breaking camp a hiker doing the whole trail in the opposite direction as us passed through.
Along the trail we kept seeing piles of horse shite. I don't know much about horses, but I'd say it was enough to have come from at least 10 to 20 horses. My friend I thought this was odd because horses aren't allowed on the trail. After nightfall as we were laying in the tent, we heard an almost laughing like noise coming from the woods. It was loud and lasted for a while. We didn't connect the dots, but the next day after we out of that area we came across a lady who was day hiking. She said she often hikes portions of the trail and said the area we had just hiked and slept in is the least used portion of the trail. She then asked if we had seen any of the wild horses back there. We were confused for a second but told her what we had heard the night before and she said it was definitely the wild horses.
The second half of our first day and the first half of our second day were the most difficult elevation wise, but the scenery in that area was great.
I ran the RunKeeper app on my phone during the first day (it died after that), and according to it, we did 9.36 miles in about 3 hours and 20 minutes.
DAY 2 (SATURDAY):
We woke up and got on the trail about 10 or 10:30 and took our time hiking the next 9ish miles. After that first hiker came across our camp in the morning, we saw a few other groups of day hikers and mountain bikers.
We hiked to the Evangeline Camp, which is marked on the map, to sleep for the night. The posts along the trail that mark distance showed 7.5 miles remaining on the trail where we camped for the night.
Getting to Evangeline Camp took a harder morning of hiking some hills. We took a break at a nice sized creek to snack and purify more water, which is when we came across the lady who told us about the wild horses. Once you cross highway 488, a paved road, the trail levels out. You'll get to a parking area for the Evangeline Camp trail head where there's an outhouse shack. Keep going into the trail about 2 miles, and we camped on a hill above Lamotte Creek near the 7.5 mile marker.
We fell asleep to owls hooting and woke up to woodpeckers banging. The hill we were on also had trees without leaves which made for nice star gazing on the clear night.
DAY 3 (SUNDAY):
We were on the trail by 8:15 Sunday morning, hiking 7.5 miles toward the trail's end at the Valentine Lake Recreation Area. We made it there around 11:30 and took a few breaks along the way.
The last day had the nicest trails -- with wide, level portions that made for good side-by-side hiking. The yellow blazes will keep you on track to the final steps, and there's plenty to see along the way from nice ridges to interesting trees. We didn't purify any extra water for this leg of the hike, but there's still plenty of creeks along the way where you could stop and purify water if need be.
We crossed paths with two groups of mountain bikers, a dog walker and a trail runner on this stretch of the trail.
We were able to call our ride from the end of the trail. We didn't have cell phone signal on a lot of portions of the trail when we turned it on to check, but we did at the end on two different phones.
Directions for your ride to meet you, as taken from this site From Alexandria, take highway 28 west to Gardner at flashing light take left, go 1/4 mile take another left Heading towards Valentine Lake Recreation Area., the trailhead is right near the entrance to Valentines Lake camp grounds on your left. (You can just follow the Forest service signs to the Camp ground from Hwy 28 west)
From Lafayette, we took I-49 North to exit 73 for Woodworth. At the end of the exit ramp, turn left and go straight down Robinson Bridge Road until it crosses highway 165 and turns into Castor Plunge Road. You'll pass Municipal Drive on the left and then a church on the left. Immediately past that church off Bayou Clear Road is a gravel parking lot in front of a cemetery. The parking lot has a small sign at off the road saying it's for the Wild Azalea trail. We parked here, hiked about 2 miles to the trail head and caught a ride back to our car on Sunday.
We started the hike by continuing down Castor Plunge Road through some neighborhoods on the sidewalks - keep going straight for a bit under 2 miles and the road turns to gravel and curves slightly to the right, where you'll see the trail head with a small covered bulletin board (it has maps and some brochures with a map you can take). The trail starts with two yellow blazes marked on the trees -- the double yellow dots/lines marked along trees clearly shows hikers where to go while four yellow blazes are for other portions of the trail that split off at points.
The first was about what we expected with pine trees and thick underbrush off a narrow trail that goes over hills and zig zags through the woods. By the late afternoon, we came across a creek where we purified some water and stopped for a break. We camped near Little Loving Creek, which is marked on the maps, and is about 9 miles of hiking from the parking lot.
The spot we camped in was right next to a little creek and in between two hills man-made bridges. The water was cold and nice enough to purify for drinking. We went the entire day without seeing another person on the trail. In the morning when we were breaking camp a hiker doing the whole trail in the opposite direction as us passed through.
Along the trail we kept seeing piles of horse shite. I don't know much about horses, but I'd say it was enough to have come from at least 10 to 20 horses. My friend I thought this was odd because horses aren't allowed on the trail. After nightfall as we were laying in the tent, we heard an almost laughing like noise coming from the woods. It was loud and lasted for a while. We didn't connect the dots, but the next day after we out of that area we came across a lady who was day hiking. She said she often hikes portions of the trail and said the area we had just hiked and slept in is the least used portion of the trail. She then asked if we had seen any of the wild horses back there. We were confused for a second but told her what we had heard the night before and she said it was definitely the wild horses.
The second half of our first day and the first half of our second day were the most difficult elevation wise, but the scenery in that area was great.
I ran the RunKeeper app on my phone during the first day (it died after that), and according to it, we did 9.36 miles in about 3 hours and 20 minutes.
DAY 2 (SATURDAY):
We woke up and got on the trail about 10 or 10:30 and took our time hiking the next 9ish miles. After that first hiker came across our camp in the morning, we saw a few other groups of day hikers and mountain bikers.
We hiked to the Evangeline Camp, which is marked on the map, to sleep for the night. The posts along the trail that mark distance showed 7.5 miles remaining on the trail where we camped for the night.
Getting to Evangeline Camp took a harder morning of hiking some hills. We took a break at a nice sized creek to snack and purify more water, which is when we came across the lady who told us about the wild horses. Once you cross highway 488, a paved road, the trail levels out. You'll get to a parking area for the Evangeline Camp trail head where there's an outhouse shack. Keep going into the trail about 2 miles, and we camped on a hill above Lamotte Creek near the 7.5 mile marker.
We fell asleep to owls hooting and woke up to woodpeckers banging. The hill we were on also had trees without leaves which made for nice star gazing on the clear night.
DAY 3 (SUNDAY):
We were on the trail by 8:15 Sunday morning, hiking 7.5 miles toward the trail's end at the Valentine Lake Recreation Area. We made it there around 11:30 and took a few breaks along the way.
The last day had the nicest trails -- with wide, level portions that made for good side-by-side hiking. The yellow blazes will keep you on track to the final steps, and there's plenty to see along the way from nice ridges to interesting trees. We didn't purify any extra water for this leg of the hike, but there's still plenty of creeks along the way where you could stop and purify water if need be.
We crossed paths with two groups of mountain bikers, a dog walker and a trail runner on this stretch of the trail.
We were able to call our ride from the end of the trail. We didn't have cell phone signal on a lot of portions of the trail when we turned it on to check, but we did at the end on two different phones.
Directions for your ride to meet you, as taken from this site From Alexandria, take highway 28 west to Gardner at flashing light take left, go 1/4 mile take another left Heading towards Valentine Lake Recreation Area., the trailhead is right near the entrance to Valentines Lake camp grounds on your left. (You can just follow the Forest service signs to the Camp ground from Hwy 28 west)
Posted on 2/4/13 at 9:43 pm to npersa1
Solid post. Very informative! Wish I was close enough to venture out there.
Posted on 2/4/13 at 9:45 pm to npersa1
Like the GBfTL, SOLID!! 
Going to have to make that trip sometime.
Going to have to make that trip sometime.
Posted on 2/4/13 at 9:48 pm to npersa1
Great post. Sounds like a fun trip
Posted on 2/5/13 at 6:43 am to npersa1
Great post
Posted on 2/5/13 at 6:48 am to npersa1
thanks for the post, just ordered the hiking book.
Posted on 2/5/13 at 7:45 am to npersa1
Great information.
Posted on 2/5/13 at 7:50 am to npersa1
Excellent post,.
For a minute I thought the sounds at night were going to be Black Panthers, but wild horses are cool. I did not know they existed here.
For a minute I thought the sounds at night were going to be Black Panthers, but wild horses are cool. I did not know they existed here.
Posted on 2/5/13 at 7:53 am to npersa1
quote:
There are no places along the trail where you can simply re-fill a water bottle
Is the water not clear anymore or what? Ive drank out of those creeks many times but its been a few years.
Posted on 2/5/13 at 8:32 am to Langston
Sounds like a nice trip. The wife and I did an ATV trail/camp trip back in October up there. Trails were a lot of fun to ride and covered a lot of ground in two days. Rode about 45 miles in total, camped out on the trail.
LINK
This trail is closed this time of year but re-opens May 1 (yea, missing a lot of good spring camping/riding weather). Very hilly up there but worth the trip
LINK
This trail is closed this time of year but re-opens May 1 (yea, missing a lot of good spring camping/riding weather). Very hilly up there but worth the trip
Posted on 2/5/13 at 8:55 am to Tigah D
I'll go turkey hunt Red Dirt every once in a while when I'm at my parents, just to witness some of those views. That's some gorgeous land up there. When the azelas, dogwoods and the Cherokee roses are in bloom, it is a sight to behold.
Posted on 2/5/13 at 10:09 am to npersa1
nice report. it's going to be really gorgeous in a month or so when the wild azaleas and dogwoods start blooming. may be early this year with our mild winter.
I'm calling bullshite on the "wild" horses. People aren't supposed to ride horses or 4 wheelers on that trail, but they do. More likely a horse rider sowing disinformation. I've been hiking that trail for 20 years now, and have never seen a FS employee on the trail, just driving around giving tickets for silly offenses. Have never seen a horse alone, but have seen people riding them on multiple occaisions.
I'm calling bullshite on the "wild" horses. People aren't supposed to ride horses or 4 wheelers on that trail, but they do. More likely a horse rider sowing disinformation. I've been hiking that trail for 20 years now, and have never seen a FS employee on the trail, just driving around giving tickets for silly offenses. Have never seen a horse alone, but have seen people riding them on multiple occaisions.
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