BackBone Trail Day Hike (pics)

This weekend a buddy and I decided to hike the BackBone trail in the Red Dirt Wilderness Area just south of Natchitoches. I figured I'd share some pics with the OB since I lurk here often. The trail is around 8 miles long and to create a loop you have to hike another 2 miles on the road to get back to the car. We have hiked the Lake Fausse Point trail and the Chicot trail so we knew the distance was not going to be an issue. Our biggest issue was at the last minuted another friend decided to tag along. Long story short, he won't be hiking with us again.

It's about a two hour drive from Lafayette to the trailhead and we got there around 9:45. The weather was perfect, mid sixties with a slight breeze.

Trialhead and entrance.




The trail starts off wide and mostly at a slight downhill. About 1.5 miles in we came across our first water crossing. No big deal because there was a bridge. The third guy in our group (the tag-along)thought the bridge was "cheating" and decided to try crossing on a small downed limb. It broke and he fell in. He was wet from the waist down.

The Stream


The Bridge


So we are about 1.5 miles in and the tag-along is already wet! In about another half mile we had to cross the creek again. This time it was deeper and there was no bridge. We found a downed tree that would keep us dry and used that to cross the stream. The tree was at a slight downhill but wasn't difficult to cross. Me and my buddy made it easily while tag-along had some trouble. Since his shoes were already wet they collected mud. He did not listen to my advice about cleaning them off before crossing on the tree and well, he fell off! He's now wet from head to toe.

The tree after I crossed.


From here the trail narrowed significantly. It narrowed so much at one point that we lost the trail for about 5 minutes. Eventually we reached the end of the slow decent we started from the trailhead and faced a large uphill section. After hiking the hill we were treated to great views and an awesome primitive camp site. I estimate this was around mile 4 and we took a break to eat lunch. Tag-along took off his clothes and hung them on a tree to dry.

View from campsite 1




From campsite 1 the trail crossed the fireline where a sign stood that said do not cross. When we drove in everything said the trail were fully open so we ignored the fireline sign and continued the hike. We figured if there were controlled burns in the area then the trails would not be open.

Behind campsite 1, crossing the fireline


Once we crossed the fireline the trail became much more difficult. There was a ton of downed trees across the trail that took time to climb over. The trail was also very narrow and there were no markings because the marked trees had fallen. We lost the trail a couple times over the next hour. Tag-along kept complaining and thought we were going to be lost in the woods. Finally we crossed back through the fireline and the trail widened.

Back Across the Fireline


Not long after the above picture was taken we crossed a family of four on horses going the opposite direction. The ground had shifted from white sand to white clay and the horses destroyed our path ahead. The clay was still wet from Thursday's rain and the horses had turned it to mush. We spent the next mile or so walking through the brush on the side of the trail to avoid collected 5 lbs of clay on each shoe. Finally the ground went back to sand and we were good to go.

By now we have reached campsite 2 and took a break. I estimate this was about mile 6.

View from Campsite 2


After Campsite 2 the trail was easy and uneventful. We had one large uphill to climb and the constant complaining of tag-along to put up with. It didn't take long to reach the end of the trail.

The end


From here it was a 2 mile walk down the road back to car. At this point tag-along's whining was getting so bad we almost decided to tie him to a tree.

The Road Home


Overall it was a great trip. The trail could have been maintained a little better but other than that I have no complaints. The terrain was very new to me. There are a lot of rocky outcrops that I did not expect to see in Louisiana. The views were also something I did not think existed in Louisiana. It's not a difficult trail and can easily be done in a few hours. It took us about 6 hours with two long breaks and having to slow down and wait for tag-along. I plan to visit campsite 1 again for an overnight.