Cheniere Lake: Kayak Adventure!

Boat Ramp at Cheniere Lake Park. West Monroe, LA. 13 November 2022.

Kelly, Anacostia Riverpup, and I set out for Cheniere (pronounced ‘Shinny’) Lake for a close to her parent’s house paddle. Neither of us have paddled there before. Maps show the lake as water, but satellite photos show the lake as forest. Lucky for us, it is both! Unfortunately, the lake was drawn down for repairs to Cheniere Dam Road and there was >2 meters less water than normal.

Anacostia Riverpup posing in front of Nyssa aquatica, Cheniere Lake, West Monroe, LA. 13 November 2022.

As we were unloading our kayak a gentleman drove up and warned us about ‘gators bigger (ol’ Shinny patrols these waters and isn’t afraid of nothing) than our kayak that would find little Anacostia to be a tasty snack. “I wouldn’t go out on the lake with a small boat and my dog”. It is pretty common for locals to offer such advice about whatever challenging wildlife exists locally, and I have every reason to believe this gentleman’s claims were real. However, temperatures in the low 40’s with a bracing north wind are not what I think of as ‘gator weather’ and while we have seen ‘gators bigger than our kayak in other other places, we have never seen ‘gators act aggressively to a kayak.

Anacostia Riverpup posing in front of a nice stand of Taxodium distichum and Nyssa aquatica, Cheniere Lake, West Monroe, LA. 13 November 2022.

With the lower water level, it was very difficult to navigate the stumps, cypress knees, and logs. We never got up to normal speeds and it was rare to paddle any distance in a straight line. This was a very densely wooded lake and very pretty. The amount of tupelo trees (Nyssa aquatica) was very impressive. They are beautiful trees and fun to see in such big stands. I can’t recommend the lake for paddling if you want a workout, but if you want to paddle somewhere beautiful and maybe work on your turning skills – this is your place!

A shipwrecked jon boat. Cheniere Lake, West Monroe, LA. 13 November 2022

This is someplace we will visit again, especially when the water is put back in the lake. I definitely want to see more of this lake. Maybe we will even get to meet ol’ Shinny.

Black Rat Snake

Today, I went out for a run at Dueling Creek Natural Area and had the place to myself. Solitude is a rare commodity in the DC Metro area, so I was really digging being able to run on the trail without having to avoid people on their phones blindly walking on the trail, off-leash dogs, and listento speakers broadcasting phone calls or music. A bonus is when human traffic is low, I often see unusual birds. Today the unusual bird was a snake.

Black Rat Snake, Dueling Creek Natural Area, MD, 10 November 2021

The snake was pretty large, I would say nearing 4 feet in length. It was a very shiny black dorsally and bright white ventrally. In the dappled light of the trail it was a gorgeous animal. If you want toknow more here is a link to more info.

Black Rat Snake, Dueling Creek Natural Area, MD, 10 November 2021

When I run in town, I do listen to music on headphones. When I run in the woods I carry my phone, just in case I need to take photos! The snake let me take one good photo and then turned back the way it came. I felt pretty lucky to see it and hope my intrusion wasn’t too big of a problem for the snake.

Sidewinding

This is an old photograph, taken 19 May 2009 at Bruneau Dunes State Park in Idaho. I happened to run across this photo and was reminded of a great morning in field. I was looking for tiger beetles (what else?) and ran across several of these beautiful snakes. Beyond the beauty of their appearance, the snakes were moving in the sidewinding fashion – this is poetry in motion. Sidewinding is a mode of travel, used by snakes on low friction surfaces where the body of the snake has contact in two spots and the rest is lifted and moved ahead. This leaves a set of tracks, but the tracks do not explain the movement. The most incredible thing about witnessing sidewinding was the sound the sand made as the snake moved – wasn’t prepared for that.

Crotalus viridis, the western rattlesnake, is a protected species in Idaho. In addition to habitat loss, these beautiful and beneficial creatures are killed on sight by many people just because they can.

So, there you have it: a beautiful, still morning (out before the tiger beetles wake up) shared with several sidewinding rattlesnakes – definitely something worth crawling out of your sleeping bag for!