Trail information:

The Wild Azalea Trail is located in the Evangeline Ranger District of the Kisatchi National Forest, LA. It's south eastern end is located at the Town Hall of Woodworth, LA and the north western end is located at the Valentine Lake. The total trail length is 26.2 miles, but there is also 24.1 miles of side trails that can be added in any combination you may like.

Compared to other trails I've hiked, I would consider this a very easy beginner trail, with an occasionally moderate section. The trail has been groomed for mountain bikes, so this tends to make the trail very easy for fast walking.

Water along this trial is quite abundant, but a great deal of that is stagnant and would require a great deal of treatment, or very thorough filtering with pre-filtering. If your like me, you'll want to carry about 1.5 to 2 liters at a time and only get water from the better streams.

Mosquitoes are very abundant, and were the most miserable part of the trip, mainly because I forgot bug juice. Next trip would include a DEET lotion.

I also would like to note that even though I hiked on a weekend, I only ran into a total of two mountain bikers, some kids at the lake, and 6 day hikers on the entire trip.

Maps can be located at the Pineville Ranger Station and the Gardner Ranger Station on Highway 28. they are open Monday-Friday 1000-1600. Cost $2.00. They are not water proof.

Journal:

May 13 2001 - 2030.

Distance Traveled: 10.2

Total Distance: 10.2

Location: 1/10th of a mile into segment 4, about a quarter mile from Castor Creek Scenic Area.

Entry:

Today I started my field test of the MSR Simmerlite stove. The trip didn't start off as a planned hike, it was just sort of thrown together at the last minute. Still, I am definitely having fun.

I greatly appreciate the wife and kids helping me get packed and out here. Without their support, I would have all kinds of trouble getting going. The first part of my trip report is actually about how this hike came to be.

I volunteered to field test MSR's new Simmerlite stove, but the original trip plans I had plan to test it on didn't pan out. I had done a couple of day hikes to use it and test it, but the real trip hadn't gone off, nor had the military field exercise. I was running into a time crunch because I was starting Air Assault School the following week, and after the school I would be required to send in my reports.

So being the last possible weekend (and a 3 day weekend to boot) I got up that morning looking for a good hiking site in the area. My last Louisiana hiking adventure had been to the Whisky Chitto Trail, which was gone in most places and led to a lot of cross country bush whacking and a few road miles. I wanted to find a well marked trail with some distance so I could push myself. I looked over the internet and found the Wild Azalea Trail, the longest in Louisiana according to the sites I looked at.

When my wife got up that morning, I told her where I wanted to hike, expecting her to say she could drop me off the next morning or something. Instead she said "Better go today then". So I hurried to  pack, with no plan at all other than number of days to stay out, and number of meals I planed on eating.

We decided to drive to Pineville to get maps and stop in Alexandria for lunch wile I ironed out my hike. Karen (my daughter) invited her friend Amber to come with us so they could go shopping together. So, with hastily packed 27 pound rucksack, 6 people in the car, and no real plan, we set off at 12:00. 

En-route  we passed near one trailhead (the north west end) so we did a recon of the pick up site which was very easy to find. We then stopped at the Gardner Ranger Station to see if they had the trail maps, which they did (even though it isn't mentioned on any web sites). This saved a trip to Pineville.

We proceeded to Alexandria for lunch at Logan's Roadhouse. I gorged myself on ribs and rolls, then saved all the leftover rolls. Yeast rolls do well if you keep them in a zip lock BTW.

We proceeded to Woodworth. The trail head is right at the Town Hall which makes a nice secure place to park your car, but it also has 1.7 miles along a road. I decided to skip this segment 7 and started at segment 6. Kristi and the kids dropped me off at the trail head, William got highly upset when he couldn't "Hike it" with dad. I felt very sorry but had to start moving or loose my resolve. I love those kids.

When I started it was about 1500 in 80 degree weather with 80+% humidity with fairly lever terrain, especially compared to trails like the A.T. I pushed myself a little to get some exercise, an hour later I realized I was at the 5 mile mark. I had only planned on doing 5 miles in about 2.5 hours the first day, so I decided to keep pushing until I hit the 2.5 mile mark. At then end of 2.5 hours I had finished 10.1 miles and that included the stops for water and slow downs when crossing streams and bogs.

I ran into two groups of day hikers, one group was a couple, and the second was a group with two women and one man. They had just traveled over a small bridge over a bog and were very adamant about warning me about the water snake under the bridge, geez! The only snaked that scared me was the copperhead in the trail I almost stepped on. Live and let live.

Tonight I ate freeze dried beef stew. I tasted like MRE stew - not good. The yeast rolls were very good, even after getting smashed down. I'll have to remember to try and get some for future hikes. I realize I must play with this MSR stove, I find that playing with gear is fun at home, but in the field I want to use gear and put it away. But for posterity:

Conditions: 80 or so degrees with  80+% humidity
Meal: Stew - 2 cups water.
Time: 2:00
Problems: none

Other gear tested:

This was also the first trip I used my Safewater Anywhere in-line filter. It filtered water well. Kisatchi creek water tasted just like bottled water and no bugs bothering my stomach. It was harder to suck water through and you need to pay attention to your hose so you don't accidentally kink it at the junction of the filter.

Also the first real trip for my modified Overlode backpack. It worked well, but I ended up letting the hip belt do a lot of the work, then loosened up the shoulder straps for lots of air flow. Shoulders got a little sore, but I eventually got used to it.

Shell pants and jacket came in very handy with the mosquitoes in camp. I covered up completely to try and keep them off. It was warm, but not too hot, especially compared to what rain gear would have been like.

Lights: LED lights were better than I expected in setting up some camp stuff in the dark, definitely the poop. The Krill light was great for reading and some stuff, but couldn't possibly be used for lighting a large area or night hiking, I'm using it now to write this.

Hennessy Ultralight Hammock. O.K. it isn't new to testing, but this has to be the most mosquitoes I've encountered when using it. I hear them dive bombing outside the net trying to get in. I love sitting here enjoying the wind blowing through, reading my book, listening to some music, and not getting eaten alive.

Nunatak Backcountry Blanket. Way too warm for this weather, I sweat terribly even with it loosely draped over my. I'll just use my silk liner tonight. In the future, a poncho liner is all I'll carry in this kind of weather.

May 14 2001 - 1845.

Distance Traveled: 20.6

Total Distance: 30.8

Location: Trail junction of the Wild Azalea and the Azalea Spur trail ( Segment 2)

Entry:

When I got up today I was attacked by skeeters again. Rather that try and fight them while eating breakfast in camp, I headed down the trail until I came to the first water at Castor Creek Scenic Area. They were waiting for me there as well, but were slightly less. I ate quickly a breakfast of grits, coffee, and breakfast bars; then pushed on as quickly as possible to get away from the little blood suckers. 

About 5.3 miles later I got to Evangeline Camp  where they mysteriously abated. I did brunch there and did some map reconnaissance. I realized at that time there was only about 9 miles left on the Wild Azalea Trail. I decided to side trail the Lamotte Creek Trail to the Kincaid Loop, and then back to the Wild Azalea via the Wild Azalea Spur Trail.

Everything went well until I started running low on water. There was a whole lake, but the surface near the bank was scummy and I didn't want to get that scum into my Camel Bak bladder. I used the last of my water at a late lunch of mashed potatoes (yum!) I saw on my map a picnic area ahead, so I pushed as hard as I could (thirsty) to get there. I found the faucet - it was shut off. I went to the park area where I found a total of three water fountains and two bathrooms - all were locked or shut off. I walked along the lake feeling discouraged and thirsty seeing a ranger station on the map next to the trail. When I got there it was closed and the outside water shut off. I was feeling very screwed at this point. I looked at the special little park map just for the campground and saw a RV dump station about 1/4 mile up the road. Hoping to find water I went up the road - and there it was, clean water! I drank about a half gallon of water then filled up with another gallon in all my containers.

I now had an extra 7 pounds of weight in my pack, but flew down the trail. I did the last small section in 20 minutes - it was supposed to be 2 miles, but it felt like 1.5 miles. I thought about pushing another 1.5 miles but decided to try and get dinner and camp chores done before the mosquitoes came out in full force.

Today's trail encounters included some turtles, a couple of mountain bikers, and some kids playing by the lake. If you count boats, there was some fishermen, and a pontoon boat full of women by the closed park area. The women waved and said friendly hellos, I thought about stopping and asking for some soda or water, but didn't know how they would have reacted if the stinky scruffy hiker actually came up and begged food.

For the stove information. I cooked Breakfast, lunch, and dinner on it today. Breakfast took some retries at priming it, I think the instructions about priming aren't accurate. Lunch mashed potatoes were cooked faster than I was ready for them, very fast stove! Dinner was a normal meal of rice and beans, and hot tea.

Other stuff: Radio was nice, but got turned on by accident very easily. To combat this I turn the AA battery upside down inside the case when not in use.

May 15 2001 - 1230.

Distance Traveled: 7.0

Total Distance: 37.8

Location: Trail head at Valentine Lake

Entry:

Last night I heard an animal in my camp. Everything was stowed well, food bag hung, and no food wrappers or left-overs were out. I know there are black bears in this section of the Kisatchi, so I wondered what a bear would make of a hammock. Would they consider it a low hung food bag? I still slept well.

The next morning I was attacked by mosquitoes - they seem to be deadly in the morning and evening, but retreat in the light of the day. Breakfast was the standard fare. Easy too cook, and camp is easy to break down. From the time I rise to the end of breakfast and move out only takes about 30 minutes of easy work.

I started pushing to finish out the trail and get to the trail head but had a harder time getting going today. Once I finally got moving good I was halfway done. 

I finished up at the trail head and started cooking a big pot of minestrone soup to celebrate. A large lunch of minestrone soup, pudding, yeast rolls, and tea.

While I lay here, cook, and eat; a large group of parents and teenage children come in. As I sit here relaxing with a book, eating, and stinking up the place, I wonder what all these clean cut people make of my dirty, gear spread countenance.

At about 1330 a storm starts to roll in and I hear a sever storm warning on my radio, so I pack it up. About 30 minutes later as I'm contemplating getting put the rain gear and setting up a tarp, my wife and kids arrive to take me home. Perfect timing.