Blind River, Maurepas Swamp WMA, St. James Boat Club B
Kayak route paddle map leaving from the St. James Boat Club launch into Blind River. The club is just off of Highway 61, labeled by Google as also being Blues Hwy and Airline Hwy. This was the second trip here, and it goes west under the Highway 61 bridge to explore Blind River and any sloughs and channels that enter. There are a few large cypress that weren’t logged, the side channels get into the swamp pretty well, and there are lots of alligators. In one of the side channels a bunch of otters were digging for shells and snails in the silt. The Airline Canal gage on the previous trip read 0.9; for this trip the gage was at 0.0. The shoreline was muddy and progress into the swamp tended to stall in silt and low water or high center on logging debris. Another foot on the gage would be good. A uniformed LDWF guy at the launch said that navigability and boat access rights in Louisiana was super complicated and that even the enforcement guys weren’t always sure when water was accessible and public and when it was private. He said he himself had been kicked out from boating and fishing areas that were clearly public fishing areas by landowners who said it was theirs. So who knows.
30.10104,-90.73527
Launch Site Google Maps Link
Above: Explosion of brown and grey.
Above: If only there were more.
Above: These two foot gators are sometimes pretty bold.
Above: Boom!
Above: Many side channels were loose silt, a few inches to a few feet deep. Hard paddling and muddy if you get out.
Above: This canal looked paddleable by satellite map but at this water level it’s just too low.