Riding the Roads of the Kisatchie and Vernon Parish

I love these roads. They go and go and have intriguing spurs to explore. The gravel roads are Cruiser friendly. The spurs are mostly not.
Sport bikes, stay away.

From a distance I believed my vision had finally completly failed. As I focused I realized what I was seeing. The reality of world events had met me squarely on a back Louisiana byway. The road I was on is just south of Fort Polk's training area. The Arabic, I would suppose, is a part of that training. The ones being trained will keep Arabic off our road signs.

I had seen the Blue Hole on one of my old maps.
We decided to take a look

I looked at the bike and reasoned that it might be a tactical vehicle.
Since no one was around, I chanced it. Clearly, I might be committing a tactical miss-step by placing myself between the US Army and the Forest Service. We looked at the Blue Hole, and left.

There is a meeting pavilion here. You can make reservations. Just make sure your ride is clearly civilian.

Obviously the Forest Service is just being petty. What's so wrong with our soldiers parking a tank or deuce and a half at the Blue Hole and taking a dip?
Oh, the gravel thing. It would ungroom the rocks.
Please Fred, Don't write.

The "No Tactical Vehicle" sign made me want to get off the highway and maneuver a bit. Here we were going down a Louisiana Pipeline. Fast Pipeline Riding is our version of Desert Racing. Pipeline Racing is not smart and produces a lot of injuries. Drop offs are not visible at speed and sometimes you can find yourself headed straight into the gully's opposite wall. Surprise!
How did I know that?

Mounds of sawdust everywhere in the woods attest to the past presence of sawmills. Portable sawmills sized the trees at 16 feet plus a little. That's just one of the bits of knowledge I would learn later. For years I have ridden in the woods and not known for sure the origin of these huge piles of sawdust. Big Foot and Aliens have been offered up as explanations, but that's silly. They've been busy over in Mississippi.

And, sadly, there are other reminders.

Spring is just beautiful in Louisiana. Wisteria are blooming as are White and Pink Dogwoods. It's a Southern Thing.

    After eating we moved to the Vernon Off-Road Ridng Area. We took off on the four wheeler and almost immediately came back. We left and almost immediately came back. We left and kept coming back to the same place, but not where we had come back to before. We met two people on horses, a crazed motocrosser, two more kids on four wheelers and we were all lost. I had the gps with me. But, I had failed to mark the starting area when we left. We all rode slowly, because of the horses, around in one more huge circle returning to another "same place". I then recognized it from my our morning ride. That was the valuable knowledge I mentioned earlier. After leading this sometimes estranged group back into the campground, I was bombarded by several mothers thanking me for saving their children. Not one of this assorted band had fussed about the other being along or using the trail. We were glad to have each other's company. Shame is this feeling is not the norm.
    The Vernon Trails are the worst marked "controlled/limited" trail system I have ever seen. All the Losters agreed with me. I am probably preaching to the choir.
Some "preaching" needs to be done to the F.S.
     We returned to Fullerton and lit a campfire. I watched "24", my favorite, feeling a kinship with Jack Bower, the show's hero. Day 3 was coming and I made ready for Long Leaf.