Paddling and Hiking in the Minden Area  (2022)

Consider adding Minden to your list of potential weekend or holiday destinations. With inflation and relatively high gas prices now, many have had to budget their leisure spending and consider affordable options closer to home. Minden deserves serious consideration for those who value multiple outdoor venues within an easy twenty-minute drive.   

 

Back in 2017, I profiled diverse recreational activities available at Lake Bistineau State Park, south of Minden. The park’s equestrian trail and disc golf course supplement the camping, hiking, biking, birding, and fishing options found at most state parks. Hiking trails there include the Willis Homestead (3.8 miles), Blue Wing (1.2 miles), Koasati (2.0 miles), Pintail Loop (1.3 miles) and the Discovery Circle (.4 miles). The park’s website and Facebook page describe special events held there during the year.  

 

The Webster Parish Convention and Visitors Center has been spotlighting the area’s many outdoor attractions, and particularly at the Caney Lakes Recreation Area, along Bayou Dorcheat, and at Lake Bistineau State Park. On an October weekend, I stayed in Minden to hike the Sugar Cane Trail at the Caney Lakes Recreation Area and to engage in this fall’s Bayou Dorcheat Open Paddle. The Webster Parish tourism folks and the Bayou Chapter of the Ozark Society have been collaborating in recent years to host paddling outings where participants in a variety of non-motorized watercraft spend hours working up a sweat and enjoying the sights along several parish waterways.               

 

For kayaking, canoeing, and paddle boarding enthusiasts, there are racing competitions for men, women and children in various locations in this region. Just one was the Sixth Annual 7.7-mile River Rat Paddle Challenge on the Ouachita River in October. Open paddles, though, allow participants to decide whether to go full out or, more commonly, take their time to enjoy the quiet and captivating scenery along the route.   

 

The Bayou Dorcheat Fall Paddle started in October 2020 and attracted 186 kayakers. This October’s event didn’t attract quite as many participants, but it did draw individuals from Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida. At least a few people rented kayaks or canoes for the event from the co-sponsoring Dorcheat Bayou Rentals. Others of us left our watercraft at the starting point on the bayou at Dixie Inn, drove south to the Sibley area, where we parked our vehicles, and then rode in event vans back to Dixie Inn. We began the paddle at about 8:30 am and were expected to reach the endpoint downstream six miles by 1 pm.  

 My tentative goal with my small 8’6’’ kayak was to stay in sight of the lead kayakers throughout the three hour or more paddle. Until the final thirty minutes, I was able to do so. With dry weather from late July, Bayou Dorcheat was considerably lower than normal and required more intensive paddling. I was more than ready to see the finishing point and to enjoy the fish fry, refreshments and live entertainment awaiting us there. 

 

If I had an arm and shoulder workout on this Saturday event, it was a less strenuous hike for me the afternoon before on the Sugar Cane National Trail, less than ten miles north of Minden. This six-mile trail circles the upper lake at the Caney Lakes Recreation Area. The swim beach and day use area there are closed much of the year (Labor Day until Memorial Day Weekend), but several hiking and biking trails are open and especially appealing as the leaves begin to change colors in October. The area’s cash drop box ($5 daily use) is just inside the park’s entrance, and the trailhead is off the left fork of the entry road and about 3/8 mile from the fee station. 

  

Several recent reports from Sugar Cane Trail hikers cited overgrown conditions and a few tree obstructions, and these proved accurate. This trail is a well-established one, though, and perhaps it has been or will soon be groomed. It’s rated as a moderate hike or mountain bike ride, but I wouldn’t recommend the latter for other than skilled cyclists until trail repairs are completed. 

Drought lately meant a dry, hard and fast path that Friday. A number of small creek crossings and low spots suggest wet feet are likely after rainy weather conditions. The main trail is named for a time when sugar cane was grown in the area. That seemed improbable to me during the first part of my counterclockwise circuit as I encountered heavily pined hills. Eventually I reached boggy bottomland where agricultural production seemed possible. Much of this six-mile trail offers great vistas overlooking Upper Caney Lake.

 A setting sun argued against my exploring other than the main Sugar Cane Trail. Shorter and intersecting trails there (Kona’s Run, The Lost Man/Woman, and Clockwork Orange) made me wonder about the stories or the imagination behind the name choices for these trails.