Mile 3.0 — Days on Dean’s Route

We followed “Dean’s Route” in the spring of 2015; we entered the back channels on the morning of the first day, and reached Morgan City around noon on the 3rd day.  Here is how it went: we paddled first down Jake’s Bayou, and then Bloody Bayou, which dead-ends at Bayou Sorrell.  We turned left down Bayou Sorrell and then forked right (south) on Indian Bayou.  When that ended we took a right on Florida Canal, the water slowing, the land dropping away into extensive swamps on either side.  We paddled through a dogleg connector to reach Bee Bayou where we had to paddle upstream to to reach Flat Lake Pass.  (Note: This is not the Flat Lake near Morgan City, but another one).  We followed Flat Lake Pass with renewed current (coming from a vigorous connection off the main river) to where it split north and south around Hog/Eagle Island.  Hog/Eagle Island sits at the top of East Grand Lake and is a remnant high ground leftover from a former river channel which flowed here.  We camped at its bottom extremity, which comes together in a a point.  The next morning we paddled the length of East Grand Lake and then exited into a broad pipeline canal running east through some cypress trees about 1/4 mile above the bottom of the lake.  A sluggish current slowly emptied out of the lake and through the canal into a seeming dead end.  Not until we reached the dead end did we find a narrow “surprise” exit through another stand of cypress (where we found a high ground for a charming picnic spot full of leafy greens, elephant ears and yellow rockets) at the intersection of a couple of pipeline channels cut into the woods.  After lunch we continued down these pipeline channels as ways to Little Bayou Long, or the bayou next to it, and followed that meandering southwards to Duck Lake.  The bayous finally opened up and we knew we had finally reached Duck Lake.  Duck Lake is full of stately cypress.  It has a special feel, like a wood-lined library.  We found our second camp near the intersection of Bayou Boulee and American Pass.  The next day we paddled down the American Pass to Big Bayou Joe which opened up into Flat Lake Pass which led us to Flat Lake.  All of the lakes and flowing channels were full of water water hyacinth.  The flow down American Pass was highlighted with a parade of hyacinth islands floating by endlessly.  The edges of many lakes were so cluttered with the same that there would be no way to reach the woods.  The water flow varied from 1/2 mph to 3 mph going into Flat Lake.  A three-mile paddle across the lake (with some sightseeing and eagle-watching along the way), and then through Drew’s Pass, brought us back to the main channel of the Atchafalaya, at mile 119, just above Morgan City.  Three days of paddling through the swamps and bayous brought us back to the same river, about 40 miles downstream!   As with all back channel paddling in the Basin, the Louisiana Geological Survey Atchafalaya Basin Map is your best resource for wayfinding.   Check latest details on Google Earth.  The Atchafalaya Basin is surprisingly connected, thanks to a series of satellite towers situated throughout.