Bayous in Louisiana are notoriously slow moving. Heck, with our flat terrain, sometimes the water even flows upstream.
While Baton Rouge’s bayous don’t offer the thrill of rapids or crystal-clear waters, they do offer local paddlers something else: opportunity. The chance to carve new paths in the backwoods of our parish and the promise of peace and discovery floating along the wilderness out on the edge of our urban landscape.
For Nathaniel Klumb of Paddle BR, Bayou Fountain is one of those spots. It runs through the southernmost part of the parish, cutting a line between Burbank Drive and Highland Road, before winding through woods behind million-dollar mansions at the Country Club of Louisiana and then meeting Bayou Manchac near the interstate.
“I knew that Bayou Fountain was almost a pristine wilderness, a beautiful area and a great potential for paddling in town,” Klumb says.
So he and a few volunteers spent five months cleaning out log jams and trash. Then they brought out some BREC officials and told them, in his words, “All you need to do is build a launch.”
“One of the hardest things any paddler knows is finding a place to put your boat in,” Klumb says. “Bayou Fountain runs right there at Highland Park. It’s the perfect spot.”
Kathy Stites of BREC’s Capital Area Pathways Project agrees. While a big portion of her work is focused on bike paths and trails around the parish, BREC is also looking to beef up usage of local waterways with its Blueways project.
Last October, at the urging of Paddle BR, Highland Park became the site of the Blueways’ first paddle launch, providing access to a 6-mile paddling trail along the bayou.
Stites says it was an easy choice: Paddlers were already using the park, and BREC wanted to make it a safe place to push in for paddling trips. The new amenity immediately became popular.
“Before we had announced anything to the public, before we even had signs out there, people were already using it and really enjoying it,” Stites says.
BREC has already held multiple paddling events from the Highland Park launch, including one in March focused on birdwatching on the water. The park doesn’t currently have canoes or kayaks for rent, but most BREC paddling events provide them for a fee.
And with the help of Paddle BR, BREC now has its sights on expanding the Blueways project. Plans are in the works to extend the trail on Bayou Fountain, connecting it with Bayou Manchac and up to Wards Creek, where they’ve identified locations for four new paddle launches from Airline Highway Park to the Mall of Louisiana. The new launches would make it easier for daytrips where paddlers can start at one spot and end at another without having to double back.
Stites says the extension and launches should be completed this year, with Paddle BR helping to clean up the bayous to make them safe for paddling.
And then, all it takes is introducing people to the bayous, Klumb says. And they’re hooked.
“One of the things we feel is that the more people out there, the better it is for our waterways,” he says. “The more people see of our waterways from being right there on the water, the more they want to protect it.” brec.org/blueways and paddlebr.com
The Blueways project has established a 6-mile paddling trail on Bayou Fountain (marked in dark blue). An extension (in light blue) is planned on Bayou Manchac and Wards Creek with four potential launch spots.
Paddle for pleasure
If the idea of paddling down a bayou for a few miles seems daunting to you, there are other ways to get out on the water. BREC’s Greenwood Community Park offers an 18-acre lake where you can rent a kayak, canoe or stand-up paddleboard with easy access to the water. The boathouse is open June to July but there are group options available in the off-season. brec.org
Click here to about some of the other ways to get out and about in Baton Rouge.
This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.
