A Big Slough Hike...

I made a little scout around to the Big Slough Wilderness Area in the Davy Crockett National Forest. Hunting seasons are open, most notably deer season but I like duck hunting. The season happens to open this weekend and these old sloughs are a good place to ambush wood ducks like my dad taught me to hunt them. I saw zero ducks yesterday and probably won't hunt till cold weather brings some migrating in. At the rate I go I'm in no danger of overharvesting the population but Cathy does cook an excellent fried duck breast. 

If you recall all the rain last spring I am sure this low lying river bottom was flooded out. Looks like from water marks on the trees it was at least waist deep on the rises and in the drains armpit level. Maybe we won't get too much water. All over the bottom seems to spread the ducks out and if the water is deep it's hard to retrieve them.  

This is one of my favorite spots when the water is low like this. It's some kind of gravel like ore along the slough bank and nearby are a couple of larger ore looking rocks. I did not check out those formations today but for some reason I always have a great cell signal here for such an isolated area. 

From the abundance of freshwater mussel shells I would say that it's a fine late night buffet for many woods critters and a great population of these filter feeders indicates good water quality. I have never eaten one of these myself and don't see why you couldn't if it's cooked properly but I have picked them up, shelled them and used the meat for trotline bait and caught good blue cat. 

I think I need to look at that infrastructure bill a little closer. I have been going to this area since the late 70s and it's the first time I have seen this kind of water damage to a generally good firm bedded road system. I suspect that this elevated roadway between two low-lying swamp areas is part of the Central Coke and Coal Company railroad that transported harvested timber to the saw mill that was located at Ratcliff. 

I am not sure the policy on maintaining roads in wilderness areas. All the little old pig trail roads through the woods have been allowed to go wild. There are restrictions on what can be done. The Davy Crockett website has an alert that this road is passible by four wheel drive only.    

Glad I came over in the good daylight to scope things out. 

This photo is down the 4 C hiking trail. It's part of the old railroad bed. The Central Coke and Coal ended their operations here in the early 1920s. All the trees were gone.