Down The Ouiska Chitto

I grew up in a small community called Hickory Flat just on the outskirts of Oberlin, LA. When I was little, my family and I would often go "down to the river," which translates into "go about two miles behind the house to the Calcasieu River. Now a lot of folks from Louisiana are familiar with the Calcasieu River, especially the southern end of it near Lake Charles where it's a rather wide and quite beautiful. Fewer know of the just-as-beautiful small bends, crooks and shallows of its northern end. I used to swim and fish in this part of the river and there were very few folks around at all. In fact, the few times we did run into people, it was usually family. It was the river that I grew up with. There's another river, much smaller and, thanks to tourism, much, much more crowded than the Calcasieu near my childhood home. I visited it this weekend.

Just east of Oberlin, in a small community called Mittie, There's a small river (some call it a creek) called the Ouiska Chitto. It's properly pronounced Whiska-chitto, but most folks around here call it the Whiskey Chitta or some other derivative form. It's name comes from an old local Indian term that supposedly means "tall cane," but that meaning, much like most of what has happened on this little river, is up for debate. It was on the northern end of what once was known as Imperial Calcasieu, a large area of southwest Louisiana that was eventually divided up into parishes (the Louisiana equivalent of a county). This area was disputed for years as to who exactly owned it, and criminals used this to their advantage, hiding in this wild area that ranged from what is now Allen Parish all the way down to Cameron and bordering the Sabine River and Texas state line. It's in this area that untold treasures are still supposedly hidden and unspeakable crimes were committed.

Today, the Ouiska Chitto is home to a number of canoe rental companies that allow you to rent a canoe from them and take a (on average) four to six hour trek down this beautiful, shallow spring-fed creek. This wasn't my first time down the Ouiska Chitto. I've been on it a few times before. It was, however, my first time to rent a canoe to make the trip down. Myself, my wife, and some friends headed down the river in canoes we rented from Campbell's Canoes, which you can look up on the Internet if you'd like. I recommend them. They are friendly, down home folks who act as if you're their best friend when you stroll up to their riverfront business. The day started for us around 9:00 a.m. and it was a hot but tolerable July Saturday in Louisiana. For those who aren't aware, the Ouiska Chitto is a very shallow river for the most part. It's not unusual to hit the bottom or even push off of the bottom to propel your canoe forward. There's also a lot of stumps and trees in the water as well. This means that there is a very high probability that you'll get stuck at some point on your journey. In fact, you can bet on it. Do not let this deter you though, as this is all part of the experience. It's really not that hard to get "unstuck" most of the time, but do expect to get out of the canoe and push, pull, drag, or carry it over certain parts of the river.

As we made our way down to Carpenter's Bridge (the pick-up point and bridge named after my mother's family), we encountered quite a bit of wildlife on the river. The primary wildlife was a bunch of drunks, but after we made it about halfway down the river, they pretty much thinned (or perhaps passed) out and we were left with fish, turtles, a few frogs, some birds and a wonderful light breeze. This is a wonderful location and was a beautiful trip down a unique little river in Louisiana. If you ever get the chance to go, I once again highly recommend Campbell's Canoe rentals. I also recommend that if you have small children in tow, try to rent a canoe during the week or after school has started. Why? Because the river may be wild, but the sixteen to twenty-something crowd is much wilder. As stated before, we did encounter quite a few drunks on the first half of our trip. Along with them came a little bit of lewd behavior and some of the filthiest language you'll ever here. I'm not proud to admit that, but I felt that families should know this information before exposing their kids to it.

If you can avoid the idiots, you'll have a great time on the Ouiska Chitto. Unfortunately we didn't bring a camera with us, so I can only tell you that the Ouiska Chitto is a beautiful river to canoe on. If you go, bring plenty of sunblock, something to eat, maybe a radio to listen to (or at least drown out the language of a few other folks), towels, a change of clothes and a strong back that's ready to tackle a unique canoing adventure.