HOOSIER MAKES BAYOU FRIENDS

OIL SPILL IN DULAC
November 22, 2018
Lagniappe Events Calendar
November 27, 2018
OIL SPILL IN DULAC
November 22, 2018
Lagniappe Events Calendar
November 27, 2018

It all started Oct. 9 in a place called West Lafayette – not the one here in the Bayou State but in the notably chillier state of Indiana — when a 27-year-old adventurer took to the Wabash River in a 15-foot kayak which carried him to waters running through Houma.


Tyler Wood has many miles yet to travel on his self-styled journey. But his pit stop last week has him thankful not only for safety on the trek thus far, but the new friends he made in Cajun country.

“I am tired, but I am very much motivated to finish this,” Tyler said during an interview Saturday. “Quitting, the idea had crossed my mind but the thought of takin that into action has not. This is what I am doing.”

Tyler’s past travels have brought him to Canada, New Zealand and Australia. This odyssey is fixed on a specific goal, which is to make it to the southern tip of South America, trekking over water and land. The planned travel includes the kayak for now. But Tyler is hoping he can connect with a mariner who might need a mate for a sailing vessel on a like course.


He says that his goals — apart from closing the distance to his destination — are to inspire others, to challenge and test himself and see the beauty in humanity.

“These challenges that you put yourself through can make you a better person,” said Tyler, who maintains that so far, the theory has proved correct.

Tyler’s travels were rooted in a desire to guide people on hiking adventures, which he did in several of the nations he traveled to including New Zealand. It was there, in 2014, that he was involved in a car wreck, sustaining severe injuries and for a time was placed into a medically induced coma. He had suffered brain injury but after recovery from it continued, undaunted, to new adventures.


New adventures included a hike of the Pacific Trail from the Mexican border up into Canada. There was a trip to Guatemala for and during which he studied Spanish, acting as a guide for hikes up and down the Volcan Fuego, one of the Central American continent’s most active volcanos, near Antigua. In his mind was the nagging knowledge of the Tyler also entered that phase of his life with the painful knowledge that the injury he was fighting so hard to overcome was a direct result of his own folly, drinking while driving. The realization, and desire to do something about it, did not come quickly.

“Since I almost died from it, even though I drank for three years after that brain injury I always had an inner resentment concerning alcohol and I always knew that I was better without it. My whole family has been on a dark side of it,” Tyler confided, stating that he was willing to share the information. “Now I don’t plan on drinking alcohol ever.”

Tyler’s divorce from alcohol occurred in June, and he has been successful, he says, in sticking to his decision.


Seeds for the current trek from Indiana to South America’s tip germinated around 2015.

“I had dreamt this trip up way back when I was traveling from Mexico to Canada,” he said.

And so, the departure from Indiana became a reality in October. He has not regretted a mile of the journey.


The Wabash River is a west-flowing tributary that forms part of the border between Ohio and Indiana, once a crucial link for navigation between New Orleans and Quebec, used by French traders.

In his yellow 15-foot Walden Passage kayak, Tyler paddled the Wabash to its junction with the Ohio River, a journey of nearly 500 miles, near the Illinois city of Shawneetown.

“At Caruthersville, Illinois it was so raining and foggy I could barely see a quarter mile across the river,” Tyler recalled.


He paddled the Ohio River to the place where it meets the Mississippi, near Cairo. Thus began a trek of nearly 500 miles down the muddy Mississippi, past river towns that live in the works of Mark Twain, stopping along the twisty-turny Father of River’s ports for food and supplies, braving the strong currents and reveling in the company of people he met randomly along the way.

He paddled in total about 935 miles on the Mississippi.

“I compare a lot of kayaking the Mississippi to when I was fortunate enough to raft through the Grand Canyon,” he said. “The experience is so humbling. At the Grand Canyon you are surrounded by 3,000 foot walls. The Mississippi is 3/4 of a mile wide in some places. You are so tiny in both circumstances.”


The current in general was about 3 to 5 mph.

“I did paddle that as a speed kayak, almost the whole time,” Tyler said. “About 27 days, an average of 48 miles with no break.”

For sustenance Tyler had acquired boxes of dried foods. Tomatoes, apples, mushrooms, peppers, cantaloupe and bananas, as well as occasional tuna.


“A lot of dried food and oats and trail mix for snacks,” he said, adding that he eats his food from a frisbee. He does not carry a stove and said he has no need for one.

Tyler said he bested challenging waves, grateful at how well the kayak handled the rough.

“You have to hit the waves at the correct angle,” he said, recalling how he navigated through a mile of “blasty waves.” It had been so beautiful and calm, with a beautiful sunset. Then that wind started whipping around along with the wake. There were buoys the size of refrigerators, and you wouldn’t know, they were so hidden, and it is something you have to look out for. I almost got capsized.”


“It was not until he reached the lower Mississippi that I had beaches to camp on,” he said.

At New Orleans he pulled up to the rocky shore behind Jackson Square, where he was greeted by people sitting on steps leading to the river with waves and offers of assistance. While at New Orleans he visited a few friends, then continued on his way.

The stops he made below the city reinforced the understanding that he was meeting one of his goals, that of experiencing humanity.


“I met a woman who has had a lot of struggles in her life, and she gave me a cowboy hat,” Tyler said. “Now it’s my signature. People offered me so much help from hot food to water. I didn’t ask for anything, they offered it, a lot of people … I have seen so much beauty and humanity on this trip. Dying people with cancer offered me help.”

Some people he described as “pill addicts” in Crown Point offered him some help too. Their dog bit him.

“It ripped my rain jacket,” he said. The people were nice, he said, but upon asking about his continuing travel plans — which would include taking the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway headed west, they gave him a warning.


He should be careful, they said, because Houma and nearby communities could, in their estimation, be rough places. There was still a lot of water to traverse before he got near Houma, however. Blending into the barge traffic on the Intracoastal — an easy trick for the most part considering experience gained on the Mississippi — Tyler continued west, stopping at Larose.

“I loved it,” he said of the Lafourche Parish community.

“I camped at the boat ramp and people there were great,” he said. “It was always entertaining. Sometimes a few drunk high school kids being annoying the entire night. But then there were hunters coming back from feeding their deer stands. They gave me $50 in donations. I didn’t ask for it. I had these really good conversations. The next night I was in my sleeping bag and some lights shined on my tent and I thought it was some cops. It was one of the hunters who came back and brought me some Popeye’s chicken. Popeye’s chicken, man!”


As part of his plan, Tyler had listed his kayak for sale on Craigslist in Houston, where he thought there might be a good market for it.

“Someone called me from a kayaking association in Houston and he wasn’t interested in the kayak but was interested in helping and asked me about my next stop, which I told him was Houma.”

Tyler made a call to see if he could camp at the Houma downtown marina, the one just west of the twin spans. But the rules there prohibited camping. The marina manager put Tyler in touch with Chris Pulaski, Terrebonne Parish’s planner. After hearing Tyler’s story, Pulaski went to work trying to find a way for Tyler to be accommodated somewhere. Pulaski spoke about Tyler to Jonathan Foret, a good friend who is the director of the South Louisiana Wetlands Cultural Center, which hosts the annual Rougarou Festival in Houma. Chris was eager to meet Tyler.


“He looks exactly like I imagined he would,” Chris said of the bearded, elfin explorer. “I was impressed by his openness to meeting new people and experiencing new things which is an obvious requirement given what he has chosen to do. Youth is always inspiring. I am encouraged that in the next generation there are still those with a sense of adventure and a desire to experience all that the world has to offer in person rather than online or onscreen.”

Originally, Jonathan had agreed to let Tyler camp on his property, and had Tyler and Chris to his home for dinner.

“When I met him we got alog straight away,” Tyler said of Jonathan. “He invited me right in and I didn’t have to set up a tent for sleeping. We had crabs and chicken to eat and it was all super-good. He taught me how to shuck the crab.”


They discussed the Wetlands center’s drive to save the coast, a topic Tyler said he would like to know more about and perhaps somehow assist with. Meeting with Chris and Jonathan, Tyler said, was further realization of his expectations for the trip.

“I meant for it to be a motivated journey,” he said. “Here were these super cool people, the kind of people I would normally hang out with, kindhearted and helpful people that admire what I am doing and are proud for me.”

Warnings against Houma, he determined, were unfounded. As for overall impressions, Tyler said “I thought the houses were kind of quirky on the whole.”


On Sunday, Tyler left Houma, paddling on the Intracoastal, bound for Houston. The game-plan, he said, is to sell the kayak there, then begin the next leg of the adventure.

“I do have a timeline,” he said. “If I miss a specific season or deadline, I won’t make Santiago, Chile by Nov. 2019. That will mean I won’t get there till November of 2020.”

The next stop, however, will likely be Morgan City. Then it will be on to Port Arthur.


“Then there is nothing between Port Arthur and Houston,” Tyler said. “I will continue to test my physical, mental and psychological ability to remain resilient and positive, even when it is difficult.”

Throughout his trip, Tyler has been keeping inquiring minds informed on his Facebook page, www.facebook.com/wanderwood18

On it, he has provided snippets of his developing philosophy.


“Once we understand the value of minimalism, we’ll solve so many problems,” he recently wrote. “To have only what you need, protection from the elements, warmth, water, and food. Contentment with this simplicity is a game changer. It frees your mind. But what are you supposed to do with all your capital after that!? Buy the latest greatest everything, and have fancy meals all the time? Everybody else is doing it. When you are content with the necessities, this feeling is eliminated. Without craving more and more; better and better, what else can make a person feel good? How do I get the most out of this money I’ve worked so hard for? My answer is to facilitate experiences. Long, hard, and challenging ones. Experiences that create freedom to pursue a journey doing what you love. One that challenges this love to grow it.”

HOOSIER MAKES BAYOU FRIENDS