Arianna and I went backpacking on Cumberland Island on May 3-5, 2013. We stayed at Hickory Hill campsite for two nights. We arrived on Saturday in the rain. There was a storm moving west from the Atlantic that had basically been pouring rain on the island for about six days, but it was on its way out. There was also a front of thunderstorms moving in from the west, so everything pointed to a miserably wet few days. We woke up in a hotel near St. Mary's on Saturday morning and it was raining. We got checked in at the ferry and it was raining. It rained steadily all the way up until we got off the boat. The it just kind of drizzled on and off for the rest of the day.
On our hike up to hickory hill we saw a couple horses and a pair of armadillos playing with each other, basically running back and forth and hopping up and down. Weird animals.
We managed to keep our gear dry and get camp set up without much trouble. Then it rained some more. We tried to take the Willow Pond trail out to the beach the first evening, but the trail was completely flooded where it crossed the marsh area. We got back to camp, ate dinner (homemade dehydrate apple, wildrice and red lentils). Then we wandered around and saw some horses, the second set for the day.
Thunderstorms came through late in the night, but we were pretty much asleep and the tent kept us plenty warm and dry. Our socks and pants didn't get a chance to dry out though, so we had kind of damp morning. Arianna wandered off while I was cooking breakfast and saw a mother horse with a foal. Then, while she was trying to take a picture of them, this black horse snuck right up behind her and snorted and stamped and bit, and she back off. Not before snapping a photo though.
We went to get water after breakfast, but decided to just fill up our drinking bottles and go for a day hike to Plum Orchard, Table Point, and back to camp. I had already packed lunch and snacks and stuff, so we had everything we needed. It was a nice overcast, cool walk to Plum Orchard. Lots of horses and birds and things. It had stopped raining over night, and everything was drying out. We stopped for a snack in the yard of the mansion.
Then as we approached the house this couple hollered at us from the porch and offered us a tour of the house. They were volunteers down for the day and had lived in the house for two months the summer before, giving tours. They were nice folks and pretty excited to show us around. I'd never seen the inside before. What a spectacular place.
More wildlife.
Then we started walking towards table point, mostly along a spur road. When we got to the intersection of the Kings Bottom trail and the road, we thought this other spur was the table point loop trail so we went up it. Turns out it was some previously private land that was no longer marked private and it ended at this boarded up shack with a really nice view of the river. We rested here for a minute and walked back to the trail and decided not to go all the way to table point.
We walked back to camp along the Kings Bottom Trail and the Tar Kiln Trail. It was getting hot in the middle of the day and we were getting really tired and both the trails were way overgrown. We exhausted ourselves.
We stopped for water on the way back from our day hike, and then just had to lay down and rest for a couple hours from around 4 to 6. My boots had completely chewed up my feet by then too and I was trying to stay off my feet to let my blisters heal up a bit. We also found tons of ticks all over us. We were still finding them when we got in the car the next day.
We ate a good dinner around 7 and played some cards and turned in early, way before dark. At dusk we heard some horses about 50 feet from the tent. We were looking out of the tent when one of them started walking up the short trail towards our campsite. It stopped and grazed for a few minutes still in view. We didn't want to startle it because we didn't want it to come trample us in our tent. It kept coming closer and closer to our campsite, until we couldn't see it any more through the rain fly. It must have been 10 or 15 feet from the tent. It was breathing and stamping and just kind standing around. Then is crapped on the trail that went up to our food bag and made a neighing sound, and several other horses came trotting through our site and up in to the woods. It made one final snort and trotted after them. We were pretty nervous being that close to a giant animal that we couldn't see or do anything about. Glad they didn't want to bother us.
We were sore and tired and slept pretty good, but when we woke up the next morning, we both felt like we didn't have any more energy to explore and decided to go ahead and catcht the early ferry back. So, we got up at 6:30, cooked and ate breakfast, broke camp, packed up and hike 5 miles back to the dock by 9:50. We walked 5 miles in less than 2 hours. How's that for some worn out campers?
All in all, great trip - lessons learned:
- I always pack way too much food.
- I can carry a really heavy pack but don't want to.
- Take mole skin.
- Take duck tape.
- What's wrong with my boots?
- Buy a pack rain cover maybe.
- Oatbread bars and lentil dehydrated food are super good things to eat. Will try some more recipes from this book: Another Fork in the Trail
No comments:
Post a Comment