Category Archives: Wildlife

DAY 76 -11/29/2012 Solace for a cold

Posted on December 4, 2012 | 3 comments

100_7184Leaving the idyllic Jekyll Island, I knew further rest was needed.  We sought refuge in a refuge of sorts.  We found a National Forest campground at East Delancy, Ocala National Forest.  Our National Parks Pass, picked up at Acadia, Maine levered us a $5 per night rate and there wasn’t another camper, tent or anyone in sight.  We silently filled out the envelope, added our five dollar bill, and didn’t even see the camp host til noon the next day.

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What I saw at dawn, or rather heard was of great delight.  Silence all night broken by an insane trumpeting from pairs of Sandhill Cranes.  I barely caught glimpses of them through the trees, but was afforded a range of tones, calls, and answers from their discussions.

Later in the day, I hung a hammock and found my own solace in Steinbeck’s East of Eden.  If you know me you’ll be surprised to hear I read about half of it in one day.  Half a book.  A real book!  I normally fall asleep after reading about 3-5 pages!  Even some of my most quoted reads lately take me two to three months to read.  Jane and I well knew “I was sick”.

Hammocks are uniquely able to support rest in many positions and fold over lots of book-propping options.   I look forward to our next restful campsite with just the right paired trees.  Thanks Jack the hammock and book donor!

– David

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Posted in DAY posts, Strange Sights, Wildlife

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DAY 73 – 11/26/2012 From Atlanta to the Sea

Posted on November 28, 2012 | 8 comments

Today, we woke up in a completely different world on Jekyll Island, GA.

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Driftwood Beach

Driftwood Beach

David got a serious case of Helmet Hair on our island bike ride

David got a serious case of Helmet Hair on our island bike ride

 

Yesterday,we visited Stone Mountain in north central Georgia, near Atlanta.

Stone Mountain, with it's bas relief of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson

Stone Mountain, with it’s bas relief of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson

Of course we had to climb to the top.

Of course we had to climb to the top.

 

The day-long drive from Stone Mountain to Georgia’s Atlantic coast took us through some pretty depressed areas. As the land flattened and moss appeared hanging from the limbs of trees, we travelled through cotton fields and lots of boarded-up and abandoned buildings. Failed businesses and shuttered factories passed by. Pawn shops and liquor stores ruled the day. Most of the homes still inhabited had wheels. The Sons of Confederate Veterans and multitudinous Baptist churches provided some comfort and maybe a reason to get up in the morning.

Grinding poverty is not a pretty sight. We felt extremely lucky, more so than ever, to be taking a trip like ours. You just never know how people live until you catch a glimpse of it. Night fell on a dismal landscape. My heart goes out to the people of central Georgia…

Approaching the ocean in the dark, you can smell it and feel it even when you can’t see it. The aroma of sea salt and marine life is unmistakable. An arching causeway took us over tidal marshes and the Intracoastal Waterway to Jekyll Island.

It’s so very different finding a place to camp in the dark as opposed to finding a roost in the daylight. So, we stopped in a convenience store and met Tyler, who pointed out the way to the campground.

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He was a very poised and articulate young man. He listened to the story of our travels and then told us of his own experiences upon joining a carnival which roamed around the northern US and up into Western Canada. He was a kindred spirit; another traveller discovering that the journey itself is as important as the destination.

Coincidentally, Tyler’s Mom is the campground host on Jekyll Island. Since we knew her son now, we were treated like family and given a lovely, large campsite. Jean was her name; I’m sure she’s kind to everyone in this same way.

David’s early morning walk to the lee side of the island, where the Brunswick River becomes St Simon’s Sound, yielded some awesome photos, like the heron photo at the top of the post, and these:

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A dolphin made an appearance in the tidal marsh

A dolphin made an appearance in the tidal marsh

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– Jane

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DAY 20 – 10/4/2012 somewhere in the Maine Woods, in which we see a moose!

Posted on October 4, 2012 | 3 comments

Impossibly tall, with an appearance at once majestic and goofy, we rounded a corner and saw a Moose! On bikes on the logging road, we were about 40 yards away. We knew he was a boy – he had a beautiful rack of antlers. Agog, we could barely get the camera out for a few photos as he stalked away into the trees. We’ve never been in close proximity to a moose before – just distant glimpses in Wyoming.

We had set up camp on a wooded rise at the confluence of Machias River and the West Branch of the Machias. This night, we were in an actual campsite. It was about 5 miles into the woods on the dirt logging road. But the campsite was completely deserted at this time of year except for us and the birds and chipmunks. After our moose bike ride, we put the kayak in the Machias at our camp.

I used to do sprint-distance triathlons. Doing two out of the three sports in a training session was called a ‘brick’. So, on this day in the beautiful wilds of Maine, our brick was a bike ride and paddle.

Gratitude was the overriding emotion of the day for me. I am grateful that, after the cancer ordeal, here I am, in this beautiful place far from civilization. I’m also so grateful for my wonderful husband, who really made this possible. We’re just ordinary middle-class people. Yet we were able to stop working for awhile and go off into the woods. Absolutely priceless!

We don’t shoot the rapids. We only paddle up to take the picture of the rapids!

– Jane

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Posted in DAY posts, Mountain biking, Wildlife

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