February 26-28, 2015 The Big Bend, Florida

Cloudy day, high 50’s. Very little wind so we paddled over to St Vincent's Island again.

A special effect my camera does of my boat and John at the St Vincent’s Island dock. We hiked 7 miles on different roads today. The island has a grid of roads on it from when they logged the island. Thy are mostly trails now. Three mile road was flooded in spots. John wading across.

 

You gotta love the REI convertible pants. The top photo I was wading across holding the pant legs up, the bottom  photo I just zipped them off, much easier. Thistle, last years earth star, some heath blooms.

 

I made bruschetta pomadoro  for appetizers tonight. Tomato, fresh basil, garlic and parmasan  on toasted baguette. Yum, yum, yum. One of my favorites. I am working on a wall hanging of the longleaf pine/palmetto forest. It has a long way to go. . .

 

We woke up to sunshine this am. It is so beautiful here. It didn’t last, it has been mostly cloudy the last few days. Saturday we toured Apalachicola, Florida. It is the oyster capital of Florida.  90% of the oysters caught in Florida and 10% of the oysters caught in the USA are from Apalachicola bay. They also catch shrimp. These are some of the fishing boats in the harbor.

Historic downtown Apalachicola. It was started in the 1820’s as a cotton exporting port When the demand for cotton declined  then they pillaged the lumber. It was also a big steamboat port, people travelled up the Apalachicola river in steam boats. After they cut down all the trees they started harvesting oysters. Now it is the Oyster capital  and the trees have grown back. John got attacked by these flamingos.

After narrowly escaping the flamingo attack he was accosted by this pirate maiden. He was so worn out from these adventures  we had to go to the Oyster City Brewery and check out their beers.

 

Then to the historic Owl Tap Room  for lunch,   for what else, oysters. We are in the oyster capital after all. Then  we split an alligator sausage sandwich.  This is a giant pile of oyster shells outside an oyster processing plant. They take most of the shells and put them back in the bay for the baby oyster-called spats- to attach too. They also use them as gravel on roads, yards- everywhere. Another product of the bay are natural sponges, there are sponge divers here. This part of Florida besides being called the Forgotten coast, is also part of the Big Bend. I was calling it the armpit of Florida-it looks more like an arm than a bend.  And yes, they do have black bears here. 

   

Hurricane evacuation plan-grab beer, run like hell. We have been listening to the Oyster radio since we have been here.  At the  Apalachicola Maritime museum we learned the history of the area. They also give boat building classes and eco tours. I think the Starfish Enterprise is the enclosed pontoon boat in the back here. The beautiful sail  boat was built in 1930. It is restored with living quarters. For a price you can get taken out with a cook and crew. The paddle boat they have is gone being restored. They will give rides in it up river when it comes back.

This is our happy place, Apalachicola. Of course they make oyster dog bones too.

February 23-24, 2015 Indian Pass, Florida

Off down the road about 60 miles from the Emerald Coast (packed with tourists) to the Forgotten coast-very quiet and hardly any people. It was 70 degrees, sunny while we were driving, but cloudy once we got here. Very pleasant though.

 

We are at Indian Pass campground, at the end of a peninsula. Past the bus is the ocean. It is a small private campground, next to a state park and  some vacation homes no one is at and  across from some wildlife refuge islands. Quiet and dark at night. John walking on the beach . They call it the Forgotten coast here, less people, lots less touristy development.

 

Lots of shells and birds. A snowy egret, two pelicans,  Mr. Crabby-guardian of Indian Pass  and a great blue heron.

It is supposed to rain Wednesday so we decided to kayak to St Vincent’s island  and hike on Tuesday. It is an undeveloped wildlife refuge and about a half mile paddle. The sun was in and out, the high was 57 degrees with gentle breezes.  This is the dock at the island.

 

We paddled over then hiked across the island to the beach. The volunteer on the island told us that there are more shells here, no one comes here. There were more shells and lots more birds. A horse shoe crab, huge cockle shells and some kind of mollusk.

There were a couple students over for the day, we saw them briefly on the beach, then we had the island to ourselves. It is 4 miles wide at one end and 9 miles long. It is triangular.  At the way other end are some biology students staying in the only cabin for spring break. Before the island was a refuge is was a private hunting reserve. Before that it was logged. There are still some of the roads, the refuge uses them to manage the island. There are eagles nesting here, and they are breeding red wolves too. Also deer, lots of other birds, feral hogs and sambar deer. The Sambar,  imported by the hunters, are native to Asia, along with other exotic animals. The sambar look more like elk, they are huge and they live in the swampy area. We didn’t see any. John on our own beach. We then hiked inland.

The dune area is dominated  first by live oak/mixed hardwood.  Farther in  freshwater lakes and sloughs with pure stands of cabbage palm-the only palm native to Florida.

       

John in the wetlands.  Farther in  is mixed with slash pine with a palmetto understory. They have to burn the area every few years or it gets grown up with scrubs that push out the native plants. This is what most of inland Florida looked like before white man came. Florida has a lot of lightening so there were frequent wild fires.

 

The ground was mostly sand or mud. Better barefoot than in shoes. As we worked our way across the island it became an almost impenetrable lush  forest of pine trees, palms and hardwoods with swamps and thick understory. Gators live in here, but it is cold for them today. The sambur deer like it here too.

Yellow asters, wild rosemary, southern dewberry, a vine that does not know if it is spring or fall, pink flowers, bladder wort, slash pine bark and st. John’s wort.

When we reached the other  coast it was a narrow beach, still tight forest  and swamp with lots of oyster shells, needed shoes so they would not cut my feet. The native Americans came out here to gather shell fish and left huge shell mounds. We followed hog tracks in the sand, top tracks the mom, bottom tiny hoof marks are the babies. We saw a teenage hog and a tiny piglet near one of the swamps.

Here the tannin colored water from the swamps drains into the ocean. Oyster beds off shore at low tide.

 

Getting ready to head back. The campground is across the water. John paddling in the ocean into a headwind.

The light was pretty on the water. Afterwards we had happy hour in the sun.

Sunset on the bay side of the campground. We had dinner at  Indian Pass Raw Bar. It is the only restaurant in  Indian Pass and right down the road from the campground . It is in a building that was once the commissary for a turpentine company in 1903.

They serve oysters, raw or baked, steamed shrimp, crab and a few non seafood items. John with raw oysters and crab stuffed shrimp. The shrimp and oyster come from Apalachicola bay, which is where we are.

February 22, 2015 St Andrew’s State Park, Florida

It rained last night. Very pleasant for sleeping. The low was 56, warmer than it has been the last few days. 70 degrees today, partly cloudy. We had to move to another site, the mail was supposed to come in Sat, and the post office is closed Sat, so we needed an extra day here, and our site was booked. The whole park is full all winter and spring.

 

Our new site, 112 is much nicer. It has a beach. Here is my sweet hubby looking like a million dollars.

 

Our beach. The old site was almost as close to the water but there was impenetrable salt marsh between the site and the water. Since we are on the water we decided to go boating.

We boated on the bay where the water was relatively calm. Some other kayakers told us there were dolphins in the bay, but we didn’t see them. We did see these three pelicans when they flew over.

Me paddling. On the way back John put up his paddle as  a sail so the wind would blow him back to camp.

I just kicked back and floated. This great blue heron was by the campsites.

He walked right by ours. John went shopping this am, he said he did not find good roses for me, but he brought me fresh basil instead. I made bruschetta appetizers for dinner with fresh basil and fresh tomatoes.

  

It was warm enough to eat outside on our picnic table by the beach.