On the Water at Faver Dykes

Sunday October 30 - Wednesday November 2, 2016                                         Most Recent Posts:
Faver Dykes State Park                                                                      Back to Virginia-Celia Comes to Visit
St. Augustine, Florida                                            I Get the Runaround on the Way to Waterfalls and to Spring David

 

SUNDAY-MONDAY

We leave Virginia driving separately.  David was not able to quite finish the installation of the 4 down towing system for Ruby.  We decided to make it a two day rather than a 3 day trip in order to hopefully finish the 4 down installation but that didn’t work anyway.

We stop on Sunday night at a Walmart in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.  Monday night finds us at Walmart in Walterboro, South Carolina.  In both places the parking lots had literally dozens of RVs.  I had no idea so many people headed down at the beginning of November.  I thought the run was right after Christmas.

 

TUESDAY

 

On Tuesday afternoon we pull into our site at the small state park called Faver Dykes.  It’s located on Pellicer Creek and the  campground has 33 sites.   The roads are very sandy and so are the sites.  It’s an older park and feels like “the real Florida” although each site has water and electric.   They suffered some damage in Hurricane Matthew but have cleaned things up very well except for the one way exit road which has drop offs so deep I would recommend you call the park before coming or making a reservation to make sure they have done the work on it they told us they were planning to do.   Driving out was not fun.

 

Pulled into our site isn’t exactly what happened.  Unless we are familiar with the site we are moving in to, we always leave Winnona at the check in and take Ruby to look at the site.  When we do this today, it is clear we “could” get leveled up in the site but since we are only here for two days and  there were so many empty sites, I ask the ranger if we can move into one of the 4 unoccupied handicapped sites which are paved and we assumed level.   He graciously works it all out for us, thankfully he knows the computer system they use,  but when we back in, despite the concrete, this one is far from level.  Perhaps you can see in the picture that we have 4 one inch pads under each front tire.  She’s level now.

 

Campground roads

 

There are a variety of site sizes in the park.  Some wider and others deeper.  Nine of the 28 are listed as 35’ on Reserve America.  There are two walk in sites as well.  Some of them I think could take bigger rigs but you can see from the road pictures that a bigger rig might not be comfortable.;  Also, as I said, many of the sites have leveling problems due mostly to the sand and rain combination.  I have no idea why a paved site was so unlevel.  The park is the sort of place we like, but it wouldn’t suit everyone

The campground is nearly empty when we arrive and I expect this early in the “season” you could walk in during the week.  But not on the weekends.   Here’s the view the gang has out our front window of the empty site across the road.

 

Here’s a couple of other sites with smaller rigs in them.  You can click the pictures to see them full size.

 

After setting up in the site, we take my kayak down to the boat launch at Pellicer Creek so I can walk down in the morning when he goes to the clinic and spend some time on the water.

 

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday is infusion day.  I have set up our reservations for November and part of  December to enable David to use the same cancer clinic multiple times.

He leaves the rig about 7:45 and won’t be back probably until 3:30 or 4:00.  It’s a very long day for him sitting in a chair getting an infusion.  He takes his laptop, his lunch and knows he will spend a lot of the time napping.

Around 8:30 I get my paddles, my pfd, sunscreen, and water for the hike down to my kayak.  It’s a nice walk of just over a half mile.  I definitely have the better day of the two of us.

I’m on the water around 9 and it is a beautiful blue sky puffy cloud day.  Pellicer is a tidal creek as it is on the east coast of Florida not far from the Atlantic Ocean.  The day is predicted to be pretty windy and I wasn’t sure I would go out at all but it seems doable now.  Still in deference to the wind, I will head with the tidal flow and will go a little way and then paddle back against it to the dock and go beyond it about the same distance and then come back with the current in order not to be too far away should the wind really pick up.

The reflections of the fishing pier in the day use area and of the grasses on the creek edge as I pass are magnificent.  

 

 

 

The sky is looking ominous in this direction.  Rain wasn’t mentioned in the forecast but it sure looks like it.

 

 

 

A great egret takes wing as I silently float by. Going with the tide, I don’t have to paddle at all.

 

 

 

 

Skies are looking good in this direction and there’s a little orange fall color in the water from some Long Leaf Pine needles.

 

 

I’ve gone far enough in this direction.  Time to paddle back against the tide.  I see a tricolored heron sitting on a post at the boat dock as I paddle by.

 

 

Continuing to go against the tide, I decide to take a turn into some promising looking channels.  I always love to take these and see how far I can go twisting and turning through the wetlands.

 

 

 

 

Things get narrow and sketchy at points.

 

Eventually I have to turn around before things get too narrow for me to do so with a 13.5 foot kayak.

 

 

Back out in the main creek the winds have picked up and the water is rougher than earlier.

 

 

Perfect time to be going with the tide back to the landing.

 

And here I am.  I pull the kayak up the ramp and secure it to the fence on the side taking my paddles and other things with me as I walk back down the sandy road under the beautiful long leaf pines to the coach.

 

 

 

After dinner, David and I come down to get the kayak and see the sun set.  I just can’t get over both the size of the cones and the needles of these pine trees.  The Native Americans still make beautiful baskets from these needles and they sure could pick up supplies here.  The ground is covered with them.

 

 

 

 

The sunset over the water does not disappoint.

 

 

 

As we leave we look back down the river at the gathering clouds reflected in the water.

 

The post sunset colors throuh the pines are wonderful.

 

The sliver of a moon as we walk back tops of a great two days at little Faver Dykes.

 

Tomorrow we move for a two week stay at Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine..