Around the point and back

Friday May 10, 2013
Site 33, Fort Pickens Campground
Gulf Islands National Seashore

 

Despite the weather, predictions and reality, this is an excellent full day. 
Too full to do in one post.
So here is Part I.

 

 

It all starts out with just the half  mile nature trail.

 

 

 

 

Today is not a running day (BIG smile).  Even though rain is predicted for most of the day, it isn’t raining now, so I go out before breakfast to walk the campground nature trail.  David hops to and joins me.  It’s billed as a half mile walk identifying the common flora of the dunes.   And so it is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a dune trail of course it is sandy.  The birds are singing up a storm, especially the cardinals and mockingbirds. There are numerous osprey flying overhead, some carrying fish.  They have a lot of nests in the snags and I’m assuming with all the fish carrying that there are little ones in the nests although I am not close enough to actually see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a lovely cloudy morning. Great for a walk in a fairly unshaded area.  The numerous tall snags appear to have been pine trees and many very young slash pines are growing up.  Some areas have dead live oaks, others very unhealthy looking live oaks and a few have lovely healthy specimens.  I wonder all along the trail why there isn’t an educational sign explaining what happened here.  I assume somehow excessive salt killed these trees and many bushes.   But still there are lovely wildflowers and a beautiful brown thrasher on the path.  He steps back just as I take his picture so his tail doesn’t show to its full length.  I don’t realize this until I see the picture later.   But he has a great look doesn’t he?

 

 

 

 

 

Live Oaks are lovely both when they are alive and when they are not.

 

 

 

 

After walking the nature trail, I look again at the map and see there is a section of the Florida trail that goes through the seashore just beyond the nature trail.

Long distance hiking trails have always intrigued me.  The AT goes very near the farm and I’ve hiked numerous sections of it.  I always wanted to do the whole thing. Fort Pickens is the start of the Florida Trail and Big cypress is its terminus. We had been at the trail’s exact southern point in Big Cypress earlier in the year and I want to find the exact northern point here at Fort Pickens.   The trail has an orange blaze throughout the state.  Here is a section VERY close to the beginning.  I need to hunt up the starting point.  But not just now.

 

 

 

And then I see something else.  Am I easily distracted or what??

 

 

Walking over to the Florida Trail, I catch a glimpse of what looks like a path through some cattails so we take another off trail adventure.   This is a short one but it has lovely wildflowers too. 

 

 

 

 

This is a collection from both trails but I’m not certain of some.  I’ve done my best to identify them.  If you know better, please let me know.

 

 

 

 

The hidden trail leads us over to the bay  where we find this little cutie.

 

 

 

 

The short hike leads into a much longer one.

 

 

Seeing this view, we decide to take the advice of several commenters who said walk from the bay around the island’s point and back to the campground.   It still looks like rain, it still isn’t raining and tomorrow is our last day here so we decide to take our chances.

But I haven’t had breakfast so back we go for toast and cereal with almonds, bananas, raisins but no fresh strawberries…..very sorry their local season is over.  When we set back out to retrace our steps to the bay, we do take our raincoats since it has started spitting and rain is predicted for all day.

Our walk around the point and back turns into something a little bit different.  But that’s for tomorrow……………...