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athousandsmiles’ posts about her beach trip have inspired me to write a little about mine. For some reason it takes a lot of effort for me to get over the I-don’t-feel-like-writing inertia, which is why I rarely journal, so we’ll see how long this post gets. I'm sure I'll warm to it.
I took a trip last week to Cape San Blas in Florida. Camping in Florida in June in the middle of a record-tying heat wave ...? Not so wise. But I figured I had to take advantage of some unexpected time off; I had to do something more than just sit around the house. So I packed up my car and took off for my first ever solo camping trip. I am not a fan of long drives without company, but I took an audio book and some tunes plus plenty of Pringles, gummy bears, sunflower seeds, and homemade trail mix to get me through the drive (which was only seven hours, including stops, so I can't really complain).
I stayed at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, which is in the middle of a small peninsula jutting off of the Forgotten Coast (the romantic name for the coast of the Florida Panhandle). Why the coast has been forgotten, I don’t know, because the beach was beautiful; I’m glad it’s not hugely popular though, because although all the camping sites at the park were full, it felt like I was in the middle of nowhere (I literally was; absolutely no cell service without driving 10 miles). That’s how I like my beach experiences: minimal people, lots of nature.
Here are some pics (none of which I took; I took my camera but never took it out of its case):
The Peninsula. Unfortunately, I never personally got an aerial view :) It’s far more impressive than the view from the ground.
The is what the beach looked like in the mornings (minus the cloud cover). I found that early morning and just before sunrise were really the only times I wanted to spend on the beach. So I’d go from 7-10 am and about 6-8 pm. Otherwise it was too hot; the sun reflecting off the bleached-white sand was scorching. Have you ever been at the beach and actually longed for overcast skies and a little rain?
The beach stretches on pristinely for about 12 miles and is bordered by high white sand dunes spotted with sea grass. Some of the dunes were as tall as houses. Unfortunately you can’t climb the dunes or explore them because they’re fragile. I would have loved to tramp around them.
The sand really is that white. Powdery and delightful to sift one’s toes through.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TRIP:
-Rescuing a little green frog from my tent the first morning. I had never touched a frog before; it made me feel like a brave and magnanimous little nature lover.
-Seeing a sand shark swimming away from me about 6 feet from where I stood wading. It was only about 2 ½ feet long. My first shark encounter :) If it had been big, would I have freaked? Um, yeah, probably. And then I would have felt a rush of elation.
-Watching sand crabs scurry around on the beach every evening. They are only a slightly different shade of white from the sand and are both ugly and beautiful at the same time. They are amazingly fast; sometimes they walk forward but mostly they run sideways. There were two little girls chasing them around with nets the first night, screaming and giggling. It was cute, and they let any crabs go that they caught (they didn’t catch many of the fast little buggers), but I couldn’t help feel bad for the poor crabs: can crabs have a myocardial infarction? I watch too much House; I should just say "heart attack" :)
-Hiking three miles up the beach to a completely secluded spot under a dune. Okay, the hiking part was absolutely miserable in the heat and the unstable sand, but the results were well worth it. Absolutely no one in sight. No one. Blue water. White sand. A dune to rest my back on. I went nudist for about an hour. Very very nice. I sat there against the dune after a little skinny dipping and saw three dolphin not too far out. One of them jumped, to my delight. The hike back was even more painful than the hike in and yet ... I was satisfied.
complacent