Thursday, March 24, 2016

Cumberland Island

In February, we enjoyed a weekend on Cumberland Island.

We stayed at the Spencer House Inn on St. Marys, Georgia before taking the ferry to Cumberland.
Excited for breakfast!


On a boat!


After orientation we hopped on our bikes with our packs!



The road to Stafford Camp.



Here is our campsite, complete with bike parking and bag hanging!









An armadillo can make a lot of noise in the saw palms.



After making camp, we biked north to Plum Orchard.

Airport parking!



One of the 150 or so feral horses on the island.



The driveway to Plum Orchard.



Behind Plum Orchard, we saw a lot of birds, including more than a dozen Wood Storks!









There's probably a gator in this pond.



View of the Plum Orchard mansion.



View toward the marsh.



More horses!


Before dinner, we gathered firewood. This field has just completed a prescribed burn to clear underbrush. It smelled like smoke.




On Saturday morning, we woke up to head all the way to the north end of the island.





A snack break!












We took the South Cut trail toward Lake Whitney.




View of Lake Whitney!




Lunch spot - knees are the perfect place for cheese cubes!







Our trail took us over dunes.








We also passed an alligator!









We headed back to the main road and headed farther north to see the First American Baptist Church.






We headed to the beach along the North Cut Trail and saw armadillos happily digging!










We biked home along the beach!



































The next day we biked to south to the Dungeness ruins.























We then headed across the  marshes toward the South End ponds
.

















There were hundreds of very small crabs on the pathway.



We saw one of the South End ponds




The South End horses were wary of our presence.














We made another friend on our way back up to the beach.











We hiked back toward Dungeness, grabbed our bikes and headed toward Sea Camp.













The next morning we headed out toward Sea Camp to catch the 10am ferry. We left early to make sure we had plenty of time to haul all our gear.
The morning path was much more pleasant than the night time path!



An incredible island with much more to explore!