Matt and I on the tip of the Peninsula
I got a call sometime early last fall from my good friend Matt who lives in Portland, Oregon. He was going to be in Pensacola FL on business . He thought he might have some time over the weekend for a visit. Pensacola is about a 4-5 hour drive from Albany but is a heck of a lot closer then Portland!
After discussing all of our options, Matt and I decided to meet half way. Well not exactly half way but close enough. I took the opportunity to reserve us a campsite at St. Andrews State Park:
http://www.floridastateparks.org/StAndrews/. I must admit that it is one of my favorite spots in FL. There's great camping, you're right on the water, awesome fishing, surfing, white sugar sand beaches, sand dunes, a snorkeling lagoon and a decent diving site.
Florida is a great place to be in the fall. Although it may be cool, The water is often relatively warm...ish. It's not uncommon to have 80 degree days either and the humidity is often lower than the summer. By far the best part about fall in Florida is the lack of tourist who descend there like ravenous locusts in the summer.
Looking down the remote peninsula beach
For this trip, I packed for everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. Camping, fishing, sea kayaking, snorkeling and biking; all for two. Anne would sit this one out as she was in the process of growing some placenta, cord and a baby. Our options were wide open, but we had entertained the idea of sea kayaking out to Shell Island. It is only accessible by boat and is very remote...but like most of my trips, things got a little interesting.
We both arrived at about the same time. It was extremely foggy. We set up our tent (which we did not stake down), and left to get fishing license and to find a restaurant. Fl use to sell a 3 day out of state license for like $7 but we found it was now something like $29 so forget that! A little disappointed we found a restaurant and went in for pizza and a couple of beers. While we were talking we started to notice a strange groaning noise, people were looking outside and that is when I noticed that the flag pole that had been vertical when we came in was now horizontal and flapping like mad! The restaurant sign was twisting and turning as if it was a bout to launch into the sky and the rain seemed to be moving horizontally as well!
All the TVs in the place were turned to the weather channel where they were featuring a Doppler image of our area that was a rotating circle of red and yellow!
All we could do is laugh. I took a swig of my Guinness and said ,"What do you think the chances are that our tent is still there?" with a laugh and ordered another round. To our surprise the tent was still there when we returned, all be it on its side up against a picnic table. everything had been completely soaked. It was also getting quite windy now and cold. We spent the first night in a hotel room.
The next day we returned, hung out our gear and went to the beach. After watching the 6-7 foot seas swell by, we determined that an attempt at crossing the shipping lane to Shell Island was probably stupid.
Paddling from our campsite to the peninsula
As the day moved on the winds subsided and we decided to paddle from our campsite out the cove and to a secluded peninsula and back to our vehicle we staged. It was fun, we left our boats at our campsite, drove to a take out point where we left the jeep, we then road our bikes back to camp and began our day of paddling. It was a blast. Not as adventurous as we had hoped; certainly no Lake Diablo experience (but that's another story). It was a bit windy on the way back, so with every stroke the waves splashed over the deck. All in all a very enjoyable day out.
Matt riding a small wave in.
We also took time that evening to go on a night bike ride through the park. That was more fun than I think we both expected. The rest of the evening, we sat by our fire catching up and and reliving the same old adventures that we always talk about when we get together.
As Matt rounds the corner a sail boat passes.
On Sunday before we left, I had my mind made up that we would snorkel at least in the lagoon. The tide was out and at first glance it didn't seem worth the wetsuits and fins. Once we got out to the breakers of the jetty we started seeing some cool stuff. I had left my underwater camera in the car figuring visibility would be really low. That was a mistake. 20min into the snorkel Matt pops up yelling that he saw a manta ray.
Not my picture. But this is a Manta Ray
Manta Rays are rather rare, especially in such shallow water. It was more likely that he saw a very common sting-ray in this sandy estuary.
Not my picture. But this is a common Sting Ray.
I should have known better because previously that year, Anne and I happened upon a Manta Ray in that very same cove at the end of a dive in the channel. When we told our diving buddies about it they all gave us the same dismissive,"Yeah sure you did....are ya sure it wasn't a STING ray?"About 10 minutes later a 3-4 foot Manta ray passed under me flanked by about 6 -7 , 2ft MANTA rays. It was awesome! Remember that we are only in about 6 ft of water with a sandy bottom so they really stood out as they majestically "flew" by!
I really enjoyed our visit and look forward to seeing Matt again when the opportunity arises. We always have a great time, great talks and some kind of story to tell afterwords...
Ahwww..... Wigs, you're such a sweet baby.... give me some kisses.
