Day #117 – Day Trip to the Forgotten Coast

Perry FL

We have modified our travel plan somewhat.  Instead of traveling west towards Pensacola, we’ve decided to head northward into Georgia, then west through Alabama and Mississippi, then south to New Orleans.  When I started this journey, I had hoped to do less planning – to start each day with, “Well, where do you want to go today?”  It was a romantic notion that didn’t last long.  A certain amount of planning is apparently necessary to make things happen.  Today, we planned to drive up along the Gulf coast as far as we wanted, in lieu of traveling all the way to Pensacola.

We packed some healthy munchies and headed out.  We soon saw a Brown Sign and turned into the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Marks_National_Wildlife_Refuge and http://www.fws.gov/saintmarks). 

This official wilderness area is a winter spot for the endangered Whooping Crane.  We didn’t see any cranes, but were told they were getting ready to migrate north for the summer.  The manager of the refuge has applied for a grant to install a web camera into the protected area where the cranes live, but she hasn’t received any monies yet.

We completed a very slow drive-through of this refuge, stopping many times to take photos.

We drove all the way to the St. Marks Lighthouse, where we parked and walked for a bit.  We walked along the beach where we saw cactus growing next to palms, as well as all types of birds.  After lunch, we headed back to the main road.

We saw some interesting signs along the way.  Worm grunting (http://www.wormgruntinfestival.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worm_grunting) was new to us, but is an annual event in this area.  By the way, “Sopchoppy” is pronounced “sap chappy”.  Who knew?!?

We were thinking fondly of our friend Linda when we photographed this sign for a kayak outfitter in Carabelle.  We later learned we were very near Tate’s Hell State Forest (http://www.fl-dof.com/state_forests/tates_hell.html) at the time.  Who knew?!?  In this small town, we found a great spot for a bite to eat – Carabelle Junction.  Kelly had a Ruben and I had a turkey/avocado sandwich.

Bears are becoming more common around here and this sign warned us to beware of moms with babies.

My favorite sign of the day went by too fast for a photograph – Jesus Died for MySpace.

Along the way, we kept our eyes open for a campground near the beach.  We drove through one that looked good on the web, but was too crowded for our comfort.  We happened upon another campground that looked promising.  After we drove into it, we realized nearly all the trailer roofs were covered with a thick blanket of pine needles, indicating nearly all were full-timers.  There was lots of junk in most of the trailer “yards” and we quickly decided this was not a campground for us.  We drove out the back of the property and turned onto a dirt road.  We were immediately greeted by a pre-adolescent boy carrying a loaded M16 rifle with scope.  As soon as we turned the truck around, we saw the sign – “Watch for Children”.  Kelly wished we’d seen the sign warning us to beware of children a bit earlier; I thought it was terrible to make such young children walk guard duty.

At the mouth of the Apalachicola River, we discovered the St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.fws.gov/saintvincent).  The visitor center was closed, but we got some good photos of the scallop boats that had returned to their docks.

Nearby, we found the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/apalachicola/info.htm).  They were getting ready to close, so all we saw inside were a honey bee hive, tanks of turtles, and tanks of fish.  We walked along their boardwalk, through their swamp, to an observation deck.  Using the scope, we spotted a capsized fishing boat, an osprey nest, and an eagle nest.

We drove all the way to St. George Island before turning north to drive through the Apalachicola National Forest, to the Interstate, and home.  The bridge to St. George Island was nearly three miles long.  Cold and windy with rain.   We bought some fresh local scallops at a trailer near the lighthouse and headed back for the mainland.