Thanksgiving on Cumberland Island

http://picasaweb.google.com/pjsoutherngal/112206AOCCumberlandIsland
go to this site and you can see some of the pictures that Paula took this past weekend on our trip to Cumberland Island with the AOC (Atlanta Outdoor Club)...It was soooo fantastic...

We all met in St Mary's on Wed night... where 4 of us (2 guys & 2 girls) shared a room so we could meet up with rest of the group and get an early start in the morning... Joe got the room at no cost with his Holiday Inn points so it didn't cost us anything... He and I didn't get to the room until after 11:30 and we were up at 5:30...Joe was our trip leader this time.. he had to call 6 months in advance to set this trip up...A really nice guy, who I rode to and from the trip with..(no there is no romantic interest there but I do feel that I have made another good friend).

The trip started out on Thurs morning catching the ferry to the island. Another first for me but I loved it...I even rode on the upper level with the wind and all...After we got to the island we had to listen to the Ranger about all the things we could do and not do...She was a hoot..first thing I noticed about her was this band aid on her chin that was flappin' around...talk about distracting...then she explained that she had gotten bit by a Brown Recluse while sleeping and had to go to a platic surgeon to get it taken care... She finally took the flippin' band aid off and all you could see was this gigantic hole in her chin...Gross!!!!

We then hiked in 4 miles and set up camp..The picture with me in by the tents is where I set up my tent..it's the 2 man tent behind me...it was the coolest place under these great Oak trees with moss hanging from them..the best thing about this camp site was there was a real bathroom just a short walk down the ways ..it had a real toliet and even a shower...with running water but NO HOT water so I didn't take a shower but believe me it was nice having a place to go change your clothes and to use the toliet instead of having to go in the woods...this was a luxury trip believe me. The only disavantage was the campsite we were in didn't allow fires.(the island is in a drought)..so no camp fire at night..but we had a lantern and one of the guys had this cute lil light that burned candles that we used in the middle of the group so we could pretend that we had a campfire after dark...

After gettting everything all set up we all took a hike and ended up on the beach..That's me picking up the Horseshoe Crab...it was still alive (barely) and everyone was chicken to touch it...but not me....That night we all sat around and fixed out freeze dried meals..Just because it was Thanksgiving I had Mashed Potatoes W Gravy & Turkey...It wasn't too good but by then I was hungry enuff to eat anything...and the Captain Morgan Spiced rum I had with my hot Cider helped...

The Ruines is the Dungress Ruines on the south side of the island... which we hiked through the woods to our second day in..way tooo cool...We ate lunch there, did some site seeing...there was a museum and the Progella? was interesting... and relaxed then walked back to camp site on the beach...Another beautiful day...ended by me going to the beach to look at the stars with Sara (who is from England and a total NUT case) and this Army kid and a guy that works for the Forest Service that she and I picked up at the ferry....After a few too many hits of Tequilla, we ended up running on the beach ..it was too cold to go in the water. Talk about being crazy...in the last picture of me you will see me wearing this bright pink scarf..Sara knitted that and gave it to me...She and I had done a trip together in September...in fact she's the one that talked me into going on this one...She camped in a one man tent next to me this time and woke me up 2 nights in the middle of the night because she thought she heard something...I'm not sure what she thought I could do about it...the first night I told her to just ignore it because I figured it was an armidillo and the second night (after I woke up) I figured out that she had left her backpack out side of her tent because there wasn't enuff room in her tent and the animals were trying to get in it...so I got out, chased off some kind of varmit...not sure what it was...all I saw was these lil beady eyes in the reflection of my headlamp...got her pack and put it in mine...after that we all slept good...

As you can see we saw a lot of the feral horses..that and lots & lots of armadillos...I think my favorite group of horses was the family of black horses with the mare laying down..we came upon them around a corner in the wilds unexpected on our third day in.. The first night in 2 of the guys ran into a couple of horses in the dark by the bathrooms..said all they could see was there eyes...they ran by my tent (the horses not the guys) while I was in it and it sounded like a herd of horses....LOL....

I also saw the sunrise on the beach Friday and Saturday morning which was totally AWESOME!!!!

The mansion we are in front of was massive (it's called Plums Orchard)..we hiked 8 miles our third day just to see it ..it was on the north side of the island.the neatest thing was coming out of the woods to see this front of this mansion ..the drive way was lined with these humoungus Cypress tress.. the only Cypress trees I saw on the whole island...the right wing is an enclosed pool that you have to see to believe... there is no one living there..the NPS is redoing the whole thing..

We ended our last night by eating dinner on the dock and watching the sunset over the marshes. By then there was just 5 of us from the group left. Sara went with her friend Rob and a couple left to go home that morning...That's the picture of me with my coat and hood up..it was breezy but still worth it..The sun going down over the marshes was a sight that will stay with me for a long time..it was so quiet and peaceful....it was a 3 mile trip in the dark back to camp...interesting...but fun...and I lead the way...whooa...

There was 8 of us on this trip but we ran into other AOC members that we knew were camped in other spots so that was neat too.

Foz (one of the guys in our group who just happens to be the president of the AOC) figured we walked 40 miles in 3 days...no wonder I'm tired...but it was well worth it..

We ended our trip by getting up early Sunday morning..packing it all up and hiking back to the main dock...then the ferry ride back..after meeting up with some of our freinds we all went to a Chinese All you can Eat Buffet and did we ever put a dent in the buffet...it was like we hadn't eaten in a week....Fresh food not freeze Dried never tasted so good....I was really craving some fruit and veggies...
Then we all said our goodbyes and headed back to Atlanta..by the time I got home and thro my door it was around 9:30 that night....Whew....