Smokies Fireflies and kids

Little River Trail

6/7 - 6/9/21 (2 nights)

2021 Bag Nights: 7

The forecast looked a little wet, but we decided to give it a shot. 

We started off with a light drizzle along the Little River Trail, but it was never very heavy and the rain quit after about an hour. 

The first couple miles of the Little River trail is an old railroad bed, so it is very easy walking.

It parallels the Little River ...

... and crosses on solid bridges. 

Wildlife

Tulip Poplar

Mountain Laurel

After about 2.5 miles the road disappears and we were hiking on a trail.

We got setup at Site 30 and talked to the people who were already there. 

Swallowtail

Large fungus

At one point, there were lots of bees everywhere. They did not bother us, but they were everywhere. 

Time to head home

We ended up not seeing any synchronous fireflies. I think we were at too high of an elevation. The people that camped near us hiked about a half mile down the trail and saw fireflies, but I did not want to do a night hike and river crossing with the kids. Instead of synchronous fireflies, we saw Blue Ghost fireflies. These were really neat, because they are a glowing blue color and the light up for 20 - 30 seconds at a time, so there were blue streaks floating around. 

KY River paddle

 November 8, 2020

It was a beautiful day and my son had been pestering me about kayaking. He really wanted to go camping/kayaking, but I thought the nights/mornings would be cold enough to not be fun for him. So, we went paddling for the afternoon.

I have paddled a little bit on the Kentucky River, but I had never launched at the small ramp near Clays Ferry and I-75. So off we went. We headed down river, but there is not much of a current, so direction doesn't really matter. After a little paddling, we were past the houses on the shore and it felt a little more remote. 

I-75 bridge, almost back to the ramp.

November 28, 2020

I was looking for a long hike to burn off Thanksgiving. My youngest wanted to do something with Dad. There was not way she would manage a good hike, so we went paddling instead. 

Not a lot of photos, it was a lot colder and my feet had got wet launching the kayak so, after a couple hours, my feet were feeling pretty frozen. I asked her to stop paddling since we kept getting out of synch and I wanted to get back to the ramp. As we got close, I wanted to take a photo of the bridge reflections. As I pulled out my camera, I noticed that she was looking a little crooked. I took the photo and said that we were getting close and she jumped. It turned out she had dozed off for a bit :)

Dry Tortugas (FL 2020 - part 2)

Dry Tortugas National Park

July 5 - 8, 2020 (3 nights)

2020 Bag nights: 17

The whole reason for going to Florida at the height of Summer was three nights camping in the Dry Tortugas. The ferry to get to the island only take 10 campers a day. We have three kids and so do our friends, so we needed a day when no other campers had reservations. We also wanted to go for three nights (the max if you take the ferry). Even though my wife was doing this last November, the earliest we could go was the beginning of July. Oh well, it would have been just as hot in June and COVID would have blown up the whole thing anyway.

We had spent a couple days at a resort type place in between Marathon and Islamorada and then drove to Key West the night before the ferry ride to the Dry Tortugas. 

After a very early morning (we had to be at the boat at 6 am to load all the gear) and a 2ish hour ferry ride, we got to Garden Key and unloaded all our camping gear and two sit on top kayaks. As we were still setting up, I looked towards the east and saw a water spout.

I quickly walked to where I could get a better photo, but it was already breaking up. 

We finished setting up and swam in the ocean, had dinner and waited for sunset. Garden Key is the site of Fort Jefferson. I went up to the top of the wall for sunset and was hoping for a good full moon rise photo as well. 

The camp area is to the left. There was a large group near by and a couple small groups, but it was very quiet. 

This is where the moon should have been appearing, but the clouds were too thick on the horizon. 

Lighthouse on Loggerhead Key (about 3 miles away)

I woke up before sunrise and grabbed my camera to go exploring

Fort Jefferson and its moat

Part of the island (Bush Key) is closed for nesting birds, they were very loud

The full moon that I missed the night before

The next day, my youngest and I went exploring inside the fort. 

Neat flower on the banana tree

Inside the walls

Shot Furnace and Wikipedia link about Heated Shot

My wife and middle kid having fun with the kayak

The whole camp area (actually the whole island) was crawling with hermit crabs. I spent a bit of time with my camera. They move really fast and it was hard to get a good photo with a shallow depth of field. I might have got carried away with the number of photos, but all the different shells and sizes were very interesting and it was too hot to do anything else :)

Old machinery on the North Beach

Another boring FL sunset

Our last morning was mostly packing up since everything had to be on the dock before the ferry arrived. We were moving slow in the heat when a neighboring camper mentioned that one of the turtle nests on the beach was hatching. Evidently he had seen about 30 hatchlings. We got there in time to see one turtle moving down the beach and then about 30 minutes later someone else said there were a couple more so we hurried back and saw two more just coming out of the nest. From the park website, I'm pretty sure they were Green Turtles.

Made it to the water

A couple short videos

This was the last one we saw out coming out of the nest. It was moving a lot slower than the other ones, but made it to the sea.

A little more wandering before getting on the boat.

Not photographed: lots of swim time, lots of happy hour time, reading in the shade, some snorkling (I saw a 6ish foot nurse shark about 10 feet below me), some fishing, kids playing hide and seek in the fort, rounds of Mafia/Werewolf before bedtime, stars and the moon. All in all an awesome three nights, hope to make it back someday.