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.

Florida 2020 (part 1)

 July 1 - 4, 2020

Big Cypress National Preserve and Dolphin Research Center (Grassy Key, FL) and Florida Key Deer Refuge.

We were headed to the Florida Keys and were in no hurry to get to the house we were renting since check-in time wasn't until 3pm. So, we took our time along the Tamiami Trail through Big Cypress National Preserve. 

We did a short hike along a boardwalk. We could hear gators honking, but did not see any. 

We then stopped at stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center which was closed but had a short boardwalk along a pond where we saw a couple gators up close.

Then we continued to the Keys and meetup with friends. A couple days later we went to the Dolphin Research Center. I don't normally like things like this because it feels like it is exploiting the animals. I don't like most zoos for the same reason. With that said, this was way better than something like Seaworld. And it was neat to see dolphins up close.

My wife and kids got in the water while I took photos. They said it was awesome. 

We took our time getting to Key West because of another afternoon check-in time. 

We took a short hike to the Blue Hole where we heard gators but did not see any.

And then drove around a bit exploring and looking for Key Deer. I saw a couple crossing roads in the distance, but by the time I turned around, they were into the brush. I was hoping that the kids would get to see one so I kept driving. As we passed an intersection, I saw a car stopped a bit up the crossroad and I immediately thought "bear jam" like Yellowstone. So I turned around and drove up the road to find a moron out of her car and feeding a deer. There are signs all over saying that it is illegal to feed animals. I stuck my head out the window and yelled that she was breaking the law and she hopped in the car and quickly drove off. I took a couple photos and left the deer in peace.

A little more wandering/driving.

Flamingo in the distance.

And then off to Key West for the big adventure.

Comet Neowise

July 21 2020

Chimney Top, Red River Gorge

I had been kicking myself for missing a couple of really clear nights with very little moon and not trying to see the comet. I looked at the sky around 7:15 (right after dinner) and there were no clouds in the west. I asked my wife if she minded it I drove out to the gorge to check out the comet. Of course she said go right ahead, see you in the morning. I grabbed my camera stuff and filled a Nalgene with water and off I went. I thought I might catch sunset, but for some reason a stretch of the Mountain Parkway was shut so I had to take a side road that cost me about 10 minutes, so I just missed what looked to be a nice sunset. Oh well, not why I was there anyway.

There was still a lot of light so it was a easy/short hike to Chimney Top where I found about 20 other like minded people. I set up off to the side and away from the crowd and waited for it to get dark. 

While waiting, I caught a glimpse of a 1-day old moon. You can just make out the sliver just right of center in the orange part of the sky (look above the valley). This is the youngest moon I have ever seen without a telescope. 

I'll make it easier for you :)

And then the main event. This is with my zoom lens at 105mm.

And then zoomed out or with my 21mm lens. I was happy that the clouds did not come in and ruin the view.

The photo below is a stack of 12 individual photos to get a little more detail.

The sky to the south was lit up with distant lightning the whole time I was waiting for it to get dark and while photographing the comet. Really glad that this did not come closer. After the comet dropped into the clouds on the horizon, I shifted positions to see the Milky Way and the lightning. 

The bright star is Jupiter.

Twin Arches

Twin Arches (Big South Fork)

Sawmill Trailhead

6/14 - 6/17/20 (2 nights)

2020 Bag nights: 14

The weather was unseasonably cool for the middle of June so I figured I would take the kids backpacking for a couple nights to somewhere new. I have spent some time on the west side of Big South Fork but very little on the east side. In addition, I had heard good things about the Twin Arches area, so our destination was settled. 

I planned out a 18ish mile loop for 3 nights with a potential bailout that would make it more like 13ish miles. This seemed reasonable since 5 mile days have not been a problem in the past (note the foreshadowing here).

As we got closer to D-Day, the weather forecast started to look a little more wet, but not so bad that I thought about bailing. 

So load up food and gear and into the car for a 2.5 hour drive. It rained the whole way down (~2.5 hours) and as we were getting close my son (9 years old) says "I don't feel good". He has a past history of car sickness, so I told him hold on, but there was nowhere to pull over. I told his older sister to give him the lunch bag and I hoped to find a pull over. Of course I found a place to pull over just as he emptied his stomach into the empty lunch bag. Once he puked he immediately felt better, but still not 100% and it was still raining. We were just a couple miles from Pickett State Park where we had got a cabin a couple years ago. I could see this ending up being the trip that made my kids hate backpacking so I stopped to see if there was a cabin available, no dice. By then the rain had stopped, so I surveyed the backseat and everyone wanted to go backpacking :)

10 minutes later we were at the trailhead. We headed down the trail towards Slave Falls and then hopefully a nice campsite before everyone got too tired. 

Slave Falls was pretty cool, but there was not a lot of water. It is likely more impressive in the spring. 

The kids were more impressed by the big rock walls on the way to the falls. 

A little farther down the trail we came to Needle Arch which made a good rest break.

And then not much later we came to a great campsite next to the creek. I thought we would make it farther, but everyone was ready to stop. The kids played in the creek for a bit and then easy dinner and bedtime as it got a little colder once the sun dropped below the ridge.

Woke up the next morning and it was a little chilly for them, somewhere in the upper 50s (I thought it was perfect). We took our time packing up and then headed down the trail towards Twin Arches. 

About 1/2 hour into our hike, my son was in the lead and he says "Bear". I did not see anything at first and assumed he saw an odd shaped log or something. I caught up to him and then came around a large tree and there was a 3ish year old black bear about 15 feet up the hill just looking at us. I was so surprised I said "Oh Shit" and told the kids to get behind me. I waved my hands and banged my hiking sticks together and the bear just looked at us. I told my kids to start talking and my oldest very calmly said "Hi Bear, go away bear" while the other two just sort of yelled. The bear looked at us for a couple more seconds and then ambled up and over the hill and out of sight. 

I was very proud of my kids for not panicking and especially for my oldest being very calm. I have repeatedly emphasized that you don't run from a dog or a bear because either one will want to chase you. Evidently, that lesson has sunk in :)

Not much later, we ran into a mom, dad and two teenage daughters who had heard that there was a bear on the trail ahead of them. They asked if we had seen it and what should they do if they saw it. I told them that the chances of them seeing it were small but do what we did and they should be fine. And then we moved down the trail. 

 

Not much later we got to a trail intersection and "Jakes Place". I suspect it was an old homestead, but all that was left was a sort of open area and these allium like flowers. 

And then we started getting interesting geology, really big rock walls and shelters. This made a good lunch spot and play area.

This is a pano attempt to capture how big a nearby shelter was. The pano makes it look deeper than it really is, but gives an idea of scale, the tree in front is about 100 feet tall and the large rock in the right foreground is about 10 feel tall.

And then we got to Twin Arches. This is the North Arch, the man in the middle provides a bit of scale. 

We climbed the stairs to the top of the arch and then followed a user trail and a short scramble to a great view. As we were climbing down we ran into the family from right after the bear encounter, they never saw a bear. 

Then check out the South Arch, again for scale, my kids are the small color blobs on the lower right. 

Interesting flowers, never seen these before.

We hiked down towards Charitt Creek Lodge (a hike in lodge in Big South Fork) and then had a decision to make. We had originally talked about 3 nights, but we had been going a lot slower than I expected. If we kept going down the trail, we were setting ourselves up for a long last day. I gave them the choice of find a campsite nearby and head to the car after 2 nights or go longer and everyone voted for 2 nights. At this point, the three of them bickering with each other was wearing me out, so two nights sounded pretty good. Not long after, we found a great site next to the creek, not far from the lodge. My son wanted a fire so I sent them off to find wood in a very picked over area. They found enough for one fire and I gave them the choice of evening or morning and everyone voted for morning. 

Here they are in PJs the next morning enjoying the warmth. My son thinks that a Buff is like a face mask :)

We packed up and climbed the steep trail to the gravel road and then a road hike of a couple miles got us back to the car. To pass the time, we played a new game where I was the genie granting them each three wishes, but I twisted it around so their wishes did not work out the way they expected (think King Midas and everything he touches turns to gold, including his daughter). So a box of Twinkies exploded in their faces, the flying dragon choose to feed on the neighbors, the flying car need special fuel. My oldest liked trying to outsmart the genie, but my son hated not getting his way :) Oh well, it made the couple miles go by quickly. 

This ended up being a standard "not what I planned, but still good trip". Most importantly, all three kids had fun and want to go backpacking again.