Return to Jekyll Island part II...

  1 March 2022

Blythe Island Regional Park Campground, Blythe Island, Georgia

Marc-  Today we had sunny skies and light winds out of the North.  It was an excellent day for bicycle touring on Jekyll Island and its extensive bike paths.  Entry to the Island is controlled by a toll booth collecting $8.00 per car.  The booth is adjacent to the Georgia State Police Barracks on the causeway to the Jekyll Island bridge.  Our first stop was the marina where we stayed twice during our 2020-2021 trip aboard Lucy III.  The staff had been very helpful and I had seen two motorsailers there that interested me.  The motorsailers were still there but they looked dated.  I spoke with one owner whose boat needed repairs.  It's not a model we're interested in.  The other is one we have interest in, a Gulf Star, but this particular boat is too old  There was some excitement at the docks as some staff were assisting an injured pelican.  The trick was to throw a sweatshirt over his head and then hold his beak while they raised him with a hand under his belly.  

We parked our truck over at the historic village and toured all of the shops.  Sue made a picnic lunch so we set off on the bikes to explore the Western and Northern parts of the Island.  The bike paths led us along the Intracoastal Waterway amid towering live oaks for most of the ride.  We had lunch on a bench looking at the Intracoastal.  We visited the Island's Campground.  It was similar to the county campground we're in.  Spacious sites and a lot of trees.  I saw a horse rental business that takes people for rides on the beaches.  There is a large fishing pier.  Georgia has provided excellent facilities for the public here.  At the pier we went off the main bike path taking a spur that led over a bridge and through a salt water marsh area.  All was well until we had to pass through a bit of standing water and then some soft sand.  The venture was well worth it since this spur brought us to a Northern Atlantic beach filled with live oaks that had once thrived there.  The Atlantic Ocean is slowly reshaping this island by taking sand from the northern end of the island and moving it to the southern end.  This beautiful beach also has a view of the Southern end of St. Simons Island and its lighthouse.  The last spot we stopped at was Horton's Pond where large grass eating carp live with turtles and alligators.

Two motorsailers

Jekyll Island Club

A round of croquet.

Beautiful summer home.

Bottle brush tree.

Our bikes are ready.

View of the Lanier Bridge from the bike path.

Click on the story above for some history.

Horses ready to go.

Our paved path covered by soft sand...time to walk.

Driftwood Beach 

I have always enjoyed climbing trees.

St. Simons Lighthouse across deepwater channel.

The boat is our bikes at Driftwood Beach.

Horton's Pond and a few of its inhabitants.

Grass eating carp.

Swimming away:  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3j_dVok0Bfk

South Beach at Jekyll Island seeing Cumberland Island out in the distance.

A rainy day at Blythe Island...

 28 February 2022

Blythe Island Regional Park Campground, Blythe Island, Georgia

Marc-  I started the day off with a run around the campground in light drizzle.  It was quiet with rabbits aplenty and a few Canadian geese out and about.   Sue and I later enjoyed doing the New York Times crossword puzzle on Zoom with Brian.

Our adventure for the day was visiting the Fort Frederica National Monument on St. Simons Island.  This was a nice visit despite the cool weather due to an excellent National Park Ranger who led our tour of the remnants of the Town of Frederica as well as Fort Frederica.  Ranger Sara led us past towering live oaks draped in Spanish moss to the Town Fortifications, then the streets laid out in a grid, and finally to the fort itself.  Only the foundations remain of the many houses that were once here.  Ranger Sara would stop in front of  a foundation and then show us an augmented reality version of the house that once existed here in the early 18th century.  This was a military town built in the English tradition, built to protect the Colony of Georgia from Spanish Florida.  It worked, as the British forces warded off the Spanish who tried to expel them.  The British forces attempted to dislodge the Spanish based at St. Augustine to the south without success.  

Rabbits of Blythe Island

Visiting Canadian geese

Views of the Schooner Lynx

The Lynx docked at St. Simons 

The Lynx is a topsail schooner used as a privateer and originally built in 1812 in Baltimore to defend the fledgling United States. 

It is Spring here.

The heaviest Spanish Moss on this live oak.

A Seville orange tree planted for shade and its aromatic nature in Colonial Frederica.

Tabby wall section of Fort Frederica. Tabby is a type of concrete used in colonial times and made by burning oyster shells to create lime, then mixing it with water, sand, ash and broken oyster shells. It was used extensively for foundations and fortress walls.

  

View from the Fort.

Christ Church (Episcopal) originally built in 1736.

Back to St. Simons Island...

 27 February 2022

Blythe Island Regional Park Campground, Blythe Island, Georgia

Marc-  Today we returned to St. Simons Island to continue our exploration.  Some of the highlights included climbing the Lighthouse, visiting the World War II Museum in an old Coast Guard base, going to the Coast Guard Beach, visiting the shops in the Village, and playing miniature golf at the Public Library.

St. Simons Lighthouse

View from the Lighthouse

Nearby Brunswick is a major car carrier port.

The downtown beach at high tide. 

The former St. Simons Coast Guard Base. 

(At the old Coast Guard Base)

Sago palm

Coast Guard Beach in the fog.

Liberty Ships were cargo ships built in Brunswick to support the war effort in World War II.

My father was in the US Merchant Marine and served aboard many of these ships during the war.

Many women welders worked in the Brunswick Shipyard.

Scale model of a Liberty Ship.

A live oak in town getting a little extra support.  Live oaks were harvested here on St. Simons Island to construct the USS Constitution in 1797.  Many trees remain all over the island.

Chinese Holly

Indian Hawthorn

There is a new bird at the Campground.