Croatan National Forest
OK so I left ya hangin’ for a day or so. I’m sorry but this is such a Sylville kinda place that it’s easy to loose track of time. Sunday was Mother’s Day so of course we each called our Mom’s for a nice chat. Cell phones have changed our lives mostly for the better. We mainly hung around the CG on a beautiful day. There are a few geocaches in the area and a couple right here in the park. We had logged in some a couple of years ago, but one of them (Marsha, Marsha, Marsha) is a puzzle cache where you get the clues for the coordinates from the nice nature trail. We used those to find the cache in the woods. We relaxed some more, and Julie (the camp host) came over for a visit. Her daughter was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer after having battled other cancers in the past. It’ll be an uphill battle. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family.
Monday was an absolutely gorgeous day. It wasn’t very windy or humid so we got the kayaks in the water. As we paddled out into the White Oak River, it was low tide and very shallow. The bottom near the boat landing looks like dark chocolate brownie mix. It doesn’t smell like it though. We didn’t have our GPS with us but I remembered seeing an island cache on the geocache website and thought we might could find it.
It was kind of a long paddle but it was such a nice day that we thought we could do it. We found the little green island and the cache and headed back to the boat landing.
We were paddling into a head wind but we got there by keeping it slow and steady. I was surprised at how shallow it was. Gin got some nice shots of some birds. Here’s a seagull drifting in the air.
And a Snowy Egret at the boat landing. As we approached, he of course flew off down the canal.
This was our first time using the hullavators after rowing for a few hours, and it was nice not to have to lift the yaks over our heads. They weren't cheap but I think they are worth it for us shorter folks. We got back to camp and fixed an early supper. It still felt nice outside so Gin fixed a good campfire. There is lots of honeysuckle at our site so the fragrance fills the air. The hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees like it too.
There was an Osprey drifting on air current way above us and we could hear one in the distance. As the day changed to evening, we sat by the fire and listened to the whippoorwill call for his mate. It was a nice ending to a near perfect day.
