The Dry Tortugas west of Key West

70 miles west of Key West sits a group of islands that when first discovered by the European explorers where reportedly home only to birds and turtles, hence the name Tortugas in honor of the Turtles. Attempts at making them useful were thwarted by the fact that there is no fresh water on the islands, thus the dry was added to the Tortugas.

Nevertheless, the United States Government in the early 1800’s determined that the islands were vital to the security of the southern shores of the United States and began building Fort Jefferson. They built this house upon the sand and although it has had an interesting history, including a stint as the prison holding Abraham Lincoln’s assassin’s doctor, one Dr. William Mudd who was convicted of treason for setting John Wilkes Booth’s leg, the fort was never finished in accordance with its original plans. It was sinking too much and became obsolete while being built. Today, a small park service contingent and tourists on vacation, along with the occasional wayward Cuban refugee,  are the primary people interested in Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas. To get here, you can take the ferry, from Key West.  The boat trip takes a little over two hours and day trippers can come to the island and stay until about 4:30 pm when the ferry returns to Key West.  For the lucky few, however, overnight camping reservations are available.  The reservations are limited and need to be made well in advance, however, the ferry ride can be arranged the day  of your trip.   If you don’t want to ride the boat for 2+ hours to get to the Dry Tortugas you can also take a seaplane from Key West for approximately the same price as the ferry. The seaplane, makes two trips per day and the guests get to stay about the same amount of time as the folks who ride the ferry. We spoke to the pilot who has been flying this route for the last several years and he says he has no intention of giving it up.  Who can blame him, with living in the Florida Keys and making two short trips a day as his primary job?  The plane is bigger than it looks, so if you want to be an overnight camper you can get your gear out here on the plane,  however, we’d recommend the ferry.  You can bring a cooler or two on the ferry which comes in handy since there are no provisions available on the island. Remember that you will be in the DRY Tortugas and that there is no water available on the island. Fill the coolers with ice and water and what ever other beverages and perishable items you will need for your stay and jump on the ferry.  You can also get to the island if you are lucky enough to have your own private boat or a charter.   While we were there a resident of the east coast of Florida showed up in his boat and anchored beside the fort.  He single-handed the trip. I think I would have brought a friend. The limited campsites include a permanent grill and a picnic table, so you are essentially car camping from a boat, with no way to get to a store.

You are in a small grove of trees just to the south-east of the walls of the fort and there is not much else on the island.  There were about 8 of us who came over on the boat and another 5 or 6 who came to the island on a private boat so after 4:30 in the afternoon the entire island was deserted except for the campers and a lone ranger who stayed in his quarters inside the fort.  We were fortunate that we had great weather and were treated to an amazing spectacle in the sky at night as there was no ambient light to diminish the stars.  We sat on the beach in the first picture above just south-east of the fort and were amazed at the stars you never see around civilization. The fort is an unfinished marvel.

As noted above, during the decades it was being built the sheer weight of the millions of bricks began to make the fort sink, thus only the first and third levels of the fort were ever outfitted with cannons. Further, the invention of rifled bore cannons soon made the smooth bore cannons installed on the fort obsolete. The garrison stationed at the fort had to be truly miserable and the letters on display inside the small museum attest to the fact.  Their uniforms were wool and they were required to wear them while stationed here even though the tropical heat and humidity would at times make them unbearable.  A doctor and his family was stationed here, but ironically, the doctor fell ill and died from typhoid fever while Dr. Mudd was imprisoned here.  Mudd then aided the sick and was credited for nursing many of them back to health. Eventually he was pardoned for his role in treating these patients after having been imprisoned for treating the wounded John Wilkes Booth. You will also be entertained by the permanent residents of the Dry Tortugas: the birds including the seagulls and the pelicans.  The eastern part of the island is a bird sanctuary and you are not allowed to go there, but the pilings of the abandoned and long demolished coal resupply station provide hours of bird watching.

The dark area under the pilings is not grass but rather millions of bait fish in schools.  The pelicans dive off the pilings to grab the minnows and the seagulls jump onto the head of the pelicans and try to steal the minnows out of their mouths.  In the water, silver flashes cut through the bait fish (see the circled area) as mackerel feed on the minnows.  The feeding goes on for hours until near sunset when the birds head off to roost. We were here in September, the shoulder season in Key West, when there were few tourists and lots of time.  If camp overnight here, you may never have a more peaceful night.   I’ll update this later on with a few more notes.

Cumberland Island – Why Is that Raccoon after my food?

We returned to Cumberland Island for another back country adventure and naturally took a little too much food with us. We could have eaten it all but we didn’t. We took our usual GRUBPACK back country food  sack made of metal mesh with a heavy-duty hook and loop closure to put the food, pots, plates, and toiletries in to keep the raccoons and squirrels from destroying our tent or backpack. We strung the GRUBPACK sack between two limbs but over the course of a couple of days it moved a little too close to one of the trees.

About 4 am in the morning, Mary shook me saying ” There’s something after the food!” The rattling of the pot and lid in the sack had awakened her. Shining her headlamp out the tent toward the food she started yelling “Hey! Go away!” Then muttered “raccoon.”  I had gotten to the door and saw the little culprit tugging on the rope and trying to grab the bag. I got out of the tent with my headlamp and picked up a hiking pole to flail around with.  At first he ignored me, but then crawled down the tree and retreated a few yards into the palmetto fronds where his yellow eyes gave proof that he wasn’t leaving.

After checking the integrity of the bag, I crawled back into the tent. Before I could settle in, the pot was rattling again. We decided he couldn’t get to the food and if the bag fell, it would still be tied to one of the trees so we just let him work at it. About an hour later the sound stopped. At sunrise the bag was still hanging, intact with all our food and gear no worse for wear.

racoon after my food

Tampa: Beach Camping Oasis 10 minutes from Town

We’ve previously posted articles about backpacking on Cumberland Island, but this post is for those of you who are looking for a great beach campground for car campers.  You’ll find it at Fort  De Soto Park near Tampa, Florida.  According to one of the Rangers we spoke to at the campground, twenty-five years ago Tampa Bay was a polluted mess and the area around Mullet Key on which Fort De Soto  is located had brackish backwater that couldn’t circulate and a dying grassy area  in the bay that soured and smelled, particularly in the summer months.  Cooperation between local, state, and federal agencies and the local conservation groups cleaned up the bay, cut new channels for water flow through and around Mullet Key and today the area is a haven for campers.

The island is reachable by a bridge from the Bayway or by water, but what will strike you is the fact that it has remained largely undeveloped.

Birds on the public pier looking at the beach

If you look at the background in the picture above you will see the stretch of beach running from the Bay Pier up to North Beach.  Note that there is not a single highrise nor even a house on the beach.  If you go south from this point, you’ll enter the Bay pass the Bay pier and reach the tip of the island passing only the Park Headquarters building, restrooms and park concessions.  That is to say, other than the buildings necessary to provide services to the visitors, there are no other buildings on this island.  As you skid through Tampa on I-275, you will not believe you are going to a place as tranquil as this.

Fort De Soto Park Campground sits directly adjacent Anderson Boulevard, so it cannot be missed in terms of passing it by, but it might be missed in terms of getting a reservation.  Reservations are taken 6 months in advance, unless you are a Pinellas County resident in which case you get an extra month.    The campground holds back 10% of its 250 campsites for walk-ins.  On the weekend, a walk-in can reserve a campsite for two nights.   We asked the Ranger at check in about this and when one should arrive to be certain of a campsite.  He said that the Ranger office opens at 7 a.m. , but that walk-ins would often arrive as early as 1:30 a.m. and bring their lawn chairs to sit outside the door.  We checked this story out and on the Friday morning we were there, a person arriving at 2:00 a.m. would have been 5th in line!

The campground is laid out in three sections, a pet area for those camping pet owners who bring their pets along on their adventures and two other area’s across a short bridge over a man-made channel.  The area to the right is primarily for RV‘s and large trailers while the area to the left is primarily for tents and smaller trailers.  Campsites 1 to 85 are in this area, campsites 86 to 164 are in the pet area and campsites 165 yo 233 are in the larger RV area.

At campsite 20 looking past the tent to the water

We’ve camped  in campsites 1 and 20 which are both on the water facing out to the bay.  As you can see from the picture above the campsites are laid out on a shell base to show you the area in which you should pitch your tent or park your RV.  What you can’t see in this picture is that each has electrical service and water service, a grill, a picnic table, potable running water at a tap, and a hook on which to hang your lantern.  A small camp store with a spacious deck for relaxation has most of the supplies you might need, if you don’t want to venture back into town. Each spacious campsite is separated from the adjacent campsites by a border of palmetto bushes and palm trees so each has a sense of privacy.  However, if you are not in the pet area you will have visitors.

racoon at our campsite

It is no surprise to see raccoons in the day or night, so be sure your food is properly stowed  and your trash is properly disposed of in the receptacles provided. The weighted lids are more than a raccoon can lift to get into the bins, and these are not little raccoons.  The ones strolling through our campsite would easily have weighted 15 pounds.  You’ll also be visited by squirrels and birds, but clearly the largest and boldest of the visitors will be the ring-tailed bandits.   As you can see at the right, they are easily frightened and will scurry away or climb a tree as soon as you get near, however, if you are not around they will go through everything you have that’s not tied down.

Campsites 1 to 48, 138 to 153, and 202 to 232 are all on the water facing generally to the west, although many of these have a hedge of bushes between them and the water, however, a large grassy border extends from the campsites to the water.  It makes a great spot to set up your lawn chair late in the afternoon and watch the sunset.

Sunset at campsite 20

In the picture above, you see the sun setting over the other end of the island, which is L shaped, so on the other side of the trees, the sun is settling into the Gulf fo Mexico just beyond the beach.

As mentioned above, there are no developments on the beach.  However, Fort De Soto was built in the early years after the Spanish-American war between 1900 and 1910 and remains substantially intact.  The fort was rendered obsolete by the development  of mobile modern artillery and so the military closed it between WWI and WWII.  None of the governmental entities nor developers had any interest in the island in the 40’s and 50’s and the island was largely managed as a bird sanctuary.

He owns the Island

Today, thousands of birds can been seen and are still protected on the island, therefore, a large part of the island is off-limits as a nesting area, however, the undeveloped beach is therefore somewhat secluded from the central road and bike path and relatively unspoiled.  The beach is widest and most usable from the Gulf pier (fishing is free with no permit required) up to the bird sanctuary at North Beach and above North Beach to the tip of the island.  The beach extends southward beyond the fort and around the bend in the island past the Bay pier to east beach.  At East Beach and North Beach, parking, pavilions and bath houses are supplied in abundance and are well maintained and clean.  The cycling trail runs the length of the island and connects to a multiuse trail that runs along South Pinellas Bayway for several miles.   You can pedal your hybrid or cruise bike along the path for miles without seeing a hill.  The road cyclist zoom past in their spandex on the road, generally disdaining the multiuse path and its slower traffic.

The island and the campground make up one of the better family camping locales on any beach anywhere.  It’s also quite attractive to the RV crowd.   Camp cleanliness and light maintenance is the responsibility of about 8 couples who serve as camp hosts.  They get their campsite free of charge for three months in exchange for 20 hours per week (per person) spent “doing the chores” that are necessary to keep the camp pristine.  A husband and wife team, who were one of the host couples we spoke with, had been on the waiting list to host at Fort De Soto for three years and were thrilled to have finally arrived for their three month stay.  The Rangers we talked to had all been with the park for at least a dozen years and many of the campers had returned for year after year to the park.  One Pinellas county resident shows up at 2 a.m. on Friday nearly every week to get a walk in campsite so he can spend his weekend fishing and communing with nature.

Arrowhead Picnic Area

Separate from the campground, on the north end of the island across from the pavilions and bath houses servicing north beach, a narrow road leads to Arrowhead picnic area.  Again, the seclusion and sense of being out in a wilderness is amazing. The area is as well kept as the remainder of the park with trash cans, bath houses, and picnic tables available for day users.  No overnight camping is allowed in this areas.  You may want to just go sit there and rest by the water, or maybe you’ll rent a kayak and paddle up to here on your way to adjacent Shell island, which is also undeveloped and reachable only by boat.  Either way you’ll find it a tranquil and restful spot.

This place is one of our favorite car camping locales.  It’s clear we aren’t alone in thinking this.  One of the rangers told us that about 10 to 15% of the winter visitors are French Canadians.  One couple we met were from California, another from Maine, another lady from Pennsylvania.  There was a good mix of families with kids on bikes, retiree’s in RV’s, couples hanging out together, minding their own business but happy to wave or converse if you wanted.  You can see more about the campground at http://www.pinellascounty.org/park/05_ft_desoto.htm .   There may be additional posts regarding Fort De Soto on Goneguru.com, however, for one last look at the kind of scenery you’ll find at Fort De Soto State Park, here’s a tree that has been there a long, long time.

Inside the campground at Fort De Soto Park.