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Why Did We Wait So Long? Trip Report 10/15-10/22 Part VI
Why Did We Wait So Long? Trip Report 10/15-10/22 Part VI
It's the weekend - but how can you tell?
Saturday morning dawned clear and bright.
After breakfast we loaded our snorkeling gear headed toward the east end of the island.
Near Skinny Legs we caught a glimpse of the animals playing soccer:
The referee and his assistant were running late:
Our aim was to snorkel at Pelican Rock. According to FF&FWD we could enter the water at either Long Bay or Hansen Bay. We finally deduced that Hansen Bay was also known as Vie's Beach. Since we had passed by there on our way to Sloop Jones' place the day before and therefore knew where we were going, we decided that's where we'd go.
Our early start had us in Vie's parking lot well before her scheduled opening time of 10:00AM.
We walked across the street and saw that the gate barring access to the beach was not locked. I had a feeling that we could likely go ahead and go to the beach there, and pay Vie once we were out of the water and she was open, but I wasn't sure. The last thing I wanted to do was to anger someone by appearing to ignore the local protocol, or even worse, appear to be trying to sneak in without paying.
After mulling it over for a few minutes we decided to just drive to Long Bay instead. The scenery was, of course, beautiful!
According to the book we were to take the paved road east until it ended, then park somewhere that didn't block any of the private driveways. The only place that we were sure met that criteria was by the dumpster, so that's where we parked. We didn't see a trail to the beach, so we just walked alongside a fence that ran from the road to the water. It was alonside a beachfront house that didn't look to be occupied.
There was no one else along the shore or in the water. We walked to the right side a bit to get more directly in front of what had to be Pelican Rock to enter the water. We put our gear bag on a big rock, donned our booties, and waded in put the rest of our gear on. I managed to poke my foot in the side with a sea urchin, right through my bootie. I must have just touched it because it didn't hurt too bad, within fifteen minutes or so I didn't even think about it, and the tiny mark it left was invisible by the next day.
We really enjoyed the snorkeling around Pelican Rock. The visibility was excellent, and there was alot of sea life. Toadfish, trunkfish (babyies!), squirrelfish, tangs, parrotfish, all of the usual suspects! Underwater it looks like a big pile of rocks and we made our way around it, as well as crossed over them from several different directions to see what we could see. There is also a row of coral heads close by, and we swam over and around them on our way back to the beach. We came in closer to the unoccupied house than where we had entered, there was an area with more sand and fewer rocks (and sea urchins!)so getting out of the water was easier than when we went in.
After retrieving our gear bag (still no one on the beach or in the water) we walked back to the jeep. A couple from North Carolina were just driving up and parked close to us. When they got out of their car they asked "is this Haulover?"
It seems that we're not alone at not quite knowing where we are at all times here! We told them that they had passed Haulover (with the disclaimer "as far as we can tell"), but recommended that since they were here to go ahead and check out Pelican Rock. As we drove away they were tracing our steps along the fenceline towards the beach.
We stopped at Vie's Snack Shack on the way back. She was open, and I think we were the first customers of the day. I ordered the garlic chicken and johnnycake plate. She was just getting the oil heated up so we had plenty of time to hang out and look around.
We talked to Vie a bit, and a couple of local workers stopped by to get a drink, and it was interesting listening to the conversation she had with them.
We thought this little "Cat Shack" with its rat intensive menu was cute, but Vie told us it serves a real purpose - she puts cat food in there so that the local feral cats won't bother her customers.
Apparently we weren't the only ones waiting for our chow:
Or maybe, the cat was more interested in this:
When I asked about the beach access Vie said that as long as the gate isn't locked you can put your money in the slot in the box mounted on top of the gate and go on in. I supose a sign saying so would have helped, but maybe she doesn't want to advertise the fact that "there's cash in this box". So I suppose we would have been OK just going in earlier, but we added to our driving adventures by going further up the road.
The chicken and johnnycake were delicious! I was in heaven - we'd just finished a nice, private snorkel, had Vie's Snack Shack all to ourselves, there was a little breeze, it wasn't too hot yet, no bugs to speak of were out, and I was having a great snack at a place I considered to be a pilgrimage of sorts for me!
Since the day was still young, the breezes were blowing, and we'd already gotten a snorkel in, we thought it might be a good time to hike a trail or two. We headed toward Salt Pond Bay.
At the junction of the two trails we decided to hike to Drunk Bay first, just to see how it went. Here's Leslie at the beginning of the hike:
It was actually a very short walk, mostly through brush thickets past the salt pond until we saw the beach at Drunk Bay. It surprised me how different the coastline looked here than anything else I'd seen on the island. Rugged, sort of like northern California on a smaller scale, with relatively rough surf (the wind was blowing at a pretty good pace by this time).
After spending a little while looking at all of the "sculptures" left behind on the beach, and climbing on some of the rocks, we headed back towards the trailhead. But not before leaving our "contribution" (how sappy are we?)
It was probably noon or later by this time, but without considering that, and the advice in the book, we set off to hike the Ram Head trail.
The book said that this trail takes about 40 minutes each way. If you're in good shape, and especially if you do a bit of hiking, that's a conservative estimate because we covered it in just about 40 minutes exactly, from the sign at the end of Salt Pond beach to the top of Ram Head, and we stopped a couple of times to catch our breath and/or take a drink. You really want to bring plenty of water, especially if you're as foolish as we were to do this in the middle of the day!
This trail starts a little above the beach, then there's a section where you are walking on the rocks on the beach (Blue Cobblestone Beach perhaps?)
Then you do some switchbacks through trees and brush as you encounter the most vertical gain of the hike, then you're back in the open, past "the saddle", and on up to the top! The views along the way, and from Ram Head itself are awesome!
The hike back seemed more grueling, maybe because you're hotter, and the lower you get, the less breeze you have. Not to mention you don't have the psychological payoff of reaching the end of the trail to keep you pumped. At any rate, I was afraid that the hike was going to finish Leslie off! She had given some of her water to an older gentleman on the trail that had neglected to bring any, and I know she could have used it at the end. We finally made it back to the jeep a little before 3:00PM. We turned on the A/C in the jeep for the first part of the trip back!
We took Centerline all the way into Cruz Bay so that we could stop by the newly re-opened Fish Trap Market to get some fresh fish to cook for dinner. I was hoping for mahi or tuna, but they had neither, but I was able to get a couple of very nice tilapia filets for what I thought was a very reasonable price.
The pool at the villa never felt so good! A quick rinse of the gear, then inside with a beer for a nervous three hours as the Gators held on to beat Kentucky in a wild shootout of a football game! Once that (and my nerves) was settled, we grilled the fish, marinated in Cruz Bay Grill Rub Citrus Marinade, with some rice and veggies. Leslie hit the hay shortly after that, and I passed out on the sofa watching LSU and Auburn play.
Snorkeling, Vie's, hiking, fresh fish, and SEC football featuring a Gators win - am I in heaven?
Saturday morning dawned clear and bright.
After breakfast we loaded our snorkeling gear headed toward the east end of the island.
Near Skinny Legs we caught a glimpse of the animals playing soccer:
The referee and his assistant were running late:
Our aim was to snorkel at Pelican Rock. According to FF&FWD we could enter the water at either Long Bay or Hansen Bay. We finally deduced that Hansen Bay was also known as Vie's Beach. Since we had passed by there on our way to Sloop Jones' place the day before and therefore knew where we were going, we decided that's where we'd go.
Our early start had us in Vie's parking lot well before her scheduled opening time of 10:00AM.
We walked across the street and saw that the gate barring access to the beach was not locked. I had a feeling that we could likely go ahead and go to the beach there, and pay Vie once we were out of the water and she was open, but I wasn't sure. The last thing I wanted to do was to anger someone by appearing to ignore the local protocol, or even worse, appear to be trying to sneak in without paying.
After mulling it over for a few minutes we decided to just drive to Long Bay instead. The scenery was, of course, beautiful!
According to the book we were to take the paved road east until it ended, then park somewhere that didn't block any of the private driveways. The only place that we were sure met that criteria was by the dumpster, so that's where we parked. We didn't see a trail to the beach, so we just walked alongside a fence that ran from the road to the water. It was alonside a beachfront house that didn't look to be occupied.
There was no one else along the shore or in the water. We walked to the right side a bit to get more directly in front of what had to be Pelican Rock to enter the water. We put our gear bag on a big rock, donned our booties, and waded in put the rest of our gear on. I managed to poke my foot in the side with a sea urchin, right through my bootie. I must have just touched it because it didn't hurt too bad, within fifteen minutes or so I didn't even think about it, and the tiny mark it left was invisible by the next day.
We really enjoyed the snorkeling around Pelican Rock. The visibility was excellent, and there was alot of sea life. Toadfish, trunkfish (babyies!), squirrelfish, tangs, parrotfish, all of the usual suspects! Underwater it looks like a big pile of rocks and we made our way around it, as well as crossed over them from several different directions to see what we could see. There is also a row of coral heads close by, and we swam over and around them on our way back to the beach. We came in closer to the unoccupied house than where we had entered, there was an area with more sand and fewer rocks (and sea urchins!)so getting out of the water was easier than when we went in.
After retrieving our gear bag (still no one on the beach or in the water) we walked back to the jeep. A couple from North Carolina were just driving up and parked close to us. When they got out of their car they asked "is this Haulover?"
It seems that we're not alone at not quite knowing where we are at all times here! We told them that they had passed Haulover (with the disclaimer "as far as we can tell"), but recommended that since they were here to go ahead and check out Pelican Rock. As we drove away they were tracing our steps along the fenceline towards the beach.
We stopped at Vie's Snack Shack on the way back. She was open, and I think we were the first customers of the day. I ordered the garlic chicken and johnnycake plate. She was just getting the oil heated up so we had plenty of time to hang out and look around.
We talked to Vie a bit, and a couple of local workers stopped by to get a drink, and it was interesting listening to the conversation she had with them.
We thought this little "Cat Shack" with its rat intensive menu was cute, but Vie told us it serves a real purpose - she puts cat food in there so that the local feral cats won't bother her customers.
Apparently we weren't the only ones waiting for our chow:
Or maybe, the cat was more interested in this:
When I asked about the beach access Vie said that as long as the gate isn't locked you can put your money in the slot in the box mounted on top of the gate and go on in. I supose a sign saying so would have helped, but maybe she doesn't want to advertise the fact that "there's cash in this box". So I suppose we would have been OK just going in earlier, but we added to our driving adventures by going further up the road.
The chicken and johnnycake were delicious! I was in heaven - we'd just finished a nice, private snorkel, had Vie's Snack Shack all to ourselves, there was a little breeze, it wasn't too hot yet, no bugs to speak of were out, and I was having a great snack at a place I considered to be a pilgrimage of sorts for me!
Since the day was still young, the breezes were blowing, and we'd already gotten a snorkel in, we thought it might be a good time to hike a trail or two. We headed toward Salt Pond Bay.
At the junction of the two trails we decided to hike to Drunk Bay first, just to see how it went. Here's Leslie at the beginning of the hike:
It was actually a very short walk, mostly through brush thickets past the salt pond until we saw the beach at Drunk Bay. It surprised me how different the coastline looked here than anything else I'd seen on the island. Rugged, sort of like northern California on a smaller scale, with relatively rough surf (the wind was blowing at a pretty good pace by this time).
After spending a little while looking at all of the "sculptures" left behind on the beach, and climbing on some of the rocks, we headed back towards the trailhead. But not before leaving our "contribution" (how sappy are we?)
It was probably noon or later by this time, but without considering that, and the advice in the book, we set off to hike the Ram Head trail.
The book said that this trail takes about 40 minutes each way. If you're in good shape, and especially if you do a bit of hiking, that's a conservative estimate because we covered it in just about 40 minutes exactly, from the sign at the end of Salt Pond beach to the top of Ram Head, and we stopped a couple of times to catch our breath and/or take a drink. You really want to bring plenty of water, especially if you're as foolish as we were to do this in the middle of the day!
This trail starts a little above the beach, then there's a section where you are walking on the rocks on the beach (Blue Cobblestone Beach perhaps?)
Then you do some switchbacks through trees and brush as you encounter the most vertical gain of the hike, then you're back in the open, past "the saddle", and on up to the top! The views along the way, and from Ram Head itself are awesome!
The hike back seemed more grueling, maybe because you're hotter, and the lower you get, the less breeze you have. Not to mention you don't have the psychological payoff of reaching the end of the trail to keep you pumped. At any rate, I was afraid that the hike was going to finish Leslie off! She had given some of her water to an older gentleman on the trail that had neglected to bring any, and I know she could have used it at the end. We finally made it back to the jeep a little before 3:00PM. We turned on the A/C in the jeep for the first part of the trip back!
We took Centerline all the way into Cruz Bay so that we could stop by the newly re-opened Fish Trap Market to get some fresh fish to cook for dinner. I was hoping for mahi or tuna, but they had neither, but I was able to get a couple of very nice tilapia filets for what I thought was a very reasonable price.
The pool at the villa never felt so good! A quick rinse of the gear, then inside with a beer for a nervous three hours as the Gators held on to beat Kentucky in a wild shootout of a football game! Once that (and my nerves) was settled, we grilled the fish, marinated in Cruz Bay Grill Rub Citrus Marinade, with some rice and veggies. Leslie hit the hay shortly after that, and I passed out on the sofa watching LSU and Auburn play.
Snorkeling, Vie's, hiking, fresh fish, and SEC football featuring a Gators win - am I in heaven?
Come see us!
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Kentuckygirl
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naturegirl
- Posts: 480
- Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:44 am
Great pictures and reporting Augie!
Thanks so much.
Thanks so much.
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Very nice. Again, a most excellent report and pictures. I’ve always wanted to hike some of the trails, but my better-half is not much for hiking in the heat. Maybe on the next trip I’ll get up before the sun and try a trail or two. Thanks Steve
FlaGeorge
"Swim Against The Current - Even a Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow"
"Swim Against The Current - Even a Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow"
Wow, that sounds like such a great day! I've never snorkeled at Pelican Rock, it is definitely on the list for next trip.
We found lots of baby trunkfish too, actually lots of baby fish in general this time. The most common sightings, besides the ever present baby grunts, were big schools of baby ballyhoo and also baby yellowtail snappers. I even found a baby spotted drum! It must be the time of year for babies.
Thanks for another great report!
We found lots of baby trunkfish too, actually lots of baby fish in general this time. The most common sightings, besides the ever present baby grunts, were big schools of baby ballyhoo and also baby yellowtail snappers. I even found a baby spotted drum! It must be the time of year for babies.
Thanks for another great report!
It's like looking in your soup and finding a whole different alphabet.
