Cumberland Island National Seashore - Day One

Today my buddy Will and I headed out from Jacksonville to St. Marys, Georgia where we caught a ferry to the Cumberland Island National Seashore. We were meeting some other co-workers that headed over yesterday and when we got to the Ranger station we met up with the final member of our group. The ferry left St. Mary's right on time at 9:00 and arrived on schedule at Sea Camp Ranger Station at 9:45. Unfortunately I made a crucial error and left the camera battery on the charger at home. Thanks to that mistake the pictures in this update will be slim.

After sitting through about a 15-minute Ranger introduction to the Island and getting our backcountry permits it was time to hit the trail. None of us were in a big hurry so we took our time and enjoyed the scenery. The landscape is very appealing and ranges from moderate palmetto stands to lush oak hammocks with a few pine trees thrown in for good measure. The old oaks really added a lot of character to the hike and were gorgeous to admire.

We had hiked about 2 hours along the 8.5 mile Parallel Trail towards Yankee Paradise when we decided to take a quick lunch break. Our South African friend Bruce and I had been snacking along the way but we didn't mind resting while Will enjoyed his lunch in a box. Heck, he even had an after-meal mint!

We took a slight detour (ok, we missed the tiny marker for the Parallel Trail) via Pratts Trail and went through the Stafford campsite. It's the greyline of the island I suppose. The only points of the island with treated water are Sea Camp and Plum Orchard. Stafford has running water with bathrooms and cold showers but drinking water has to be boiled or treated.

From Stafford we headed down a short private road and picked up the PT again which took us through Hickory Hill and across the Willow Pond Trail. Willow Pond will take you down to the beach but we continued north where we intersected the Duck House Trail and the Yankee Paradise campsite. We saw a good bit of wildlife along the way including a lot of birds, numerous armadillos, and even some of Cumberland's famed horses.

Yankee Paradise is a very nice site with two large camping areas. The three of us picked our spots (I took the best trees I could find) and made camp. We were a little surprised that Eric and Andy hadn't made it from Brickhill Bluff yet but figured they were taking their time and sightseeing.

Since we knew we'd lose daylight about 5:30 we decided not to wait for them any longer and began the 1-mile hike to Plum Orchard. As it turns out the guys ended up meeting up with us shortly after we arrived.

The NPS only does tours of Plum Orchard twice a month. We actually lucked out, though, and ran into Jeanie. She's a NPS volunteer that's started living in a renovated apartment inside the mansion for the next 6 weeks. She'd only been there since Sunday so giving as a private guided tour was a good practice for her to go over her notes. It really was a great experience.



Plum Orchard was built in 1898 by Thomas Carnegie and his wife Lucy as a gift for their son George. The mansion is in great shape considering its age and includes 24,000 square feet and over 100 rooms.

Walking in the front door the visitor is greeted by a beautiful sunken fireplace with seats on either side to enjoy its radiant warmth. To the right is a large dining room.



The mansion sports a cavernous marble pool. It's fed by an artesian well and remarkably for its day was actually heated. Its appearance is deceiving when empty and looks much deeper than its 9.5'.



The property that the mansion sits on is absolutely gorgeous. It's easy to imagine the family sitting under the massive oaks that surround the residence while enjoying a superb view of the river.



With a wonderful private tour out of the way and our water supplies refilled we started the hike back to the campsite and arrived just as we were about to lose daylight. We got started on dinner and settled in around what would have been our campfire had it been allowed. We sat in the dark for a couple of hours talking about gear, other adventures we'd taken, and even (gasp!) some of the guys had the gall to discuss work.