New Blog Email Feed and New Hiking trail - Beal Island

NEW EMAIL SERVICE STARTS TODAY

Today I imported all the followers by email into the new email service. 

The service is "follow.it"  I have left the old service in place for a few posts to be sure everyone is aware of the switch. Thus you should receive two emails of each post for a short time. If you didn't receive one from the follow.it service, please check you spam folder.

And now on to today's post.

As you recall, there is a new motor on the dinghy. I went for some more ride time today to continue the break-in process. I rode a short distance up the river from the marina to Beal Island. It is owned by the Appalachian Mountain Club - go figure - no mountains here! But nonetheless, the island has a camping area on the south end of the island and in summer, one can see many beached kayaks of campers.

I have never stopped here before, even though it is only about 1.5 miles away as you can see below.

 

Here is the trail map posted on a tree. I had planned to just stop for a short while and look over the camping area. I didn't know that there were trails on the island. Second new hiking spot this year!!

 

Here is my landing spot. It is quite a lovely view - but note the position of the dinghy - that will become important as you read the remainder of the post. OK - question to my learned friends. Why would that become important?

Not sure what the table below is for - to hang stuff to dry?

And the AMC logo

This is looking south. The marina is to the right just before the land you can see here.

Notice that we are far enough away from open ocean to have cedar trees growing among the spruce trees.

And this is beginning up the east side of the island.

I have now reached the north end and this is White Point. The red buoy marks the narrow spot in the river known as lower hell's gate.

If you look closely you can see the race of the current going south - hint, this is a clue to my question above.

As you can see here from the stone wall, there was once a farm on the island. And the next photo shows a cellar hole.

Back at the south end campsite

And here is what I found when I returned to the dinghy. First off, I knew the tide was going out, but "the island is not so long and I will only be gone a short while." Ooops. It was about a mile long and the trail, with twists and turns and stops to admire, took about an hour and twenty minutes.

No problem, I can just drag it on the beach. Not!!. The beach was quite rocky (no J&J not like the dog)  - not sand. The new motor is quite heavy and the boat is no lightweight. I think I could have done it but one pull and the scrapping sounds convinced me to:

A. Find another means for launching, B. Wait about 11 hours for the tide to return, or C Wait for some kayakers. As option B and C seemed less than appealing, I voted for option A.

And here is the solution. The first photo shows using one log roller.

This was less than optimum so I searched and found some nice cut cedar logs. This did the trick.

Success!!!!

And as a reward for my ingenuity, I was treated to a beautiful full moon rising.

You are free to ask what this photo is about.

Well here is the answer. A large osprey has decided that this is a fine perch from which to scan the waters.  Look closely and you will see a second osprey approaching to challenge for the perch.

 

And as you can see, it is time to say................
 

Good Night and May God Bless