Mother Lode

Chris found an unbelievable spot for sand dollars. There were so many that when you dove down you could grab for three or four on one dive. Unfortunately I had only a small collection bag with me and was too lazy to swim back in. I kept shoving them in the bag and a bunch of them ended up breaking. We collected around 60, ended up with only around 45. There are still plenty out there!

Trek to the Wreck

The start of this quest was a nice sandy beach, the remainder of the hike was rock and moderate bush. You know it's time to leave the island when you have worn out two pairs of hiking boots on the rocks, that's Chris. I still have a bit of sole left on mine, but not much.
We started at 10:30 and were out around 3:15, not too bad.

Success by the Ship Wreck

The rusty mass is part of an old ship, no idea how long it had been there. There was more wreckage scattered along the coastline rocks. While I was reviewing the wreck, Sharie was back in the bush digging out a glass ball!

Clarence Town Harbour

Ship headed to Crooked Acklins, Sea Star. Sharie had a painting to ship there, cost $2 to ship. Photo also of agriculture building, roof was ripped off in last hurricane.

Crab Season on Long Island

About 24 hours after a decent rain in the spring, millions of crabs come out of their holes. It is a favorite sport of Long Islanders to go crabbing. You need a 5 gallon bucket and long tongs. They are usually found crossing the roads, then scrambling back into the bush. Long Islanders are known to throw caution to the wind and abandon their cars along the Queen's Highway in pursuit of the crab. People claim they have friends in Nassau who consider the crabs a luxurious treat and have them shipped in.
Troy demonstrates the fine art of crabbing. He is extremely quick, has excellent aim and a good eye. His brother and sister admire his catch. Crab and rice is one of the favorite ways to prepare them

Crab Classification

Troy has them classified by size, green bucket for the small ones, blue for the large. He found all of these in Turtle Cove, mostly at the top of the hill.

Gordon's The End - Before Hike

We had to hold up the Gordon's Stop Sign, it fell down many moons ago. It marks the end of the road for Long Island. It's useful for mentally challenged people who happen to be driving and don't notice that the road has ended at a concrete structure.
This is pre-hike, while we still had smiles on our faces. No blisters, leg cramps or sweat yet, that all came later.

Gordon's South End Expedition #2

We all started out with great expectations of giant glass floats and museum quality glass bottles. It wasn't meant to be. There were six of us, Sharie, James, Sue, Jim, Chris and me. About two hours out, After dining on my typical sardines we continued on for another two miles, according to Sharie's pedometer. The best finds were aluminum floats with the shell symbol and some triton sea shells. Jim found a spectacular piece of coral which he lugged out.

Through the Seagrapes

Managed to dodge the ugliest of the seagrapes on the way back, stayed close to the edge.
Chris found a scrawny tree which provided a resting spot and some shade, but not much.
Sharie added another rip to her designer bush whacker jeans.

Heading Back

We were glad to see this beach, only a half hour of the march is left. We finished with drinks and food at the Outer Edge Grill.

Blue Hole Sand Dollars

Sand Dollars From the Blue Hole

My friend Jeanie started this madness. She would pick up the sand dollars as she was swimming along on her daily routine. I am no swimmer, only a snorkel kind of person. She convinced me that she would point out the good spots if I followed along. Well, now I'm hooked. I still just snorkel, but this allows me to concentrate. Some days are definitely better than others to find them.
Since I collected so many of them, decided they were great mini-art canvases.

More Sand Dollars

More of the same, on a typical day I'll collect ten or so. Breakage rate is high, if they are small, an inch or so, chances are they will break.

Along the Junkanew Trail

The Trail continues to grow with buoys, bumpers, crates, drift wood, sea fans, baby soles, old bottles, ropes and life savers. The path goes from our back yard to the beach, just a couple hundred feet. This is where the Hermit Crab Shell Lot us located.

Hermit Crab Shell Lot

There's been a lot of activity at my shell lot. Right now I have only two shells left, plus several traded in shells. The trade ins are in bad shape, holes, discolored and worn out. The magpie shells were lined up by size and are marked K-1 to K-7 with pink nail polish.
My first customer came, picked out K-2 and left. Next thing I know he came back and left with his old shell. Then not much later K-2 was gone again. My customers are very disorderly, they leave their old shells all over the place and can't seem to make up their minds. I am feeding them stale tortilla chips, K-1 was caught coming back to the lot to nibble on chips. This hermit is huge, not sure if I can even find a shell large enough for its' next trade in.

Beach Brag

Ok, have to admit this is bragging, but Chris made the find of his "beach combing" life. Sharie was right on his heels. First he found the Blankenheym Nolet Gin Bottle, nestled in an incredibly rocky part of the beach. These bottles are really hard to find in one piece, by all rights it should have been smashed to smithereens. Then after this, a few steps away, he found the huge glass float. Amazing!! I found the kibbles and bits of beach glass and shells, I'm an under achiever... Still it was quite a day, one we will be talking about into extreme old age - right Sharie and James?? We will try and block out the leg cramps that approach the pain of child birth, yep it's true.

Sharie's Birthday Choice

Sharie is "Our kind of woman" - her idea of a great birthday celebration was a hike along the south end of the island. We parked at the knocked down Gordon's stop sign, hiked along a stone wall for about one mile and popped out on the southern most point of Long Island. This would be good enough for most people, but not us. We trekked back north along the coast through bush, razor rocks, boulders, crumbling cliff faces, sand and outraged land crabs ready to pinch us. Chris calculates the trail with google earth at 3.38 miles, one way. Considering that would be a straight line, assume we hiked a lot farther with our zigzagging route to avoid certain obstacles. We started from Gordon's Settlement at 10:30 AM, were back to the car at 6:15 PM.
For lunch We dined on luscious canned sardines at a fabulous beachside rock. The dining area was furnished with lovely recycled chairs of 5 gallon plastic jugs. You need a five gallon jug size to accommodate a moderate sized derrière.
For dinner we went conventional at the Outer Edge Grill, Flying Fish Marina.

On the trail

Out of sequence here, this was on the way back, took a break from the tangle of scrub. Despite the long pants our legs were gouged with dagger like branches of the seagrapes and other mean bushes that broke off. Negotiating rocks in the bush that are cleverly hidden is a real challenge. Our legs were fairly wobbly on the way back, we looked like a bunch of beach zombies, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. Our eyes were glazed over with an empty stare, "what were we thinking" obviously we were thinking.

It's all beautiful!!

Sharie and I would look at the amazing seascape and comment on its beauty, the rich colors of the sea, the flora and fauna - all right it got pretty sappy. But we had to admit it was a great way to celebrate her birthday!

White Cliff of Dover - Long Island Style

James least favorite part of the trek. He bush whacked a trail through the sea grapes to avoid the crumbling cliff edge. Drop offs ranged from 50 to 70 feet to extremely rough terrain.