Cumberland Island Camping Trip

So sorry for the picture over load but they are too cute!
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 

Where do I begin. This year Adam and I decided to take our usual camping trip to the mountains out to sea on Cumberland Island, GA. The only way to get to this island is by ferry. This trip was to celebrate all of May’s many events, mother’s day, our fourth anniversary and my birthday. A few days before we left Adam found out that he had to go to Charleston for a meeting. The trip ended up working out to our advantage. The meeting was on our Anniversary so instead of sleeping in a tent that night we had a paid hotel room and free food! We stayed there for just a night and left from there to start the “real” trip. We arrived at the dock ready to board the ferry with a load of stuff. Because I had Ella I couldn’t really help out with loading the boat so poor Adam was stuck with the whole job himself. We arrived after a 45 min ride and then had to unload, again poor Adam, he is such a patient and hard working guy. We were assigned our camping spot and were on our way to set up. The walk to the sight was at least half a mile and it was beyond humid. We set up, enjoyed the beach for the day and were greeted by an oh so friendly raccoon when we arrived back at our camping spot. He was attempting to pull down our trash from a hanging tree. It took some persuading to get the raccoon to leave. We then found out that he wasn’t just after our trash but had already raided the food bin and helped himself to Ella’s bananas. So we tried our best after being warned by the park ranger (we obviously didn’t listen) to get everything situated to secure our food. We had a fun night cooking hot dogs, scaring away more raccoons and eating chocolate from Charleston. I decided to take a shower, they only had very cold water, and was joined by a frog and a lizard who must have thought I looked strange as they watched me make faces as I tried to get clean while freezing to death. On my way back an Armadillo decided I needed company and joined me on my walk back to the tent. When he got bored and trailed I was greeted by yet another raccoon who didn’t want me to pass as he stood on the trail.
Adam came up with the idea of getting a tub of water for Ella to take her baths in. We let it warm up all day and she took her bath every night. Night came and we headed into the tent. Moments later the noises started. The raccoons were all over the place as we watched them through our tent try to get into our food bin. We spotted at least three, there could have been more. They appeared to be getting no where so we decided to just sleep through the noise. Morning came and those raccoons sure are smart, they opened our cooler and helped themselves to all of Ella’s yogurt and the rest of the hot dogs. Adam and I both decided how much fun it would have been if we had a be be gun to teach those pest a lesson the next night. The next day was great. The weather was amazing, even though the weather channel told us to expect rain every day of our trip. Ella loved the beach and crawled everywhere, into the water, and all over the beach. She was in heaven with her shovel in tow digging as she went. Night came again and Ella was getting low on food. We hoped that we could make it through the night without loosing the rest of our supplies being that we are on an island with no ability to replenish anything. It was a quiet night, other then the armadillos running around. No raccoons, we won! We took a hike the next day to ruins on the island and when we arrived we were greeted by more wild animals, horses!! It was so beautiful watching them graze among the ruins. So far the trip was amazing. Night came and a new challenge arose, rain, and lots of it. Our tent was giving way and we were trying our best to keep our sleeping bags and clothes dry through the night. It rained all night and stopped by the grace of God when we needed to pack up and leave. As soon as we finished packing it slowly started back and we still had a hike to walk back to the ranger station before we could board the ferry. We tied our umbrella to the wagon to keep Ella dry and made the hike. What a trip. All in all it was great and we would love to go back some day. We pretty much had the beaches to ourselves and other then the cold showers and raccoons there really wasn’t anything to complain about. Just thought I would share our crazy adventure with everyone.