After a week of drenching rain back in January, the hills are greening up quickly. In this view, you can see Bishop Peak in the distance with the slopes of Cerro San Luis in the foreground. On my recent hike at Cerro, I saw that every gully and creek was flowing and that the wildflowers are already starting to bloom.
It's gonna be a great spring.
The rain, which started minutes after we returned from the Christmas potluck dinner in the clubhouse, has been increasing steadily. The rat-a-tat-tat of raindrops on the roof is deafening at times. What a change from conditions earlier today — all sunshine and blue skies.
Looking west through the windshield, we can see a few of the ships in the
turning basin — USS Simpson in the foreground; USS Hué City behind it.
The plan this morning was to go for a walk on the beach we discovered when we were out triking yesterday. But first, Mui wanted to re-shampoo the carpeted areas of the Phaeton — he wasn’t happy with the results of the first cleaning he did before we left Bull Run.
Mui’s efforts paid off; our carpets are looking good now.
And what was I doing while Mui was working so hard. Well, since I was banished outside, I took my camera and went bird hunting. I wasn’t dressed to go jetty-hopping, unfortunately, so I had to be satisfied with taking pictures from a distance this time.
I guess these birds can’t read the sign that says they are in a restricted area
and use of force is authorized.
Left: Great Blue Heron; Top Right: Osprey preening its feathers;
Bottom Right: Royal Tern on lookout duty.
Great Blue Heron hunkered down by the jetty.
Around 9:00a, we were ready to head to the beach. The distance from the campground to the beach access we found yesterday is easily walkable, but we wanted to take our beach chairs with us, so we drove instead. There are seven access points on the approximately 1-mile portion of the beach that fronts the east side of NS Mayport. But the beach doesn’t end there; it continues for miles and miles down the east coast of Florida.
This Google Maps image of NS Mayport shows our campground (circled) in relation to the beach. The arrows show the beach area that fronts the station on the east.
Arriving about an hour after high tide, we had a wide expanse of white sand beach to explore. No toppled trees here to add interest to the scenery, but there were enough other things — including lots of terns, gulls, and pelicans — to keep my shutter clicking. We encountered very few people as we waded along the shoreline. It was like having our very own private beach — love it.
Looking south from access #1 where we entered the beach via a boardwalk and steps.
There’s not much to say about our three hours on the beach other than — it was a grand time. So, I’m going to let Mui’s video and my photos do the talking. I have so many photos I wanted to share that I relied heavily on collages this time.
Don’t mind the sign, come along for a stroll on the beach — 3 hours in 2.22 minutes.
There were a lot of jellies on the beach — even a new species called Werther’s Original!
P.S. There was quite a bit of trash on the beach — hence the candy wrapper. Not so much that it was a major detractor, but enough for us to comment on it several times while we were there. Next time, we’re going to take a bag with us and collect what we can; I did stick the candy wrapper in my pocket.
One of the three puffer fish we found on the beach; this one looks like it was
giving me the eye, but I’m afraid it was quite dead.
Razor shells on the beach — these were a first for me as I had never seen them Before.
I couldn’t resist having fun with a few of them — think it’s long past time I get a manicure!
We all know that birds sometimes tuck a leg under their feathers; that’s not the case
with the ring-billed gull in the foreground. It really is a one-legged bird!
 |  |
Love the rippling effect the movement of the water leaves on the sand.
Scenes from our turnaround point; south of the pilings (bottom three photos)
is the public area of the beach. you can see that a series of pilings and a sign is
all that stands between the average joe and the restricted portion of the beach;
oh, and yes, a camera was monitoring this area, too.
As is often the case, the walk back to where we started was relatively quick — fewer photo stops. We did stop at one point to watch a kiteboarder prepare to go out on the water. The breeze was pretty stiff once he got out on the ocean and soon he was flying over the waves, turning somersaults. Fun to watch — as you will have seen in the video posted above — but definitely not something that we plan to try our hand at.
Back at beach access #1, Mui brought down our beach chairs and we settled down to relax in the sunshine and eat our snacks. A great way to conclude the activities portion of our day.
We rounded out a cozy afternoon at home with dinner at the clubhouse here at Pelican Roost. The dinner was organized by the MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) unit, which operates this campground, as well as another one called Osprey Cove (for long term stays of 1-6 months). They provided the turkey and ham; and the campers provided side dishes and dessert — our contribution was a pumpkin pie that Mui picked up from Costco yesterday. There was quite a spread laid out; and the food was better than what we’ve had at some buffets.
To wrap up … a little something my friend MBZ drew and sent me.
Although the temperature is supposed to dip down to 46F (8C) tonight, the rain is supposed to be gone by morning and we’re supposed to have a sunny day tomorrow. If that holds true, we’ll go exploring; if not, there are plenty of projects to work on at home.
Flicking through the guide as I took it out of the box, I was struck by the great selection of sport crags all over the country now. There are 1300 routes in the guide, on 100 crags. Who out of the slightly older generation of Scottish climbers would’ve thought we would have 1300 sport climbs in Scotland. That’s great! As you’d expect from an SMC guidebook it’s a nicely produced book with careful descriptions, good maps and plenty of nice pictures to inspire. So many of Scotland’s new routing activists have been very energetic over the past decade and the options now available for routes to enjoy has basically exploded. Now, there are sport crags for us to visit no matter what corner of Scotland you find yourself in or fancy travelling to. Also, the diversity of locations mean that I can’t see many days of the year where there won’t be some dry rock on which to clip bolts somewhere in the land.
Kudos to all who made the effort to open new sport routes, as well as all the authors and producers of the guide. It is so badly needed. Talking to the new generation of young sport climbers coming into climbing through Scotland’s climbing walls, it frequently nagged at me that so many are unaware of the lovely crags that are out there. Some of them in stunning, wild and far flung locations like Gruinard in the north west. Some of them just up the road from our major towns and cities.
The guidebook pictures brought back some nice memories for me of places like Dunglas just outside Glasgow, where I did my first 6b (Negotiations With Isaac)and 6c+ (The Beef Monster). I remember being very excited when Andy Gallagher asked me to give him a belay on the first ascent of Persistence of Vision (7a+) after watching him bolt it. A year after my first 6c+, my first 7c+ (Dum Dum Boys) was a liberating experience and straight away I wanted to get to the ‘happening crags’ of the day.
I found myself at Steall for the first time shortly afterwards, abseiling down Cubby’s project (Ring of Steall 8c+) and being totally inspired by how poor the holds were. The whole ambience of hard physical climbing in beautiful highland surroundings was where it was at for me. So in the following years, we made after school/uni/work hits from Glasgow to Glen Ogle, Dunkeld and Loch Lomondside sport crags, with weekend trips to Tunnel Wall, Steall, Weem and the Angus Quarries.
Once I got involved in exploring new routes, under the influence of Dave Redpath and Michael Tweedley, I immensely enjoyed tearing about bendy roads in Argyll developing crags like Tighnabruaich and eventually the Anvil.
One thing that I like about Scottish sport climbing particularly is that the easier graded routes in the 6s and 7s are often so much better to climb than those on the continent. In Spain or suchlike, the majority of the time, the hard routes on big overhanging sweeps of limestone are the most inspiring lines, while the easier lines can sometimes be either a bit scrappy or, dare I say it, a little boring. As with our trad, the variety of rock types we have in Scotland often make for much nicer routes in the lower and mid grades too. However, if you are into hard stuff, the two hardest routes in the book (Hunger, 9a and Fight The Feeling, 9a) give as good climbing as you’ll get anywhere. Both were climbed in good conditions in the summer and you wont find any queues or some barky dog wondering about eating your lunch at the base of the crag. The only negative on offer from Scottish sport climbing is, of course, the midge. Just remember that the wind direction is as important as the rain when you look at the forecast. Choose a crag exposed to a breeze on the day, and you’re sorted.
Enjoy the guide, enjoy the climbing. It’s here.
