2011 TRIATHLON at FALSE CAPE
SEPT.20,11
Fifth annual Triathlon, biking, kayaking, and hiking we did it all on this trip. After 5 years most of us were old hands at doing those tasks. We did have 2 new people this year and they joined right in with us and we finished the 20 miles in record time. With an eye on the weather the 11 Tuesday Groupers met at little Island City Park hoping that we could beat the 3:00 o’clock rain storm. I had call ahead the day before and talked to Walt at Back Bay Wildlife Refuge and made arraignments for our group to bike through the refuge without paying the fee or getting a ticket for a group over 5 or 6 bikers. In this group we had Sandra, Sandy, Bob S., Bob M., Jean, Robb, Mark, Dewey, Bruce, and the two new people Janette, and Carl.
Everyone was on time and we left the parking lot at 9:15 and headed towards the wildlife refuge. Stopping at their gate for a few second we got the O K to pass through and off we went. The new pavement made it so easy to bike on, we made super time for the first 2 miles. Then we hit the gravel road for the next 4 miles and life slowed down a bit.
We reach Barbour Hill Boat Dock around 10:00 o’clock and each person picked out their kayak and we changed into our water shoes. With the north east winds we have had for the last few days the water was low in the bay and we had to pull our kayaks out from the shore line to fine deeper water. On this day the winds had died down and there was very little wave action for us to battle. We made one stop on the trip down to False Cape Landing for a water break and to hear one of my park story. Then we paddled on down to the boat dock to start our third leg of the triathlon.
As everyone tied up their kayaks we changed into our hiking shoes and put on our day packs with water and our lunches inside. I had about 2.5 miles mapped out for the group to hike. We headed south on the trail, but it wasn’t long before I had them bushwhacking through the pines and sand hills of False Cape. Reaching Snow Hill I tried to show them how much sand had been blown away by the strong north east winds in the last 15 or so years. With another 20 minutes of hiking we all reached the camp ground where some of us stopped and ate our lunch on the picnic tables, while the rest headed on out to the beach. Robb was brave enough for a short swim there in the beautiful ocean with the group looking on. After about 30 minutes we saw some big black clouds coming in from the south west and I decided it was time to head back to our kayaks and paddle back to Barbour Hill. As we reached the dock and our kayaks we could see the clouds had moved on north away from us. Back into our water shoes and boats we paddle back to the bikes waiting to take us back to Little Island city Park. The trip cover about 20 miles in 6 hours and the weather for the most part was perfect. We all had a good day in the outdoors with good friends and in a beautiful park.
After reaching Little Island City Park and loading our bikes onto our vehicles some had to head home, but as always some headed to Pungo Pizza. Here we had everything from garden salads to pizza, and 3 scoop banana splits. Anything we may have lost on this trip we added it back plus a little more, but it was good. My thanks to the State Park for letting us use their kayaks and to all that showed up for this trip. Bruce Julian
View Bruce' pictures at: https://picasaweb.google.com/109906626693046969567/Album9202011?authkey=Gv1sRgCIL05MaZpY732wE&feat=email#