Monday, February 05, 2007
Adventures On Elliott Key
“Watch out for the mosquitos!”
“I hope you brought bug spray, the mosquitos are bad!”
Every boy we passed, about 10-15 of them, all said the same things to us as we got off the boat and walked towards the campground. They were high school boys from the city and we laughed between ourselves, Dirk and I, thinking that maybe this was their first camping trip and had unfortunately come unprepared. But we were not worried. “We are experienced campers”, we gloated to ourselves. “We have our bug spray, no need to worry.”
Elliott Key is in Biscayne Bay not too far from the city of Miami. It is an island and the only way to get there is by boat. As we do not have a boat, we had to reserve a ride from the park rangers to take us over. The boat is really designed to take snorkelers and scuba divers out for dives but they will also accommodate campers who need a way to get to the island. The boat typically will not go unless 8 people have signed up but because the rangers had to pick up these high school boys, we got to go over on the trip; the boat to ourselves.
The boat driver stated, as we pulled out of the marina, to watch for fins because there could be dolphins around as well as manatees. I think we all know how much I wish to see a manatee and I LOVE dolphins so I was excited about the prospect and kept my eyes peeled. The water was clear and we could see the floor of the bay but we didn’t see any wildlife, except the birds. Maybe some other time. I swear, I had better see a fricken manatee soon.
We approached the island and were met by a crowd of high school boys who so caringly warned us of the blood sucking pests. Not that it would have done us any good since there is no place to purchase bug spray on the island. If you didn’t bring it, you were out of luck. Not that it made much of a difference...as you will soon find out.
On the way over, the boat driver told us that the dock we would land on left us at the main campsite but we could always trek to the other side of the island if we wanted a little bit of peace and quiet. “The bugs might be worse over there”, he said but we wouldn’t be surrounded by a bunch of people either. We were a little anxious about other people showing up in their boats and blaring music or holding loud parties so we decided to head off to the other side.
The other side of the island, the east side, was definitely quiet. It was apparent that the high school boys had been there the night before as they had scratched graffitti on the picnic tables with the charcoaled end of a burnt bamboo stick. We set up the tent, slathered on the sun screen and bug spray and started to look around a little bit. We then walked back to the other side of the island and realized that not only was it a lot nicer looking, the bugs weren’t as bad. The bugs on the east side were horrific.
We made a unanimous decision to forgo peace and quiet for less blood loss and packed everything back up to take back to the west side of the island. The camp ground offers its guests the use of carts so that was loaded up. I really did not feel like pulling the tent back down and rebuilding it back up so I suggested that we just place the tent on top of the cart instead. The carts are not that wide so I had to hold it from the back while Dirk steered the cart down the trail to the west side. Perhaps it was only hilarious to us but it was quite the sight.
Once we got back to the west side, the blood sucking did decrease significantly. We chose a spot near the water to set up camp:
Gorgeous! We had ocean front property! Okay, bay front property.
After we got everything set up we set out to find the hiking trail. Back in the 60s, developers plowed a road through the middle of the island in order to build up communities later on. Thankfully they were stopped before they could ruin such a beautiful place. To this day, you can still see, from an arial view, the cut out of the road as the vegetation has started to grow back in. This road was the hiking trail. We found our way back to the road and started the hike.
Periodically we would come across information boards and tried to read them to educate ourselves about our temporary environment. But the fricken bugs were so bad that it was difficult to concentrate. Actually? It was downright miserable. They just kept biting and biting. The bug spray was nothing more than a complimentary pre-dinner cocktail on the house before the main course. It was completely useless.
We gave up the idea of hiking the trail and came back to the campground. At this point, because there was no one else around, I decided that I wanted to go for a swim in the harbor. The water was incredibly cold but it felt fantastic on my legs (that are always in pain) and it soothed the bug bites. Eventually I even talked Dirk in to joining me.
After we swam around we just hung out because there really wasn’t a lot to do on the island. And that is okay sometimes. As Dirk said, it’s nice not to feel rushed to go do something. Sometimes, it is good to just do nothing. It also affords people a chance to talk and learn things. As time went on, a few other boaters showed up and set up their own camps. For the most part they were quiet and respectful. There was one or two boats that came out with idiots behind the wheel, blaring their music, disrupting the peace and tranquility, but they didn’t stay long.
The sun started to go down and the view was fabulous:
Typically, the photo does the real thing no justice.
Eventually we decided it was time to eat dinner. Dirk got a one burner stove, (thanks to the canoe neighbors from the Everglades Chickee hut for the idea), and we had chicken macaroni alfredo. Fettucini noodles wouldn’t fit in to our mess kit. And speaking of mess kits, you all know how much I love Target. Don’t we all love Target, regardless of how dangerous it can be to walk in to one because you never get only what you came for. However, I am, for the first time, disappointed in Target. We got the mess kit there and it was a piece of flimsy crap. We are taking it back and going to get a real pot and skillet that won’t dump the contents out all over the ground. Regardless, we managed to make a pretty good dinner and sat down to eat by lantern light.
After that we sat at the picnic table and just talked, sipping at beer or water. At one point, I got up to use the bathrooms while Dirk did the dishes. Hee. When we got back, we saw that our garbage bag had been spilled and we caught two racoons, scampering away under the spotlight of the flashlight I was carrying. That was our fault. Of course, if the damn bugs hadn’t been sucking our very life out of us during the hike, we could have learned more about the racoons from the information board and remembered not to leave it out on the ground. We picked it up and kept watch. We could hear the racoons crashing around in the underbrush next to our site. Periodically I would swing the beam of light from the flashlight in that direction and catch their beady little eyes, watching....waiting.
As we were talking, I started to hear noises right behind Dirk. I slammed on the flashlight and those little bold buggers were on the ground right behind the picnic table, working their way towards the garbage...while we were sitting right there! As the light caught them, one of them stood up on his hind legs...as if daring me...’What? What are you going to do? We just want your garbage, lady. I’m not scared of your measely beam of light. Give us the garbage!” They finally decided it wasn’t worth it and ran off again. Throughout the evening I spotted them here and there, looking at us and our site. Hoping we would slip up again. I think they are cute, what with their little bandit masks. Dirk stated, “They’re rodents!” Yah...I know. I like rodents. I used to have rats as pets...rodent are adorable to me. So I stopped Dirk from throwing things at them to scare them off. After awhile, though, we decided to crawl inside the tent and talked a little bit more before going to sleep, garbage bag in the tent with us. And proceeded to try to freak each other out by talking about racoon hands scratching at the tent.
In time, we fell asleep. Now, naturally, I had to get up and use the bathroom a couple of times during the night. I say, “naturally” because even though we were no longer alone at the camp ground, it was dark and I have this over active imagination. The camp ground did have plumbing, (Grazi a DIO!), but we were at the furthest camp site from it. This meant I had to walk about....1/4 mile? Maybe a little less to the bathrooms. In the dark. Alone. While everyone else slept. And the mind started working over time. I started thinking of ghost ships and large, black demon wolves bolting out of the shadows to snatch me up for a midnight snack. I imagined people crawling out of the dark, forgotten natives or something, who would eat my brains. I tried desperately not to panic and run back to the tent and I’ll admit, it took every ounce of me to do that.
Once I got to sleep I slept really well. Apparently so well that I was snoring. HA! Snoring so loudly that Dirk shoved me awake to shut me up so HE could sleep. Damn! But trying to get to sleep was extremely difficult because of the fracking stupid bugs! They would not let up. I was doused in bug spray--I even had sprayed it in my hair, which made it look and feel like straw, you know, because I like to be sex-ay when out camping, but it did not affect them in the slightest. If anything, it probably humored them. So they mocked us all night long by biting and biting and biting and biting and biting. Again, I say, it was miserable.
The next morning we got up and made breakfast. The day was nice, cool, sunny and calm. We lounged around, read a little bit, debated a little bit, talked about things and napped. Other people started to arrive and put up tents and while they weren’t loud, necessarily, we thought we were lucky that we were leaving at that time and had the quiet neighbors we’d had the day before. The boat came to get us at 2pm and I was not only craving an ice cold pop at that point, I was really ready to get the hell away from those fricken bugs already! Stop biting me! Gah!
We loaded our things on to the boat as a Dutch couple got off. We overheard that they were spending a week on the island. We couldn’t believe it...a week! With those bugs? The poor dears. We contemplated warning them, “Watch out for the mosquitos!” but decided that they must be more hard core than us if they were staying for a week.
As the boat pulled away, I waved to the Dutch couple, wishing them the best of luck, in my mind, turned around and thanked GOD that I was leaving that bug infested island. I had a great time. I really enjoyed myself but I was so ready to be away from the misery of the vampires that swarmed out there.
Good riddance bugs!
We got back to the mainland, loaded up the car and headed for home. We weren’t exhausted and hungry like we were after our canoe trip but we were exhausted and possibly anemic after this one. The difference is that we had hot meals this time and that truly does make a difference. We stopped along the way to get the ice, cold pop before continuing on. We got to Dirk’s house and carried some of the gear up to his house. As we opened the door, we discovered that the dog, Lucky, (you met him back in November), had figured out how to turn on the television. Excuse me but that’s hilarious.
After dropping Dirk off and leaving him to his jacuzzi bath, (she says, enviously), I headed home. I feared there would be massive traffic because of the Super Bowl but luckily it was light. I got home and a hot shower never felt so wonderful. I got in to my pajamas, loaded the photos off the camera and went to bed. And there were no bugs. I slept very well.
This morning when I got up, I took a good long look at myself and I am covered with bug bites. They are all over. I learned from a co-worker that it wasn’t the mosquitos, it was the sand fleas. Dirk and I have hundreds of bites. They itch. And I look like I have chicken pox or some disease. It’s insane how many bug bites I have. Just on my left hand alone I have 25+...just the back of my hand. Imagine what the rest looks like.
Suddenly I understand Eric Cartman very well when he took a bath in Calamine lotion. That would be pure heaven.
Despite the bugs, this trip was a lot of fun. I felt like I had been gone for a week, not just a couple of days.
And the next time 15 high school boys tell me to watch out for the mosquitos, I will not think how cute it is. I will heed their warnings.
