Labor Day North Carolina Beach Trip

“better bring some long sleeves for the evenings. It could feel pretty chilly”

“I was thinking that too hyway.

Too bad we can't have fires.”

“Looks like the concession stand will be open. That's good.”

“We could keep one burner of the coleman stove in high flame :)”

“Wondering if there is a spot left on Sunday night for me, my wife and my daughter.”

“You are welcome. Bring some ice :)”

“BTW, I will need to know who is coming, how many in your group, what you are driving and when you plan to arrive. I will need to leave that information with the park office so they can give you overnight parking passes for your vehicles.”

“If anyone plans to fish, make sure you have a license. If you want to fish and don't have any salt water fishing gear, let me know. I have a few extra poles and gear you are welcome to use, but I don't want to lug it if no one uses it.”

“I will be bringing a fishing pole too. I don't believe you need a fishing license to crab with a hand line.”

““Just spoke with the park office. If it has wheels it must fit under the ferry benches and be small, like 12 pack size. Larger coolers are allowed but must be carried on. AND she stressed....absolutely no beer. Hywy....do they search things?”
T1mberwolf
11:01:27 AM
7/06/09

So - I'm having trouble understanding this. If my cooler has wheels, it MUST be able to fit under the benches on the Ferry? Does this mean, conversely, that if the cooler is too big to fit under the bench, it CANNOT have wheels?!? (Boy, does this sound like a rule that was specifically dreamed up to frustrate beer drinkers, or what?)

If this is the case, my only question to all of you is: does anyone know if there are large coolers out there somewhere with removable/concealable wheels?
last edited: 9/03/09 4:39:02 AM”

“My cooler has wheels and it won't fit under the bench. I plan to carry it on and off then wheel it to the beach once I am off the ferry. I don't know if they will let me. I have no idea if they search things, but I doubt it. The no beer thing is a policy for all state parks and its been my experience that its enforcement is based on how badly you act in camp.

If the cooler is a problem for you then forget about the ice. We'll make do.”

“There is no way I am showing up in camp on Sunday afternoon with no ice - I have been given a Mission!!

Your plan sounds like a good one: bring a cooler that has wheels, but make sure that it's not so big that you can't carry it on and off the ferry by yourself. It sounds like the intent of the rule is to prevent groups of people bringing those huge wheeled coolers that you can park 3 kegs in....”

“Does anyone know if Coleman makes a "State Park Edition" cooler that has a false bottom (to sneak brews past Beer-Nazi Rangers)?”

“LOL, just put the brew on the bottom and cover it with other stuff. There is no way that I will allow a park ranger to rifle around in my cooler. health reasons, donch know. He/she may have swine flu for all I know.”

“"There is no way that I will allow a park ranger to rifle around in my cooler."
hyway
5:34:33 AM
9/03/09

Such bravado and bluster may work for you, but not as barrel chested as you!! I personally get a little intimidated in the presence of a person with a wide-brimmed hat, a badge, and a gun!”

“Its a health issue ;) It may not work, but I will damn sure try it. Plus, I am a conservative, we all know cops only shoot and beat up liberals.”

“We should get to tha ferry about 3:00 PM. Should I look for a big Teepee at one of the group sites”

“Lonewolf, are yall arriving friday?”

“I won't be there until about 5pm Friday. Since you will be there before I check in, when you get there tell them you are with the Trail Talk group. Hopefully they will just give you a parking pass. The entire group site will be ours and it will be empty when you arrive. Looks like it will just be you, me and your wife Friday night. So whatever happens between the three of us will be our secret.

BTW, my email is hyway9 at that yahoo site
last edited: 9/03/09 11:09:48 AM”

“Yes we will be there fri. afternoon but we will be leaving some time Sunday. Looks like the weatherman is on our side”

“I will try to make the 5 pm boat friday. I need to pick up my kids from school and I will be taking them out early even though my wife doesn't like that plan :).”

“I took a 1/2 days vacation so we could get an early start. As Tom Hanks said " see you on the beach" as all hell breaks loose Haha!”

“OK - the wife gave me the ultimatum today. She said that if there's a strong possibility of rain Sunday night, she doesn't want to camp out on the beach (we got seriously slammed by driving and relentless rain on one of our camping trips years ago, and the memory of that still irks her). I just looked at the forecast and it does not look promising for Sunday night. In fact, they are *promising* heavy rain for that night. So - I 'm hoping and praying that the weatherpersons are wrong and that the forecast will improve, at least enough so that there's a chance I can convince her that we won't get soaked even if it does rain "a little".

Anyway - long way around to say that this post should serve as my only disclaimer as to why we may not show up on Sunday afternoon in camp with Beaucoup de Ice Buckets!

.........

Hold on! - I just checked the NOAA National Weather Service forecast, and it does not mention any rain for Sunday or Sunday night, so maybe there's some hope for us!”

“Accuweather shows heavy rain for Sunday night. what the heck?”

“Its only water. My monster tent, if I can get it to stay up, will take all of us at once.”

“What are you TTer's or mice. Just joking I hate long wet trips my self but Hyway's tent looks like it will keep the drizzly stuff at bay. Well time to leave "SEE YOU ON THE BEACH"”

“I hope it will stay up. That tall a tent will put some pressure on the stakes (hopefully sand bags will work)”

“So you are bringing the Tent Mahal? Should I still bring my 8 x 10 tarp?”

“Bring it, but call before you get on the ferry. I am looking at my load of stuff and am not sure whether or not it will make the list. Its big and its heavy. If had someone riding over with me it would be better, but I don't so I'll decide when i get there.

Actually, I may leave it in the cas friday and ride back over to meet bill saturday morning and bring it over then.”

“wildbill, make sure you bring your 2 burner stove. I am not bringing mine. Creek says she has a cookpot for the crabs. So you can discuss that with her whether or not you want to bring another big pot”

“Well many of you are already on the island but I'm going to be there Saturday sometime in the afternoon.”

“GOOD GAWD!! It's past 12 am, and I am still packing. Have no clue how to carry all this crap. I wish I had kept my Shasta pack now.
5 fishing poles, cast net, minnow bucket, 5 gallon bucket, cooler, tackle box, 3-man tent, sleeping bags, pads, clothes, rod holders, 2 burner stove, 2 propane canisters, lounge chairs etc. This is gonna be fun.”

“I hope yall had fun but also hoped no stayed until today. Been raining since very early this morning.”

“Sunday was cloudy with very occasional sprinkles. Started raining like crazy about 4 am Monday. We all bailed first thing.

Hey, Creekdancer, you win the quickchange artist of the year. I was going to snag you for a proper "so long" but you got away before I could. Sorry about that.”

“I'm terribly sorry that I couldn't make this trip.#&%!$ just happens! It turns out that It's a good thing we didn't come as my wife ended up having to go to the Emergency room on Saturday anyways. Hope you all had a blast!”

“What a fun trip. Learned a thing or two this time, like the fact that Croakers actually croak. And here I thought it was just Hyway farting again.

I looked around for you too raleighhiker to say goodbye. I figured you had left already.

Hey lowandslow - sure was nice to meet you and your family. We didn't get much of a chance to visit this time, but hopefully next time.

I think I have some chigger bites. drat!
last edited: 9/07/09 6:14:02 PM”

“We missed you and Mrs. Spam. Hope she is doing okay now.”

“I had a good time over-all. If we do it again I will know what to bring and what to leave home. Of course Hyway will have to bring his monster teepee from now on, that thing really worked out well.
last edited: 9/07/09 7:08:25 PM”

“It was a good weekend. Weather was great for most of it. And even though it rained all day today it was still nice. Summer rains never bother me. It started raining at 3:15 am. I was sleeping "cowboy" inside the big teepee so I knew the instant it started. I rearranged that one fly to cover the part of teh table that was under the screen, scooched my ground cloth and blanket closer to the table and went back to sleep. I was amazed at how "dry" it stayed under that tent given all the screen that is in it. It was nice to have the rain pouring down and still be able to be up and about and not cramped up in a two man tent.

We didn't catch much fish, nor any crabs, but we heard they were catching fish down at the inlet so maybe next year we'll try down that way. There were at least 4 turtle nests on the island, but none were hatching. That would have been a awesome experience.

Anyway, thanks for all that made it out. And those that couldn't, I am pretty sure we will do this again next year. That seemed to be a consensus thought.”

“A few photos.


http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/574551130sJXEMN”

“Great pics! That is a cool tepee!”

“hyway et al:

it was worth comin', if only to see hyway's huge Trail Talk Temple, all 44 lbs and 20 ft tall of it! Wow - what a cool piece of equipment! Made me drool w/ envy (my chief b-packing vice: I have a tent fetish)!

My family and I had a blast, and hyway, if you do this trip again nxt yr, I'll try to drag more of 'em along! Even though we were there for less than 24 hrs and didn't get much of a chance to get to know all of you, we still had a good time tryin' to catch some waves and communing with the Ocean - it's power and majesty are a blessing to behold! Even the dauntless rain that overtook us early Monday morning did not dampen our spirits, once we resigned ourselves to the inevitable: we will be wet! It was a warm summer rain and seemed to bring life, not suck it away.

It was really good to meet some TT'ers, finally, and to put some faces next to the handles. I am encouraged to try to make it to some more TT trips in the future. Trail Days sounds like a real Hoot!

Happy trails to all of you, 'till we meet again!”

“Will do my trip report tonight after work and I will try to get my pics loaded”

“Nice to meet you and your family, lowandslow. Your girls were all smiles when yall got off the ferry Monday morning. The downpour didn't seem to bother them to much.

Lonewolf, I hope you deleted the pic of me burying the tent flap in the sand. I can't say that any angle view of me is all that great, but if there is one that would cause the loss of lunch, it would be a rear shot of me on my hands and knees. Think of the children before you post that.
last edited: 9/08/09 6:29:15 AM”

“So should we do this again next year? Same weekend? Different weekend?”

“Please attach a few names to the pics. Some of you have changed looks over the years. ;-)”

“I am the fat ass”

“I take exception to that.

I really enjoyed this trip. Most everywhere is mobbed on Labor Day but there are only so many people that can go out to the island. I can't promise I'll be there but it's worth thinking about.”

“The pics I posted have names.”

“Had a great time on Bear Island. Friday night pretty bad with the knats and biting flies. Pretty rough for my very first time backpacking and in the sand. Leg muscles were still sore 2 days later. It was a pleasure meeting, Hyway, WildBill, Billie, Creek Dancer and Raleigh Hiker. Missed you Fridge I brought you a catolog but gave it away to someone else. Oh by the way Creek Dancer don't think it was Chiggers we got think it was crabs from Hyway's erection (tent)”