The docks on Cumberland Island were damaged from Hurricane Matthew. There is limited access on the weekends only to the island. However, we heard other bloggers were able to put the dinghy on shore as long as they didn’t tie up to any breakwall, docs etc.  You can only get to the Island by boat.  We anchored close to the entrance, called the park ranger and he confirmed we could pull the dinghy up on shore.  After getting escorted off the last State Park shore we were a little gun shy.  There were two entrances.  Sea Camp and Dungeness. If we entered at Sea Camp it was a good mile walk to Dungeness and further to the beach.  The ranger said it would be much closer to beach at Dungeness dock. He did warn us that the tides are extreme so be sure to anchor and tie your dinghy.  We beached just south of the Dungeness dock tied the dinghy to a stump on shore and Scott walked the dinghy out quite a ways and dropped the anchor giving us plenty of room for the tide….so we thought.

We had to hike through the woods to get to the road to dungeness. There are wild horses on the islands and we were able to follow the trails they made through the woods, but they were rough.  I was already having a little snake anxiety because we heard there are a lot of rattle snakes on these islands.  I made Scott go first. About half way there, Scott jumps about 3 feet off the ground and took a a leap backwards as I can hear rustling in the woods.  Yup it was a snake and a huge one at that.  However, he didn’t think it was a rattler.  I am almost paralyzed with fear and my phobia of snakes but I had no choice but to move on and get out of the woods.  I was hyperventilating by the time I got out, but made it.  The first building we came to what the Ice house which they put bathrooms in.  There was a large field along the road and we spotted our first wild horse.I took 400 pictures for fear that I wouldn’t see another.. hahaha. I stopped counting at 35 horses.

We walked to Dungeness ruins.   It was quite the site.  You could imagine the splendor of the place before it burned down. This home was built by Thomas Carnegie, brother of Andrew Carnegie in the 1880.  It was a 59-room Queen Anne style mansion. The Carnegies owned 90 percent of the Island and built other estates for their children. The Carnegies moved out of Dungeness in 1925. I am not sure why.  It was destroyed by fire in 1959, allegedly due to arson. The ruins today are owned by the National Park Service since 1972. We had packed a lunch and enjoyed the view of Dungeness as we ate under an old Oak tree in the shade.

  

 

We walked to the beach.  The sand was like sugar. The tide was going out and the line from where high tide was to the water, was about 200 yards.  It had a very gradual slope.  This was our first indication we might be in trouble.

The wild horse were everywhere.  I was in my glory. We were surprised at the reaction of other tourist to the horses.  They were terrified of them and scared out of their minds when the horses walked by them.  You would have thought it was a giant gator or a Lion.  The horses were obviously used to people although they kept to themselves and didn’t come looking for treats, which I was glad to see.  We not only saw them on the lawn of dungeness but could see groups of them out on  the marshes. There was evidence of them being on many trails, you had to watch your step.

 

We put on many miles walking and enjoyed the picnic lunch and whole day of beautiful sunshine, warm weather and history.  On our way back to the dinghy I had to come to terms with walking through the woods…..where the giant snake was. I took a deep breath and told Scott I would be brave and walk the woods. He offered to try to pick me up someplace else.  What a sweaty.  We got to the end of the road and my problem was solved.  The tide went out and I could walk the beach and not have to go into the snake-infested-woods. Along with my elation came a dawning that there was way too much beach.  We took a step out and saw this:

Instead of dread, we both started to laugh.  We thought we did good by tying up the dinghy off shore, but with 7+foot tides it wasn’t nearly enough. As we walked to the dinghy the mud had a crab colony.  The land looked like it was moving with the crabs running away from us.  Good think I don’t have a phobia of crabs or I’d still be there. The dinghy is too heavy for us to carry or even slide on the beach.  We were unsure what to do.  When we got closer to the dinghy, we were slipping in the mud.  Scott hooks him self up like a draught horse and starts pulling to see how hard it would be.  If course I’m no help at this time because I am laughing and taking pictures.  Good think he loves me.  I then dug my heels into the mud and helped.  It slid surprisingly easy because of the mud.  Normally we wouldn’t be able to move it 10 feet.  As we got to the water’s edge and she was thinking about floating, we had another problem. mid calf deep mud sucking our shoes off.  We took them off and went barefoot.  EEEW. But we had success floating the dinghy and safely got back to the boat.  We were a muddy sight to behold.  You may think awe that is too bad that happened, but just think, if this crazy stuff didn’t happen to us you wouldn’t have as good of stories to read.

Despite the Island leaving us high and dry, we loved the experience.

Thank you for reading.

Karen and Scott

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