Trip to Cumberland Island

David and I drove 6 hours to Cumberland Island on December 26. Google maps said the trip would take 5 hours but it was closer to 6 hours. We made it to the boat dock right on time to check in and pay our fees. The ferry ride to the island took 45 minutes. On the way, we saw some wild horses grazing by the shoreline. We arrived on the island at 12:30. After an hour long orientation from a park ranger on watching out for marauding raccoons and wild horses, we were given the Brick Hill back-country site 10.7 miles away. We had 4 hours until sunset, so we knew we had to hike fairly fast. The island is very flat, and we were hiking on the main dirt road so hiking fast was not a problem.

We got to the Brick Hill primitive campsite at about 4:45. We had the entire site to ourselves. Got our tent and hammock set up and prepared dinner.

1st night campsite

Waiting for water to boil for supper

The site was beautiful, right next to the estuary side of the island, facing towards the mainland. From the name of the campsite – Brickhill Bluff, we were expecting some kind of large bluff with a drop-off to the water. The reality was a little disappointing, you have to really use your imagination to say this is a bluff (we’ll call it a 5-foot bluff.) Still, it was very beautiful getting to see the sunset.

Riverside bluff

Sunset at campsite

Another sunset view

About 10 minutes after sunset, I was standing by the water’s edge and started to see dolphins breaching the surface for air. There were 4 or 5 dolphins and they kept swimming back and forth in front of our campsite about 40 feet out. If the water was not frigid, I might have been tempted to wade in and see what they would do!

In the primitive campsites, campfires are not permitted. So, after it got dark, David and I crawled into our sleeping bags and tried to sleep. I was starting to fall asleep when I heard a family come traipsing through the woods chasing armadillos. We had thought we were in the most remote part of the island, but these people had come in their own motor boat and were beached about 200 yards up from us. They saw our bear/racoon bag hanging nearby our site and told their children not to point their flashlights in our direction as they passed, which the children immediately did, “Daddy, you mean don’t point the flashlight over there (pointing with the flashlight!) We feigned sleep and they were soon gone. They were much quieter on the return to their campsite.

The next morning, we packed up and hiked west to the beach side of the island and hiked about 2 or 3 miles on the beach. The solitude apart from some horses was nice. Also saw a bald eagle perched in a tree in the dunes.

After a few miles on the beach, we went east again towards the other side of the island to a mansion called Plum Orchard which I wanted to see. I didn’t know if it would be open, but I thought we could look in the windows. We got there and there was a van full of people there, part of a tour group led by a park ranger. David and I put down our packs and walked up on the large front porch and were looking in the windows. The ranger was standing nearby and so I went up to him and asked him when the house was open. He said, “only when I’m here. I’m about to give a tour, do you want to come along?” We said yes and so a few minutes later, we walked into the house with the 7 people from the van and the ranger locked the door to keep anyone else out. The house was built in 1898 by George Carnegie who was the nephew of Andrew Carnegie.

Plum Orchard mansion

Foyer

David in sunken fireplace nook

David in front of a sunken fireplace nook

Upstairs hallway

The upstairs hallway runs the full length of the house. This looks like an illusion with a mirror at the end, but there is no mirror.

Dinnerbell – 45 minutes until dinner

Dinner bell – to let people know there a was 45 minutes until mealtime. The wallpaper here is the original wallpaper and is made of burlap. The hardwood floors were also original and in beautiful condition especially considering the house has no air conditioning and no heating apart from the fireplaces.

The house really was state of the art for its time period with indoor plumbing, electric wiring and call bells, a squash court with observation gallery and a fifteen-foot deep pool. Wonder why there are steps leading all the way to the bottom of the pool? The ranger explained it was so they could fill the pool just a few feet for the children to play in or full which would have allowed for diving.

After touring the house for about an hour, we went outside and made Ramen noodle lunch and then began the hike back to the large campground which is 1/2 mile from the boat dock. We arrived around 3:00 and found an empty campsite.

Path to campsite

The big box on a post is a raccoon box, that is, a place to put everything you don’t want the raccoons to get at. There was another group already in our campsite and they told us later that they had already seen raccoons marauding around the site when they first arrived earlier in the day. The orientation ranger was very firm about telling us to make sure the latch on the raccoon box was secured the proper way because the raccoons had learned how to open the doors. She also had told us to make sure our hung bear bag in the primitive campsite was heavy because the raccoons had learned that they could climb above the bag and pull it up to them! They have not yet learned to climb down the rope but to hear the ranger tell it, they were close to being able to do just that!

After getting set up in camp, we walked out to the beach and explored a bit. Then we went and had dinner and afterward joined the other group around their campfire. The next morning we packed up and explored another mansion nearby which sadly was just the rock shell of the building, the mansion had burned down in the 1950’s. We made our way back to the boat dock and got on the boat, thus ending a wonderful visit to Cumberland Island.