ONE ADVENTURE RUNS RAPIDLY INTO ANOTHER,
AS A RAPID TRANSIT BY FORD RANGER PICKUP,
TO LUCY FERGUSON LAUNCH,
AND EMBASSY LIMO BRINGS ME TO JAX AND THE
USAIR CONNECTIONS
THROUGH CHARLOTTE (AN AIRPORT ON A VERY
EVENTFUL DAY
FOR ITS OWN AIR SAFETY) TO BWI AND ON FOR
THE
BRIEF TOUCHDOWN IN DERWOOD, BEFORE THE
RE-PACKING AND SCRAMBLE
OFF TO THE FAR PACIFIC
January 8, 2003
Today was as beautiful a day as this special—no, unique—piece of wilderness environment can put on for the solitary pleasures of the rare visitor privileged to witness it in the solitude I saw it—both in sitting in a tree, and in running long and well along its Atlantic Beach.
It also marks my transition from one world to another, and from cool Southern Winter in the subtropics of the Florida coldest days of their year, to a return to the capital and the homestead at Derwood, then on across the Pacific to the tropical summer of Southern Philippines in Mindanao... If there are very special spots on earth, the unique retreat of Nancy’s Fancy and the Cumberland Island wilderness are as good as any and far better than most. It is definitely habit forming and no one who once experiences it can be anything but enthusiastic about returning for their next (expected, if not demanded) trip for a similar experience. That may be hard to continue duplicating, since the circumstances of change are affecting the Island and its Retained Rights entitlements generally, and specifically its Congressionally Mandated hunts—a unique feature of a national park of the NPS.
There have been several other “first-time” experiences: this is the first time I saw a Trident Submarine being towed out to sea for deployment as the third leg and only remaining one of America’s strategic nuclear deterrent, and I saw one going out and one being towed into the King’s Bay submarine base at St. Mary’s; I saw dueling stallions on the island, as I ran down island to the Greyfield Beach, as mares stood around whinnying; I saw the whole stretch of the Atlantic Coast Beach from South to North on the island from the unique Nancy’s Fancy situation back in the dunes as I made a good long run at the surf line along the whole beach to arrive at the other unique sighting of this trip at South Cut Trail Oceanside freshwater pool—a large basking alligator!
I saw several deer, one a magnificent eight point buck near Nancy’s Fancy, and I saw large flocks of turkeys, most all of them big bronze males. The comical prehistoric appearing armadillos were in full force this visit and were plowing around us sniffing under leaves and looking very startled when they came upon us as armor-plated soccer balls. I saw many of the 187-census of the horses released from the stables by Lucy Ferguson’s will, Tennessee Walking horses, thoroughbreds and all the others, now reverting to wild type from their original select breeding, through the forceful competition among stallions I witnessed today near the end of my run on the beach. I found shark’s teeth fossilized in the sand.
The one creature I had come to see most directly and encounter with lethal force I saw in fewer numbers, but adequate to assure each of us a good hunt, and not too easy an experience in finding a species more abundant or less wary. I will give the final score of the hog hunt immediately: I shot two large hogs on Monday night as the last of the day faded, and I could just see the group of six emerge from the swamp. Both pigs were well hit but returned to the swamp irretrievable. Craig shot two piglets on Tuesday morning, and –piece de resistance---David, after hunting with us for four years, finally shot his first pig—a blackly young boar that weighed in at 130# and sported impressive sharp tusks. So, the one carcass, now in processing, being carried home in the cooler to Maryland that will be made available for Keith Carr’s associate James Quigley’s request for wild boar for a game dinner will now be officially honored.
I am now aboard the USAir connections after packing up the Ranger pick up truck and coming over on the Lucy Ferguson from Greyfield Dock to Fernandino Beach to get the Embassy Limo to JAX. I boarded my flight as Reg and Gen moved up to an earlier flight to get to Denver earlier than their previously booked departure tomorrow. I met Jennifer Curran at the gate where she had apparently arrived through a doctor friend of hers who drove here down. She had two bits of news, apparently attempted to forward to my phone. Val Cismoski, our scrub nurse, has cancelled as her mother is dying and needs here care. Second, is that we are flying into Charlotte Airport, which has had its own shocking bit of news today—a 17-person flight crashed in Charlotte Airport, killing all aboard. This comes only a few days after I had seen the proud announcement that no single person died on any scheduled airliner in the US during all of 2002—which is a good thing. Obviously, on one day of September 11, 2001, there was an epidemic of four airliner crashes, but last year was a good year despite the downturn in air traffic.
And, now I head to BWI through Charlotte, still disrupted from the events of the day, and will be headed next to the far side of the world to begin the Jan-B-series.