January 20 - February 2, 2025
I arrived at Fort Pickens Campground in Gulf Islands National Seashore on Monday, January 20. The weather was good, sunny and 60 degrees. My drive from Davis Bayou was relatively short, only 130 miles. I stopped in Gulf Breeze, a small town about five miles from the entrance to the park. I took my time shopping in Walmart and Publix and had lunch at Chic-fil-et before heading to the campground. It was late afternoon when I drove the eight-mile stretch of land the straddles the barrier island on which this part of the park rests. The road passes through sand dunes, brilliantly white in the sunlight, sporadically covered with grasses that can thrive in the environment. There were nice shadows painted on the sand by the grass. On the south side of the road is the Gulf of Mexico, on the north side Pensacola Bay. Sandy beach provides a playful border along both side of the island in its entirety. Once could walk along the Gulf beach for thirty miles east, well past the park boundaries. The Florida Trail is there for those who might want to do such a walk. The Florida Trail stretches from Fort Pickens to Big Cypress National Recreation Area, wandering 1,300 miles across the state.
I parked and made myself comfortable at campsite 32 in Loop A. There is not much to do with “setting up the van” to “camp”. It takes ten minutes or less. I make sure the van is level, move a few items from their “secure” travel location to where I can access them more easily, put up some window covers, and plug in the 30-amp power cord. After that, I did a walk to the beach to watch the sunset on the first of my fourteen days here. The beach here is unusually great in that, at this time of year, with the sun sufficiently south of the equator, it rises and sets over the Gulf of Mexico. I love watching it over the water.
I woke early on Tuesday and walked the half mile to the beach for the sunrise. It was a cold morning, 31 degrees, with a brisk wind, plenty of sunshine. There was a snow forecast beginning around noon. How could this be? I have been traveling, on the road more often than not, for a little over three years, and I have taken precautions to avoid cold weather and snow in particular. Up to now, there was only one other instance of snow. That was in Colorado in late October 2022, not an unusual event that time of year. Snow in Florida is unusual. It is rare.
The snow began as predicted around noon. It snowed until 9PM. We had about 6” though it varied due to the wind. There were no issues related to my comfort during the storm. My van has heat. I exited occasionally to make my way to the bathroom. It was not an issue as I have my hiking boots, and I have warm clothing for the cold, too. Each time I exited, the snow was coming down strong and accumulating. In some ways, it was entertaining. I was there for a history making event. I have heard varying accounts of records broken. The last time this area had snow was in the 1950s, I was told, and 6” broke a 130-year-old record.
I did not walk down to the beach Tuesday night. It was still snowing. I figured there’d be no sunset to see. I did walk there Wednesday morning. The sky was mostly clear, some tall clouds in the distance. It was 15 degrees with a windchill of 8. There is a long boardwalk leading out to the sand, and my footprints were the first of the day. The boardwalk ends where the sand dunes end, about fifty yards from the water. I wandered around the beach. I wanted photos of the sunrise accentuated with snow on the beach. Sunrise was at 6:45. I was the first person there. I was the only person there. The uneven levels of sand between the dunes and waterline resulted in some places that had snow drifts, 6-12”, while other areas were exposed sand. It was white on white. I took my photos, but I did not stay long, as it was brutally cold. My gloves have small openings for my fingers so I could use the camera in my phone. After about fifteen minutes I walked back to the campground and warmth of my van.
The sun was strong all day. It melted any snow that had been on the van as well as the paved area of my campsite and any of the roads that were exposed to the sun. The temperature went up to 32. It went down to 21 overnight.
Thursday was sunny again. I went to the beach again for sunrise. It was fantastic. There was one other person on the beach, though he arrived after I did. He was the guy two sites down. He rides an old bike, the kind we used to call “sting-rays.” He has a basket with rocks on the front. I would guess this guy is in his 60s, and it seems an oddity that he has this type of bike. I wonder how often he uses it and how far he might travel with it. He takes it from the campground to the beach parking lot. I measured it yesterday, as I left on my ride, and it was just over a tenth of a mile.
I talked with him later, back at the campground. He’s had the bike a few years. He got it after he had a knee replacement and uses it for short distances. He loves seeing the sunrise and the sunset, hardly ever missing each opportunity here at Fort Pickens. He and his wife have a house on sixty acres on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. That’s way north! They love it. The land is nearly all wooded, peaceful, beautiful. But they like to get away from the cold. They’ll head back north gradually, no hurry.
It went up to about 43 degrees today, and I rode my bike for two hours, my first ride after three days off! I was happy with that. It was windy and far from “warm” but it felt great. The wind had to be 15-20 mph from the southwest. There were a few places where the snow had drifted across the road. Most of it was melted, but there was some and there was a considerable amount of sand that had blown across the road, too. I slowed down, and in one place I even walked the bike through it.
On Friday, I woke up with recollections of two dreams. In one, I was hanging out with people from Chuck’s Steakhouse, where I worked in various iterations from 1986-2011. In the second, I was walking around on a college campus, though where it was, I do not know. It was not Westconn. I did not know anyone in the dream.
I went to see the sunrise, leaving the van at 6:25 for the 6:44 event. It was well worth rising early, as there were clouds that captured the sunlight beautifully. I don’t have many words to describe it. I had words when It was happening, but I did not bring my notebook and pen because It has been too cold to take them out and write. The beauty was real. It led me to wonder and see the connection between all natural phenomena over all of time. This includes living and non-living entities. Think of things like solar formation, the formation of the planets, the evolution of our planet, including land masses, oceans, and living beings.
Later in the day, the temperature rose to 50 degrees. I took a longer bike ride, 2h 20m, five miles longer than the day before. It felt great. All the snow had melted, and the sand had been cleared. It was still windy. It seems it is always windy here, though it was not very strong. One you accept it, it is not all that bothersome. It does make for a good workout. Since riding here is along the park road, it is an out and back route, with slower speeds in one direction, faster speeds in another.
Friday evening on my nightly walk, just before sunset, I heard a Great Horned Owl. It seemed close, and I was surprised to suddenly see it sitting at the top of a dead pine tree about a hundred yards away. I noted it made a physical motion in rhythm with the hoots. It would lean forward, and its tail would rise as it sang. There was a return hoot coming from somewhere to the right, too. This went on for about ten minutes, after which it left the tree and glided towards the other hooting owl.
I met and had conversations with many people over these first few days. There were a lot of people in Loop A from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Indiana. These states seemed to dominate the campground in terms of numbers. These people, all retirees, were escaping from the cold. They had stories that involved subzero temperatures. Most seemed to have left their homes right after the holidays, and they did not plan to return until late March or April.
On Saturday, I moved to a new campsite for one night. I had new neighbors. I met one neighbor Sunday morning. He had a Wisconsin plate on his red GMC SUV. He is pulling a small v-fronted cargo trailer that he has converted into his camper. He greeted me by saying “That’s a nice bike you have there on the back,” as he pointed over to it with his eyes. He then told me he has an old Trek 531 with Campy components. FYI, Campagnola is one of the top maker of bicycle components in the world. And when this Trek 531 was made, he said he bought it over thirty years ago, it was the top maker. It was before Shimano Dura-Ace or other companies became prominent competitors at the top level.
He kept talking, almost as if in a train of thought manner, rattling off things about his life. He bought the bike from a friend who was a trek supplier, got a great deal on it. He uses it for exercise because he has issues with walking. He had thrombosis in his left calf muscle years ago, and it still bothers him, gives him pain even walking short distances. He put it this way. “I can ride the bike a long time without pain, but I can’t walk down to the dumpster without it bothering me.” The dumpster is about a hundred yards away. When he was in the hospital for this, they gave him two choices. They told him he had to take shots for a week. In his stomach, twice a day. He could stay in the hospital for this, or he could go home and self-administer the shots. But they wanted him to show them that he could in fact do the shots. So, he showed them he could, injecting the shot into his stomach.
He also said he was in a serious car accident during Covid. At one point, he woke up in a hospital bed, “filled with tubes.” He looked at the board next to the bed, and the date indicated a week had past. He had been “out” for a whole week. A nurse came in and said, “He’s alive!” he said they had “flatlined” him twice, but somehow, he survived. It wasn’t his time, he told me. They also discovered he had cancer while in the hospital, and it sounded like he’s been cured of that.
He was a pilot for Midwest Airlines for twenty years. His college major was counseling. After retiring from flying, he worked as a marriage and family therapist, working with the Veteran’s Administration much of the time in situations involving PTSD.
He is headed to Davis Bayou for a week, then coming back here to Fort Pickens for two weeks. He’s moving to Pensacola, saying his place will be ready March 1. He came down here last year, planning to move here, but he said he decided to travel and headed out west.
Later in the day, I did a 46-mile ride. It felt good. It was windy again, as it was the other two days, but it was either lighter in strength or I was stronger myself. Whatever the case, my average speed was faster than the other two days.
On Sunday, I moved back to Loop A.
On Wednesday, I did a longer ride: 71 miles, 4h 34m, 15.3 mph. It was not hard. I took a break at fifty miles, had some yogurt, a Premier Protein drink, some Fig Newtons, and then hopped back at it. I could have ridden longer, but I had my goal completed. I wanted to do seventy miles on my birthday, one for each year. My birthday wasn’t until the next day, but the weather today was much better than the forecast for the next day, so I took advantage of it.
On Thursday, my birthday, I did a short ride, 15 miles. Next, I walked to the beach with my chair. I dove into the waves. It was exhilarating and felt really good. The water was not too cold. There were lots of waves, not tall ones, probably around two feet maximum, but it was what I’d call a rough sea, a new wave every few seconds. I did not go out too far in the surf. After coming out of the water, I talked with one of my campsite neighbors, who was out collecting shells. She took some photos of me with my phone. She and her husband are traveling in their brand-new van. They bought it as an anniversary gift for themselves. It also happened to be his 70th birthday the day before mine! They will return to their home in Illinois in April.
I sat and let the wind dry me off and enjoyed the sun for a little while. The temperature was in the high 60s. I also walked the beach and collected some more seashells. My Land O’ Lakes butter container is almost filled with shells.
I have rising early just about every day and walking to the beach for sunrise. I have also been going there for the sunset almost every night. Each time, it is a great experience. It’s never dull. The variety of cloudscapes add a great deal of color and texture, but even if there are no clouds, it is amazing. Tonight, February 1, sunset was the most brilliant in terms of bright colors that I have seen in a long time.
On my way there, there was a photographer taking photos of a couple. I am sure it is for a wedding engagement or something like that. I waited for a moment so they could do a shot. As I walked by them, I said hello and smiled at them. They ignored me. Maybe they were stressed about taking photos? Maybe they were mad that I interrupted their photo shoot on the boardwalk?
There were five people on the beach who looked like they were settling into their chairs for sunset. I asked if they’d like a group photo. They enthusiastically said yes. I took about ten shots for them. One woman looked at them and said they were great. Two of the people were from this area. The others were visiting from Minnesota.
There were several other groups on the beach. Oddly enough, as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon, almost everyone left. There was only one couple who remained to watch the spectacular color show that followed.
On Friday I drove to Gulf Breeze to buy some more groceries. I went to Chic-fil-et again. I stopped into the library to print a letter, then mailed it at the Gulf Breeze Post Office. It was nearly time for sunset when I returned to my campsite.
Ride, hike, read and write, meet people and talk about stuff. That’s what I do …
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