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Woke up Monday morning to overcast skies, a chance of rain and close to 100% humidity, but we decided to try to get some painting in before the sky opened. Well, the sky never opened and finally after lunch we finished up the back of the bait shop. We had thought about waiting until Tuesday, but we were already paint spotted and had so little to do that we ate lunch and wrapped the task up. We were returning the paint tools and paint to the shop when we ran into Aaron.

When we told him we were done he showed some surprise and wondered if we felt we had time to work on another task. The equipment shed at the Park Manager’s residence will be done on Tuesday so we will paint it beginning Wednesday.

He again told us that we did a fantastic job on the trail and that he has never in his years at the park seen it look so good. It will now be up to the park folks to keep it cleaned up!

Tuesday we were at the Reed house doing laundry when one of the rangers told us that a large turtle had washed up on the beach. He said the shell measured 3 feet by 4 feet and was dead. So, after we had lunch and had done some errands we stopped by the ranger station to find out where it was located. We went home and rode our bikes to the beach and had to walk about ¼ mile down the beach where we saw Kathleen, and three other employees with their trucks. As we approached Kathleen shouted out that it was not a turtle, but a fish! When we got close we could see that it was not really a fish – just part of one. It was at least three feet high and what was left of the length was a little better than four feet. You can see by the size of the nearby truck and shovel the size of this thing.
They were trying to drag it up further on the beach and then bury it deep. No matter how they tried they could not move it. They had tarps under it but the ropes just pulled through the grommets. They finally gave up and were hoping the high tide – which was coming in – would wash it out. We will go try to check it out in the morning.

Kathleen, in the middle is flanked by ranger Michelle and Judy.

This is the small shed we are now working on. We were painting on the sides and back even before the other volunteers had completed the doors. The sides are made of ‘hardy’ or ‘cement’ board so they do not soak up paint and will not rot in the sun and moisture. We completed the base coat and now have only the trim to paint. We really don’t want to complete too soon as this will be our last project.












In the afternoon we rode our bikes on the blacktopped bike trail to the ‘south end’ and made our way through the sand to the beach. We rode on the beach back to the first boardwalk…a very pleasant ride as the tide was coming in. We found the fish, it moved up the beach – north – by the tides. According to Michelle it is/was a Sun Fish - not like we would think of at home!

Another task completed! We finished up the shed a little before noon. We are sure that we could be assigned another painting task, but the chance of rain this afternoon is 70% and runs the same through Friday morning so no need to tackle anything else.


Here’s a painter’s trick we leaned. See the blue tape on the one brush? This keeps paint from going all the way to the heel of the brush, which makes cleaning easier. It also keeps the bristles all together.

Friday at the shop when putting the painting tools and ladder away, Kathleen asked if we might want to go to the Home Depot in Jacksonville to pickup some material. So we took off in the old Ford dump truck (standard transmission) and drove into the north end Home Depot to pickup thirty 12 foot composite boards which they will use for bench seats. They are slowly moving from wood to composite as it lasts in this salt/sand climate. That will be our last job for this park as tonight we have a pot-luck with volunteers and staff.

Friday late afternoon we had a rain move through and it certainly cut down on the pollen! Between the cedar, the live oak and the flat wood pines it was getting pretty bad. Later that evening we had a potluck with most of the volunteers and a large number of the staff. Lots of good food and socializing and nice to see the staff out of uniform and to get to know them a bit more.

Michelle verified that the fish found on the beach is commonly referred to as a salt water ‘sun fish’ - really a Mola Mola - and it can weigh up to a ton! Here’s a link with more information about this strange fish: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_sunfish

Saturday we did some packing and made a final trip to WalMart. It was not too sunny so we made one final ride on the beach. The winds were pretty strong out of the south so it was a hard ride to the south end of the island. The sand was really blowing on the beach, but we did not have to pedal much on the way north. It stormed hard nearly all night so things are wet and soggy. Some of the stuff we pack away will have to be opened to dry.


Sunday afternoon there are three speakers at the Rebault Club talking about Florida history so we will go there to help fill in the day. We plan to be on the road by 8:30 for the two plus hour drive to Valdosta.

So this ends Florida portion of our travels.

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Thursday morning we had just started working when Kathleen and Aaron, the two Assistant Mangers drove up. They were surprised at how far we had gotten and how good the building now looked. We finished the north end and as a reward made what may be our last trip to Singletons. With the ferry now running it is really only minutes away. We rode the ferry across the St Johns River and after a great lunch did some shopping and came back ‘home’ for the rest of the day.

It is surprising how friendly the fishermen – and women are. Would guess that 80% are black with a few Orientals and the rest white. The fishing must be good as there are always people using the old bridge. The ‘bait shop’ also houses the restroom facilities so we get to see a lot of folks. Friday morning a group of Orientals stopped just as we were getting our gear together. In somewhat broken English they inquired about bait. We gave them directions on where to buy and they were quite pleased.

We finished the weeks work before noon – only the back or west side to paint now. So we came home and did some chores and split some wood and we will have a fire. We cooked kielbasa over the fire and heated the beans too….very satisfying meal.
They don’t have us scheduled to paint the trim, just the wall sides. Don’t know what they will put on next as we will only have a few days left here. We should finish the back side early Tuesday so that will leave us time to do another small project for them

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In keeping with out ‘bucket list’ of things to do, after church we stopped in town at a little café called “Jack and Diane’s” in the historic district for a late breakfast. It was a neat little place and we had nice meals. After our usual grocery shopping we headed to Pumpkin Hill Creek SP, about 25 miles from LTI. It is one of seven parks/park locations serviced out of Little Talbot Island. It is considered an “upland park” that protects the headwaters of the St Johns River, a source of Jacksonville’s drinking water. It is 4000 acres of scrub, pines and palmetto that has a number of “trails” and pathways for hikers and horses. Many of the pathways are just ‘plow lines’ to separate burn zones to control fires. The soil is mainly pure white sand.

Early Monday morning met with Kathleen about our next task. The small shed will not be ready until probably the middle or end of next week, so that is off our “to do list.” But, she had another more involved project for us and we spent the morning checking it out and gathering our equipment and paint supplies. It’s a building that they are remodeling for us as a bait shop. The contract for a concessionaire is out for bids and they are working at getting it all prepared. It is at the north end of an old bridge that is now used solely as a “fishing” bridge with no vehicle traffic. We will get started on it Tuesday – if it does not rain. We had thought about riding our bikes, but it is nearly 6 miles along highway A1A, which is busy.

This is the bait shop we are working on now. We have painted the front side where the ladder is leaning.

There are lots of people out fishing on this old bridge which was built in 1948. On the weekends it is nearly full. Several places in this area they have left the old bridges standing for use by fishermen.

Monday afternoon excitement! A couple walking the nature trail next to our camper came up to tell us that there was a diamond back rattler on the trail. By the time we got to the spot in the trail, the snake had moved about 5 yards off the trail (out of the bright sun shine) in amongst some live oak saplings. Here he/she is…really hard to spot in the dead oak leaves and sun beams.

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Monday we continued our ‘door painting’ at the shop. We rode our bikes the one mile there and back, an easy ride after the daily trips on the prairie! Finished the outside and overhang, and now with what little paint is left, Kathleen wants us to do the one side that you can see. It is different and weather beaten. The equipment shed at the park manager’s will be next, but it is not nearly ready. She did agree that it made sense to let us paint before the trim is put on. So John Mason (volunteer doing the work) is going to cut and tack on the trim pieces and then mark them and take them off so we can paint them separate - lot less cutting in to do.

Spring beaks have started and there are several campsites full of college kids. We met two girls from Wittenberg who drove down for the week. Looks like a good week weather-wise as it has gotten much warmer.

This is the tractor barn we painted. Oh yes, the inside of the doors are all painted too – as well as the overhang.
As we finished this task and the equipment shed won’t be ready for paint until maybe the middle or end of next week, Kathleen has linked us with Eric, the Park Service Specialist. We will be working with him for the next several days doing a “UTAP” on that trail we trimmed. UTAP stands for Universal Trail Assessment Program and was developed to grade and mark trails all across the country. The goal is to have a trail in Summit County’s Metro Parks, “graded” the same as a trail in Tucson, Arizona or Okeechobee, Florida.

Here are Judy, Eric and Mike working on UTAP.
Judy is recording the data that the rest of us are giving her. Mike and I used devices called clinometers to gauge the degree of grade change from one point to another (could be 20 to 100 feet down the trail) and then fancy compasses to get the direction. I then GPS each point. The first day we did less than ½ mile but on the second we covered over ½ a mile……another mile plus to go and then we have to do the beach and boardwalk portions.

We finished our UTAP of the beach trail a little before 2 on Friday. We had started as usual at 8:30 and as we neared the beach wanted to finish the work. It was interesting working with Mike and Eric as they are both into plants, animals and the environment. At one point Judy was standing by the side of the trail ready to make notes when suddenly a small lizard dropped out of an overhead tree. It scurried a way very quickly. We learned how to tell the difference between a young palmetto and a young cabbage or sabal palm. The weather was cool and damp and when we reached the beach, to the east was a solid fog bank. You could not see the ocean, only the waves as the tide reached high up on the beach

Saturday we went to the Volunteer Appreciation Day at Dudley Farm SP – a two hour drive with Cliff and RuthAnn. We have been with them at KPPSP the past three years and now here at LTI. We toured this old farm/homestead and had a great BBQ chicken lunch. They served 400 people in less that a half hour. Here is Judy waiting through all the speeches before lunch.

At the luncheon they had one of the ‘fire trucks’ that is used by the parks. Each park has at least one of these units to combat wild fires and most of all to be used when they do a prescribed burn of an area. This is what their fire trucks look like. It not only carries water, but also liquids they use to start the burns and back fires. Most all of the staff enjoy the fire fighting/prescribed burning they do at all the parks.

No they aren't red - all white alike all the park trucks, but they do have lights and sirens.

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So far this has been a quite week on the island. Sunday morning a wicked storm blasted through with strong winds and rain and even a tornado warning. Boy were the live oaks and palms swaying above us. But, down at ground level no problem. We debated about church, but around 9 it seemed to clear some so we drove up to Fernandina. Went through some strong cross winds over the bridges, but by the time we got to church all was calm – and when we came out the sun was shining.

After dinner (roasted chicken from Harris-Teeter) we drove down to the Ribault Club (part of this park system). It was built in the late 20’s as a winter recreational resort, similar too but on a much smaller scale than Jekyll Island. It fell into disrepair for a number of years until the park service took it over in 1989. They worked at restoration and it reopened as a park facility in 2003. It’s the site of weddings and wedding receptions and the beginning of a 4.5 mile trail around Fort George Island. The site of the club building is on top of and late 1800’s hotel that burned and that hotel is over a large midden. A midden is an ancient Indian landfill – a place where the early inhabitants of Florida dumped shells, fish bones and even early pottery.

Monday we went back to work on the trail. We now have a new line head for the trimmer and it made the job much easier. As we progress towards the beginning, the dense areas become fewer, but there are more overhanging limbs and branches. Any large branch or tree that needs a chainsaw to remove, we are marking for a park ranger to cut.
Tuesday we took off as Lilly’s vet appointment was in the early afternoon. We will be glad when the ferry starts to run again as it’s a long way around from here to Mayport! In the morning we went to the Reed House and took care of laundry and gave the truck a good bath.

We’ve passed the one mile marker on the trail and are on the home stretch. Today we started early and were done a little after noon. We are within 50 yards of the half-mile marker and that last half mile will go fast. There are several stretches of just white sand so no trimming to do. As we past the ranger station this morning on the way to the trail, Aaron came out and stopped us. He wanted to know when we though we would finish as they have our next task waiting. It will be back to painting. A couple of volunteers have replaced the four big doors on the tractor barn and they need to be painted so that’s what’s up next.

Notice the palm at the right of the picture. It seemed to grow parallel to the ground out of that sand dune.

Here’s a closer picture. It came out so far and then curved up to the sun. If it were totally vertical it would be 25 to 30 feet high.

Well we did it; finished the trail today (Thursday.). It was a little before noon so we decided to celebrate and drove Fernandina for a late lunch and walked the old town…..quite a tourist place. It’s probably quite busy during the summer months.

This is the marker at the start of the trail.
On Friday we went to the shop and got our next tasks. We will paint the newly re-built tractor barn doors and then when we finish that paint small storage building near the park manager’s residence. The doors (there are four are 6x10 T-111 doors) were rebuilt by two other volunteers. We got started and did get the interior portions all done. We had to brush paint them all as this is where all the 2x4 supports are.

Monday we will work on the exteriors and the new over-hang that they had to rebuild too. Will see what we can do for fun this weekend.