Amelia Island, FL

November 14 - 17, 2021

Fort Clinch State Park

Nov 14:

The nice rangers at the entrance station said our campsite wasn't ready yet ( they rake the site after vacuuming the fire rings here!). We decided to make the 2.8 mi canopy covered drive out to see the fort at the mouth of Amelia River.

The fort did have a nice view of the water, but we are pretty much “forted out”, so much so that I don’t even have a pic from there… The park cleared us for camp entry, and we moved into our weird corral. Literally the campsite was surrounded by wooden fences and a raised walkway to it. I will say the fences came in handy to dry out our gear from the damp nights😜. We took our bikes to the beach & birding trail, and along the way found the single track mountain bike trail. Yes, there is a glorious narrow winding 5+ mile trail through the hammock. Though we were searching for turtles, snakes, & alligators along the nature trail, we only found those darn squirrels! Can‘t anything catch and eat some of these buggers? They are everywhere…

The wind picked up, and it actually got chilly for our sunset bike ride. Who would have guessed that jackets were needed in Florida? We cantered back for a campfire, games, and dinner in our paddock.

Nov 15:

Next day, we biked the canopy road out of the park & viewed the “inland” lighthouse. The Egan Creek Trail took us on mowed grass, deep into gator waters. A series of sidewalk, backstreet, winding path, and main roads took us to the other side of the island and Amelia Island state park. We stopped for beers & a shrimp snack by the beach at another Tortuga Jacks, before heading back to camp for filet mignon on the makeshift charcoal grill. We finished the evening under down blankets by the fire for book reading and blog writing.

Tuesday Nov 16

After a wonderful night’s sleep with the sound of crashing waves, we drive to where we stopped biking yesterday (Amelia Island SP) and continued south from there by bike. what an awesome bikes trail!! Except the beginning, where the old bridge was closed as we had to backtrack to go around. The route included raised boardwalks, maritime woods trail, coastal trail, and a lonely dirt road thru the nature reserve. And great wildlife sightings! 4 Gopher tortoises ( 2 in the same den!) , a Kemps Ridley sea turtle, black scary snake, Blue Land crab ( who wouldn’t give up the ship), an Atlantic Ghost crab, and a cool, but dead, cannonball jellyfish.

GhostCrab,GopherTortoise,BlueLand Crab

Is it sea or is it sand? Would make a great puzzle…

Wed Nov 17

- Stacey works, & I bike the mountain bike trail in Ft Clinch…! Awesome, single track, one way, 5 mile trail through the maritime forest and old dunes. Deep sand, tree roots and mud trail, with short steep uphills and tight turns with huge crazy moss covered trees - only bumped my head once🥺.

Met Stacey in old town, and we headed south to the ferry to Mayport, and fresh fish! Lunch at Safe Harbor Seafood & restaurant, were we got a bunch of seafood from the market after a delicious meal at the restaurant. Then we made our way down thru St. Augustine, and over to Anastasia Island State Park for our next tent site. St. Augustine being the USA’s oldest city, with Ponce De Leon camping here in 1513! ok more later👌

My Trusty steed

Got my but kicked😔

On a Mtn 🚲 trail in Florida..?!?