CJ and I didn't really get a chance to celebrate our anniversary this year. We had great ideas, but they fell by the wayside while we tried to take on the tasks of moving and starting grad school in two seperate cities. To make up for our oversight, we planned a camping trip to the Eastern Shore of Maryland during one of the last weekends of September. After losing almost half of our blood volume to mosquitos, we now refer to our 7th anniversary trip as the "7 Year Itch". And let me tell you, the itching lasted for a solid week after we returned home. I'll spare you the pictures.
But back to the beginning...
CJ had heard about a sunflower field, called Clear Meadow Farm, about an hour outside of Baltimore. It looked like an awesome place to stop, so we took the long way to the Eastern shore for this detour. The field was beautiful, and perfect for photo ops. Too bad I'm not so photogenic, or these shots could have been money ;)
We stopped for lunch in the town of Berlin, with banners not-so-modestly proclaiming itself America's Coolest Small Town. We certainly didn't have any complaints, and we had some delicious sandwiches and milkshakes at Rayne's Reef, stopped by an organic grocer for some dried mango, and sifted through some $1 Beanie Babies at at an antique shop. (I though they were supposed be worth millions by now?!)
Finally, by mid-afternoon, we made it to the Assateague Island Ranger's station. Assateague Island is a National Seashore that just so happens to have a huge population of wild horses. I'm not so sure where they came from and didn't figure it on our trip.You can hang out on the beach, camp in drive-in campsites, drive your 4-wheel drive vehicle on the beach, or reserve a back country site. The back country sites are first-come-first-serve each day. We couldn't believe our luck when we arrived just in time to get the last back country site for the day. It was bay-side, not beach-side like we had hoped, but that couldn't be so bad....right? We were so wrong.
After hiking with our packs for about 6 miles on the beach (and spotting some awesome herds of horses), we reached the turnoff to our campsite. Literally not 10 seconds after we left the beach, we were mobbed with millions of mosquitos. This is not an exaggeration. I quickly changed into some capri leggings, the longest pants I had, and pulled on a sweatshirt. I am not kidding when I tell you that the entire 6 inches of my exposed calves were black with mosquitos. For some reason, the mosquitos didn't like CJ's legs as much, but he definitely wasn't immune. A mile later, we arrived at camp and surveyed the damage. Every inch of exposed skin was covered in welts.
We probably set a world record in the fastest time setting up a tent and starting a fire. I set up my hammock too, and tried to lie in it, but that proved pretty fruitless as it seems the mosquitos love a sitting target :) The smoke from the fire helped ward off the bugs long enough to take in the gorgeous sunset and eat some noodles for dinner. It really was gorgeous, and almost worth the bug bites. Almost.
Another miracle of the night - we managed to get in the tent without letting a single mosquito in! We slept peacefully until the morning, when we probably set a second world record of fastest campsite pack up. And this point, we were dead set on our mission to get back to the beach, and jogged with our packs the mile back to the water and breeze that keep our blood-sucking enemies away.
I love the ocean, but I never thought I'd be so happy to see it as I was that morning. We walked along the water while killing the last few bugs hanging around, and finally could relax. We ate a breakfast of chocolate covered espresso beans and dried mango and coconut while reading on the beach, which really was beautiful. After a 6 mile barefoot hike up the beach, we arrived back to the car.
Our good friend Rachel lives on the Eastern Shore, and we met her for lunch at EVO Brewery in Salisbury, where we could finally laugh about our experience. Then it was back home, and back to school work, until the next getaway.
But back to the beginning...
CJ had heard about a sunflower field, called Clear Meadow Farm, about an hour outside of Baltimore. It looked like an awesome place to stop, so we took the long way to the Eastern shore for this detour. The field was beautiful, and perfect for photo ops. Too bad I'm not so photogenic, or these shots could have been money ;)
We stopped for lunch in the town of Berlin, with banners not-so-modestly proclaiming itself America's Coolest Small Town. We certainly didn't have any complaints, and we had some delicious sandwiches and milkshakes at Rayne's Reef, stopped by an organic grocer for some dried mango, and sifted through some $1 Beanie Babies at at an antique shop. (I though they were supposed be worth millions by now?!)
Finally, by mid-afternoon, we made it to the Assateague Island Ranger's station. Assateague Island is a National Seashore that just so happens to have a huge population of wild horses. I'm not so sure where they came from and didn't figure it on our trip.You can hang out on the beach, camp in drive-in campsites, drive your 4-wheel drive vehicle on the beach, or reserve a back country site. The back country sites are first-come-first-serve each day. We couldn't believe our luck when we arrived just in time to get the last back country site for the day. It was bay-side, not beach-side like we had hoped, but that couldn't be so bad....right? We were so wrong.
After hiking with our packs for about 6 miles on the beach (and spotting some awesome herds of horses), we reached the turnoff to our campsite. Literally not 10 seconds after we left the beach, we were mobbed with millions of mosquitos. This is not an exaggeration. I quickly changed into some capri leggings, the longest pants I had, and pulled on a sweatshirt. I am not kidding when I tell you that the entire 6 inches of my exposed calves were black with mosquitos. For some reason, the mosquitos didn't like CJ's legs as much, but he definitely wasn't immune. A mile later, we arrived at camp and surveyed the damage. Every inch of exposed skin was covered in welts.
We probably set a world record in the fastest time setting up a tent and starting a fire. I set up my hammock too, and tried to lie in it, but that proved pretty fruitless as it seems the mosquitos love a sitting target :) The smoke from the fire helped ward off the bugs long enough to take in the gorgeous sunset and eat some noodles for dinner. It really was gorgeous, and almost worth the bug bites. Almost.
Another miracle of the night - we managed to get in the tent without letting a single mosquito in! We slept peacefully until the morning, when we probably set a second world record of fastest campsite pack up. And this point, we were dead set on our mission to get back to the beach, and jogged with our packs the mile back to the water and breeze that keep our blood-sucking enemies away.
I love the ocean, but I never thought I'd be so happy to see it as I was that morning. We walked along the water while killing the last few bugs hanging around, and finally could relax. We ate a breakfast of chocolate covered espresso beans and dried mango and coconut while reading on the beach, which really was beautiful. After a 6 mile barefoot hike up the beach, we arrived back to the car.
No comments:
Post a Comment