pines – The Hermits' Rest

Today’s adventure in Myrtle Beach was to find the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve. This is the huge protected area we learned about yesterday from the birder/salesman. It’s a beautiful pine forest maintained by prescribed burns. It’s home to a population of carnivorous plants (that we didn’t see, sadly) and many other interesting species that grow among the Carolina bays—shallow ovals that collect rainwater then dry up. They are dry now.

The bays are formed in incredibly white sand and look pretty weird out there in the forest.

Anita and I drove all over, looking for trees with Red-cockaded Woodpecker nests. We found nests, but no birds.

Luckily there were other birds, like Eastern Towhees, Indigo Buntings (even saw one!), Red-headed Woodpeckers, Brown Thrashers, and a beautiful Swallow-tailed Kite.

I found many interesting new plants, too. There were a few still blooming in the heat.

The most exciting sight was a young bear who trotted across the road a ways down the road from us. That was my first wild black bear sighting. This preserve has a thriving population. Amazing that it’s so near civilization it so remote.

I’d love to come back at a time of year with more moderate temperatures, because there are many miles of trails to explore.

We headed out and found a Publix supermarket, which was kind of like visiting a tourist attraction. We got fun food to eat the rest of the week. Most importantly, we got beverages.

After afternoon rest, we picked up my book about the Cherokee wars of 1776 written by Kevin the bartender/professor. I like his views of history from different viewpoints. Then I had to take Anita to the Sea Captain’s House for a taste of old Myrtle Beach. It’s a ritual!

The views were beautiful, the wine bubbly (Anita’s), and the food just lovely. We knew we needed to eat hummingbird cake for dessert!

The visit so far has been pleasant. The traffic and crowds aren’t bad at all. Hooray for NOT coming during Bike Week!

Today’s camping adventure was that Mike and I ditched our spouses (with permission) to hike on one of the longer trails in Buescher State Park. This was the Pine Gulch Trail that goes for five miles. However, we took the Roosevelt cut-off, which made it just three miles. Since there was a lot of climbing up and down, that was plenty for us.

We had to drive to the trailhead, which was fine with me since it meant I could go down the beautiful park road again. We stopped at the official scenic overlook to enjoy the view of farms and the main highway to Houston below.

As we were about to leave, two fancy BMW motorcycles pulled up, and off came two delightful Polish men from Houston who were committed to getting off the road and looking at the scenery. Apparently the guy who usually leads their rides doesn’t like to stop. After they assured us they were real people and not AI (well they did look sorta funny in their fancy motorcycle outfits), we had a nice conversation, then took pictures of ourselves. They wanted to prove to their wives that they really went on a drive, not to a bar or something.

I love all the new people you meet camping! I also love all the new plants and flowers. The trail alternated between deep woods and pretty meadows that were made by fires. Even though it’s late in the year, it was quite colorful, with lots of bitterweed and palafox, with dayflower and poverty weed thrown in.

The woods smell so piney and woody. I kept stopping to breathe as well as take pictures of the beauty.

Of course, I found tiny flowers to marvel at, though I did manage to walk without stopping long enough to make my watch think I was hiking. Check out these beauties.

After we came home, I chatted with Lee and a guy he met, then waited until time for my football game, which we heroically figured out how to watch by logging in to our Direct TV account. We even used the outdoor television for the first time. I’d forgotten we had one.

The lure of another fire was greater than football, though, so the four of us left over from the church campout sat around it and told stories and gazed. I like the gazing.