Mark and Lyn

Pelicans and Fishing Boat, Apalachicola City Dock

[Carrabelle Day #33 2025-03-30 (Sun)]  Two days left here including today. It was a damp, overcast day with sprinkles. Lyn thought we should get in another coffee & pie run to Apalachicola. I thought with it being Sunday and cruddy weather it wouldn’t be crowded. Turns out people must head into town when the beach isn’t a good option, and there was a lot of people. Nevertheless we enjoyed one more time there.

As I write this on Sunday evening there is currently dense fog with a dense fog advisory for the area through tomorrow, then severe t-storms forecast for tomorrow afternoon and evening. Well that’s it! We leave early Tuesday morning, so glad we did get out today!

After dinner walk. Good thing we had Tucker to help us find our way back. We’ve probably seen the last sunrise/sunset of this trip. Oh well, we have had many great ones!

Apalachicola Bay Bridge this year, with the sun at our backs.

[Carrabelle Day #32 2025-03-29 (Sat)]  The area we’re located in is promoted as “Florida’s Forgotten Coast”, and it truly feels like that. The quietness, lack of development, and lack of crowds are what’s brought us back year after year (and the dog friendly beach!). Not much is new around here except the beach houses, and there’s certainly a lot of old stuff. There’s more than a bit of a “Route 66” atmosphere of abandonment to a lot of places around us.

Today was warm and sunny and perhaps the last day of nice weather that we have left on this trip, so we did one last excursion exploring the coast in the Jeep. This morning we went east and north as far as Tallahassee, and this afternoon we popped the roof panels off and drove west up the coast. After a stop at Apalachicola Chocolate and Coffee Co for ice cream (of course!) this afternoon we wandered an area along the river past the nice touristy area, down to where there’s lots of abandoned buildings.

This area is also where I went last year to take photos of the sun rise under the bridge over Apalachicola Bay. One of those photos (included below) is one of my all time personal favorites. So I stood in the same spot and tried to frame a similar shot just for fun (included at top of today’s post). Wow, while timing isn’t everything it sure makes a huge difference in a photo!

Apalachicola Bay Bridge at sunrise last year, one of my favorite photos

Photo from today’s visit. The bridge is 4 miles long, spanning the bay between Eastpoint and Apalachicola. This view is only a very small part of it!

Last year, before sunrise.

Uncropped panorama.

Apalachicola Hotel, along the river front. This area reminds me of Route 66.

Along the river front. I wonder how many years since this was operational?

Boat Works again. How many hurricanes has this seen?

A pile of oyster shells. These are everywhere. People use them for landscaping(!).

Public docking area, Apalachicola Bay

My favorite Forgotten Coast wandering companions.

We have 2 days left here, leaving for home early Tuesday morning. The weather is forecast to be cloudy/rainy with some chance of severe weather Monday and Monday night. So we plan on just relaxing and preparing for the trip home. It’s been a great time here, but I’m really looking forward to being home, seeing family and friends, and springtime in Wisconsin!

I’ll miss these.

[Carrabelle Day #31 2025-03-28 (Fri)] The last couple days have basically been just reading and a few walks to the beach. It’s very comfortable and pleasant here but I’m ready to head home. Looking forward to Spring in Wisconsin.

On the way to the beach.

Hanging out in the screen room.

Lyn and I watched this elderly couple walk into the sunrise this morning

[Carrabelle Day #29 2025-03-26 (Wed)]  For the second time this trip Lyn made it down to the beach for sunrise. Naturally that required an immediate followup quest for coffee and pastry, and we would up in Apalachicola at Lyn’s current favorite cafe (this was our 6th time there).

No one is more spoiled than this.

Then we did a little wandering around after coffee.

At a downtown Apalachicola park and public docking area

Apalachicola water tower rises over Orman House, a historic mansion now restored as a museum.

There’s also a marina here that we like. It has a collection of smaller, older, beat up commercial fishing vessels. Nothing else, nothing modern or fancy.

Fishing boats at Apalachicola.

Also at the marina. Nice to see this crane repurposed as a nesting platform.

So now as we get to the end of our stay here, for photography we’re beginning to revisit places we’ve had some success with before and returning to them to see if we can do a little better based on previous experience. This evening towards sunset that turned out to be a small bridge in Tate’s Hell that’s being renovated. To get a new/different perspective, e.g. the whole bridge, I hiked down to the river’s edge, sans path, and got some shots with the setting sun behind me. Very happy with the results.

Ice cream (again) at Lyn’s favorite place down here.

[Carrabelle Day #27 2025-03-24 (Mon)] Well, the title of today’s blog is meant to suggest that our time here has started to become a repeat of previous days. A drive this morning to Publix in Crawfordville for groceries, including key-lime pie which Lyn says we can’t get anywhere else. This afternoon to Apalachicola for ice-cream at Lyn’s new favorite coffee shop (a pattern should be emerging here). Nice weather today, bracketed by showers in the morning and evening, with walks to the beach. Just another day in paradise.

Morning

Evening

Nature trail at St. George State Park

[Carrabelle Day #26 2025-03-23 (Sun)] Yesterday was still a bit cold and windy so we spent the entire day reading and relaxing. Today we were out and about, starting this morning with coffee and croissants at Apalachicola Chocolate and Coffee Company (our 4th time, it’s become a favorite). From there we drove across the 4 mile St George Island Bridge to, well, St George Island and then to the state park at the far end. Last time we were here we did a short hike on the nature trail that runs through several miles of sandy woodland in the park. Dogs aren’t allowed on the beaches (which is most of the park!) but they are allowed on this trail. We really liked it, and the plan today was to do a longer hike. We did about 2.5 miles. Tucker loved it!

Tucker destroyed his step goal today!

Scenery along the trail.

There were sand dunes too, and Lyn got some candid shots with her camera.

Aunt Ebby’s Ice Cream, St. George Island … again!!!

To continue Lyn’s perfect day that we stopped for ice cream on the way back to the resort to do laundry.

Sunrise this morning. Never gets old!

On the way to a viewing platform.

[Carrabelle Day #24 2025-03-21 (Fri)] Today we headed about 30 mi east down the coast from Carrabelle to Bald Point State Park. It’s a beautiful park on the Gulf of Mexico with white sand beaches and nice nature trails.

Bald Point State Park.

Cold, windy, and therefore just a short walk tonight!

Sunset light streams through Tate’s Hell State Forest.

[Carrabelle Day #23 2025-03-20 (Thu)] Yesterday evening we explored a small area of Tate’s Hell State Forest just north of Carrabelle. It was so beautiful with the setting sun lighting up the trees that we decided to return again tonight and bring a camera to do some photography. In particular there was a sand road with small bridge across a river that was being repaired that I thought would be a good subject.

BTW, regarding the name, “Tate’s Hell” is full of dense woodland, swampland, and biting insects, and named for a person who got lost here in 1875. A historical site relates: “Lost and disoriented for seven days and seven nights, he suffered greatly. Water was scarce, the mosquitoes were relentless, and the heat was stifling. Cebe was forced to drink the muddy swamp water. Finally breaking through the underbrush to a clearing near the town of Carrabelle, nearly 25 miles from his home, and barely able to speak, he walked up to two men. “My name is Cebe Tate,” he said, “And I’ve been through hell.” With that, he collapsed at their feet and died.”

Old single lane metal grate bridge getting new footings. Just a sand road on either side through the middle of woodland here.

While I did get some shots that I liked, unfortunately the bridge crew had made some progress during the day and the scene wasn’t quite as nice as the evening before. And worse, there was a “No Trespassing – Felony” sign posted, which made Lyn nervous, so I wasn’t able to get into the area I shot a few nice iPhone shots from yesterday. Nevertheless it worked out OK. The photos above are a mix of yesterday’s iPhone shots and today’s Nikon Z8 shots.

Tate’s Hell was much kinder to us than poor Cebe Tate in 1875, but we had a Jeep and some roads.

Hi Bob! This bobcat photo is the highlight of the trip so far! More bobcat photos and story at the end of this post.

[Carrabelle Day #22 2025-03-19 (Wed)] I’ve been planning another visit, at sunrise, to St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge. Today was the day, dawning cold and clear with calm wind. Left the campground a little over an hour before sunrise, leaving Lyn and Tucker behind sleeping. Driving east there was beautiful pre-dawn light and mist over the calm ocean along the coastal highway on the way to St. Mark’s.

Arrived at St. Mark’s just as the sun was rising, and the drive along the road that goes through the refuge was beautifully lit. Couldn’t have been prettier, but there was almost no wildlife to be seen yet as I drove to the end of the 10 mile park road ending at St. Mark’s Lighthouse.

St. Mark’s Lighthouse lit by the rising sun.

My plan was to position myself to the east of the lighthouse with the rising sun at my back lighting up the lighthouse and the attached structure. The only problem, as I knew ahead of time, was that that required hiking through dense brush into a wet, muddy, swampy area. St. Mark’s Lighthouse is a popular photo site, but because of the “challenging” conditions this perspective is rare (I haven’t seen it, except old drone photos). It was worth the muddy boots and I’m very happy with the results.

Bird life as seen through an 800mm lens.

Gator with a swollen snout. Something must have fought back 🙂

On the drive back up the park road there was some nice bird life to photograph, including even a cardinal which Lyn liked a lot. I even found an alligator floating in a pond by a boat ramp. But the best photos by far came at the end of the drive …

Bobcat sighting!!!

And finally, this is epic! My last stop on the way out starts at a parking area with several trailheads. Before even getting on a trail I saw a gray animal with pointed ears at a distance. It appeared to look at me then bounded across the park road and disappeared into the brush. At first I thought it might be some kind of gray fox or maybe a marten. Also I thought there was less than a 1 in 100 chance I might spot it if I headed over to where I saw it disappear. But that’s how wildlife photography works sometimes, so I did. There was a stream/water filled ditch with brush on either side side so I pushed into the brush a little ways and looked across the steam. After a minute or two I spotted something gray slowly moving through the brush on the other side of the water. I kept changing my position trying to get an angle through the brush to see it as it moved. Finally it was visible in a small opening about 20-30 yards from me and it stopped and looked right at me. Holy shit it was a bobcat!!! I took over 50 photos while it just sat and looked at me and I tried to get unobstructed shots of it. It sat there for about 5 minutes watching me carefully, giving me a great opportunity. It was alert but didn’t seem spooked. I think with the distance, water, and brush in between us it didn’t feel too threaded. When it finally left it just nonchalantly walked off into the brush.

Wow wow wow! This was by far the best wildlife encounter I’ve ever had with a camera, just magical, and the photos turned out to be just incredible too to top it all off!!

Sunset walk this evening.

Look at what we found!!!

[Carrabelle Day #20 2025-03-17 (Mon)]  We’ve settled into a routine here of relaxing at the RV resort and exploring a bit of the area each day. Haven’t been good at photo documenting and blogging the last few days, but back at it a little today. This afternoon we wandered around Carrabelle City (since I needed to go to the hardware store anyways). To Lyn’s delight we found an ice cream shop, which surprised us since Carrabelle is small and we thought we’d investigated it pretty thoroughly by now. Well that shows the value of wandering off our usual tracks.

Inside Carrabelle Junction (uncropped 4 image panorama). Reminded me of Route 66.

We also drove out to Timber Island which is a small patch of land in the Carrabelle River directly across the river from Carrabelle and connected by a small bridge. Again just exploring places in the area we haven’t yet been. Timber Island is basically a marina with a few condos. There’s a storage area that seemed like a boat graveyard with wrecked boats and boats that look like they haven’t been used for decades.

Timber Island Boat Graveyard

Looking across the Carrabelle River from Timber Island towards Carrabelle

A few Carrabelle landmarks.

Home Sweet Home.