Cape Lookout 2009: TundraBirds Go!

[Haggis]

Last fall was a mad house. Between the rotten weather and the “mission creep” on consecutive log home jobs I was falling behind schedule. The Expo East crew had planned a trip to Cape Lookout on the Core Banks of North Carolina, but when the dust settled, all but one had to pull out. Me, because I just couldn’t spare the time, others for their own reasons and the end result was that we left James (jim65wagon) and family heading down to the Banks on their own. And then they had to go and have a grand time making us all jealous that we couldn’t make it.

My wife Michelle was the most disappointed that the trip didn‘t happen for us, for she loves the shore. Then, over the winter, Jim and Elizabeth (my little sister) mentioned that they were heading back down next year and were hoping we would come along. Well, we weren’t gonna miss that trip this time, so we got to plannin’ and Michelle got a trip to look forward to as the snow built up around our cabin. Jim opened the trip up for fellow expo-ers, but in the end it was just the Clan; brother and sister, brother and sister in laws and the cousins, affectionately known collectively as the “Chimpancoons”. “Chimpancoons?" you ask; and you know you did. For your consideration, combine the rambunctiousness of a chimpanzee and the clever inquisitiveness of a raccoon and you’ll understand our kids as a group. Fun, witty, and spontaneous with a heavy dose of silliness at times, that’s our “tribe”.

We packed up and headed down to Beth and Jim’s Tuesday night to basically crash, catch some sleep and then roll on out early Wednesday morning for the North Carolina coast. On this trip, the pack mules were going to be our Tundras. Jims ‘03 Access Cab and my ‘06 Double Cab. Since I got mine last February , we’ve got to nicknaming our trucks. Jim’s is TundraBird 1 while mine is TundraBird 2, whenever we’re running a trail together that’s the CB call signs. So loaded up and trucking, we were goin’ to do what they said can’t be done…wait a minute I think I’ve heard that line before. Maybe we need to put a puking chicken on Jim’s black Tundra and get him to trade that Tilley hat for a black cowboy hat!

So we rolled on down south running primary I-95 which other than the PA Turnpike is one of my most hated roads. But traffic wasn’t to bad and we made good time and once off the interstate we wound through the secondary roads until we reached Davis, North Carolina. We had an appointment at 4:00 pm with the Davis ferry service and arrived a couple hours early. So we sat on the porch of the ferry office, shot the breeze with the owners, bought some shrimps to do some fishing and waited for the ferry to load up onto. Once everything was ready we loaded up the trucks side by side and the good folks of the Ferry service cast off and lead us across the Sound.

Some folks were quite happy to be heading off to the banks…

“My GPS shows the road going the whole way through…” (Expo East inside joke)

 

[Haggis]

The Ferry bounced it’s way across the sound and deposited us on the Banks, the rangers giving us a friendly greeting as we unloaded. James led the way, working his way through the Park fishing cabins and then out towards the ocean beach. My silver Tundra followed in his black ones wake as the waves crashed on the strand beside us and the salt spray wet our faces through the open windows.

We were heading towards the northern section of the island, where there are few campers and only an occasional fisherman or two working their way towards the point. Jim and Beth led us to the site of their last year camp, sheltered behind some dunes and having a nice stretch of beach to romp around on.

The goal this trip? Well it was to do nothing. Well nothing involving work anyways. This was a low key event….eat, cruise the beaches, pick up shells, eat, splash in the waves, nap, eat, catch up on some family time, eat, muck around, FIRE!!!FIRE!!, eat, sleep and then repeat the next day.

Once at the site we all jumped into action and started setting up camp…4 tents, a latrine, a changing “room”, two shelters with a Kelty tarp in between. By the time we were done we were all starving to death so while Beth made some of her awesome potato soup I cooked up some venison steaks for the other entrée. While we ate the wind kept picking up and the waves started crashing more vigorously. The Kelty tarp started flapping raucously despite being well secured. We sat and watched the sun go down over the mainland and as night fell we made our way to our tents and laid down for the night. I’d like to say we slept , but the wind was viscous and the tents flapped like mad ghouls most of the night.

Morning came and we crawled out of our tents one by one to greet the dawn. Much to our surprise the waves had been lapping at the heels of our trucks sometime through out the night but no harm, no foul. The rest of the day was spent just mucking around…waves, shells, fishing, sea zombies. You know the usual beach stuff.

Anyway, the rest of the week fell into the same pattern. When the mood hit us, Elizabeth, James and I would throw a skewered shrimp into the surf and try to catch a fish. But the fish weren’t cooperating or we weren’t trying hard enough so no tasty fishy critters ended up over the coals.

 

[Haggis]

The second night we cooked up some Filet mignon, escargot, crusty bread and noodles. Bellies full, the books appeared as folks settled down for a relaxing evening. Much to our chagrin the surf was coming in high again so we decide to park the trucks back on the Jeep road behind the dunes. We found a couple of turnouts as close to the camp as possible, out of other peoples way, and parked the TundraBirds there. That night as the wind whipped in again at least one wave was high enough to crest the slot in the dunes our camp was set in and sent water soaking into the ground of our “kitchen” and “living room”. For the rest of the trip the Toyotas slept behind the dunes, cause “Queen Elizabeth’s Revenge” (Jim’s truck) and Fafhrd (my truck) don’t swim so well. Plus we wanted to avoid this conversation…”Umm…Where’s the trucks?” or start a thread on Oceanic Truck Recovery.

The third day was much of the same except we headed up to the north point were the channel separates South Core Island from the North Core Island. We headed up at low tide, scanning for shells, especially whelks, and stopping every so often just to nose around. Here’s the TundraBirds as I looked back towards the ocean side from the Sound.

Up here there’s a lone buoy resting in the strand and a little further up the fisherman gather to try to hook the fish running the tide surge. We found a lot of good shells here with the low tide.

The gathered Clan looking towards the North Core island, while James comptemplates whether his Tundra can make the run to the other shore.

 

[Haggis]

That night the wind died down and the first thing we noticed back at camp is the quiet. Supper was prepared; hamburgers, mac-n-cheese and nachos. And the Lemon Bars were broke out in honor of our buddy Jay. Plus, as we had been gathering driftwood from the beach, we had a fine fire that night. It was the one thing we had been missing as with the high winds we didn’t feel comfortable to have a fire. Friday night stayed calm and we finally got a good night sleep.

Saturday was pretty much a repeat of Friday, and that was just fine with us. More waves, more shells, more napping (for the adults), another run up to the point. You do see an assortment of rigs bumbling down the beach. Camper laden pickups, lifted RVs, ATVs, UTVs, and a few oddballs. My favorite was the 4x4 bus with the back porch…

One of the best pieces of gear for the beach was our onboard water tanks. Jim’s with 20 gals and mine with 25 gals. They did yeoman duty washing of the salt stickies, washing dishes, and as camp showers. It was warm enough and private enough that we just used the warm tank water to shower and didn’t bother with the Zodis.

Supper that night was pie iron pizzas for the Beth’s crew, while we warmed up some homemade calzones over the coals. It was an experiment for us. Michelle baked up a bunch of calzones, wrapped them in aluminum foil, vacuum sealed them in the Food Saver and then froze them. Man did it work great, in a few minutes we had warm, cheesy goodness and they tasted like they were just out of the oven. I think they’ll be a new campfire stable for us. As we finished supper the wind picked up once again and it was another night of flapping tents.

Sunday was going to be the Clan’s last day. Jim, Beth and the kids were there ‘til Monday, but we had a twelve hour drive back home plus a ferry crossing to do. As we tore down camp with the Hayes help the surf which had been receding started to come back in. I had already brought the truck over from the Jeep road and it was loaded up, but the families were reluctant to say goodbye. Then I saw a wave crash on the dunes below us, the way I need to go. So like a Marine drill sergeant I rustled the Clan up and made a break for the Jeep road ramp. After a few tight spots and some deepening sand we reached the ramp and made our way down to the ferry via the Jeep road. From there it was just loading up on the ferry, pay the bill, air up the tires and point Fafhrd towards home and let the V8 run. The drive home was uneventful and we rolled into our glen just before 11 pm.

All in all it was a great trip, so much so Michelle is already talking about going back again next year. I do wonder though if that black Tundra made it home or if they’re still soaking up the sun and living as beach bums!

 

[OverlandZJ]

Outstanding report Mark, looks as though you and family had a fantastic time. I appreciate your writing style, always good for a few laughs.

What is a roundtrip fare on the ferry?

 

[jim65wagon]

X2 on the great report! Yes we made it back, but between work, laundry, groceries, salt-cleaning and other chores I have yet to upload pics...that project is on-board for this possibly rainy weekend.

We also had a blast. I love Cape. It's one of those places I'll go back to till I kick. The only downfall this trip was the wind, enough that some meals were a little crunchy (I thought I bought smooth JIF!)

Ferry back and forth for four, a truck, 3lbs of shrimp and 1lb of ice totalled $141 and change, cash or check only no credit cards, please....and I'd like to give a big kudos and thanks to the Davis Shore Ferry Service, friendly folks who run a darn fine business!

As for the pukin' chicken it would have to be gold with matching pinstripes down the side before I could even begin to contemplate such an addition....hmmm...maybe some pinstripes on the rack, too! Now please excuse me whilst I download some Jerry Reed from itunes....

 

[suntinez]

Great tribe report! One of my most favoritist places. Love the 4x4 bus with the back porch, it looks like he was optimistically setup for some serious fishing. Camp-calzones going on the menu, great idea! :chef:

 

[mtnbike28]

welcome back...

Thanks for the phone call from the sand! Sorry I had to rush off the phone I was tight for time, but would have loved hearing from each one of you about the great trip while I worked ; )

Mark, as always, well written!

OK, I am off to the kitchen to make lemon bars ; )

 

[Haggis]

Thanks for the kind word folks!

....and I'd like to give a big kudos and thanks to the Davis Shore Ferry Service, friendly folks who run a darn fine business

And I'd like to second that. Great folks, very accomodating and a pleasure to shoot the breeze with. They did what they said they do on time and with freindly service. Plus they are a family owned business started back in the '50s.

OK, I am off to the kitchen to make lemon bars ; )

Curse Beth for getting you hooked on that foul confectionary treat. I think it's time for an intervention.

 

[KSJeep]

Great report, really enjoyed it, Thanks

 

[7wt]

Nice looking trip. I wished I knew about it, I would've stopped by to say hello.

 

[jim65wagon]

I'm not going to reiterate the excellent story which Mark provided. I'll just get right in with a few photos of the trip.

How much gear does it take for a family of four to spend nearly a week on a beach?
A truckload! Not shown are the two aluminum food boxes and the kitchen/chuck box, which all nestle on the rack.

The TundraBirds! Floating across the sound aboard the Capt Algers.

Beth is always happy when she's sailing in a truck!

 

[jim65wagon]

The sunrises on the beach are georgeous!

High tide wasn't like this last year! With water licking the tires of the trucks at each tide it really made us a bit nervous. Here you can see how high it got in relation to the campsite.

Fafhrd makes a nice beach buggy!

 

[jim65wagon]

David Bouy and the TundraBirds!

The wildlife...

The wildlife....

The wildlife!

 

[jim65wagon]

The Nightlife!