Plymouth Island NC

[tom.tanner1]

looking for any and all information on Plymouth Island NC on the Outer Banks. I want to make a trip to the Island in September and was wondering if there is a fresh water source on the Island. I have been searching the web and haven't been to confirm it or not. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Foy]

Portsmouth Island?

looking for any and all information on Plymouth Island NC on the Outer Banks. I want to make a trip to the Island in September and was wondering if there is a fresh water source on the Island. I have been searching the web and haven't been to confirm it or not. Any help would be appreciated.

If you're asking about Portsmouth Island, NC, take a cruise over to the Southeastern Expedition Society pages right here in ExPo. The Cape Lookout National Seashore web pages and www.portsmouthislandfishing.com and www.drumwagon.com also provide much information about PI and the adjacent island known variously as Core Banks, South Core Banks, or Davis Island.

The one and only time I've been on PI there was potable water available at the caretaker's cabin area at the ferry landing.

Foy

 

[bigben1730]

I actually just recently took a trip to Portsmouth Island in May of this year. It was an awesome time! Make sure you camp on the beach and not behind the dunes, because the bugs there can get kinda rough. I'd definitely make sure you bring some mosquito netting. The ferry service was super easy, and the operators of it are really nice. A storm rolled in the day before we were planning to leave, and we just gave them a call and got on a ferry back to the mainland a day early. You'll get cell service out there if you have verizon, but not tmobile. There is an outhouse/shower there. You can have a fire on the beach. Make sure you bring enough water/food with you for the duration of your trip. Enjoy!

ben

 

[tom.tanner1]

thanks for the help guys.

 

[concretejungle]

I go there at least once if not twice a summer. Normally early fall.

The place is awesome! Great fishing and solitude. The bugs can be bad, especially if the wind is coming from the sound, but if you have a breeze coming in off the water, it's not too bad.

There is water and a shower at the park service office but once you leave that area there is absolutely nothing. I have Verizon and i get spotty cell reception out there. You can find it but you might have to walk up a dune or move around to find a good signal.

Be prepared for a storm as it seems there is always a chance for one.

Also, no dogs off leash and no fires above the high tide mark. The park service are like nazi's out there and they will write you a ticket as fast as possible. That really has been my only issue with Portsmouth is the park service tries their best to make your stay as miserable as possible. I recall one year where they would sit there and watch everyone with binoculars just waiting for you to make a mistake so they can rush in and write you a ticket. IE one time i woke up and it was like 7am, let my dog go out and pee off leash and immediately a park service guy comes full speed on his ATV and started threatening me with a federal offense ticket and was just really going on and on...

Other than that, it's a great place.

 

[danfromsyr]

it's the fact that you consider it a lax offense that is the problem.. sure you & your dog are perfect angles, but you've seen/dealt with the other John/Joan Q Public and their minions.
doesn't take long for a dog to dig up a baby turtle nest or such.. plus if he's out off leash "just to pee" and shyts you there/watching to go clean it up... sure, you were going to. but again you know everyone is not..
earned the ticket by wishing to enjoy the pristine environment and allowing yourself to feel justified in overlooking the rules.

 

[Foy]

Nesting sites, beach use, and NPS Rangers

it's the fact that you consider it a lax offense that is the problem.. sure you & your dog are perfect angles, but you've seen/dealt with the other John/Joan Q Public and their minions.
doesn't take long for a dog to dig up a baby turtle nest or such.. plus if he's out off leash "just to pee" and shyts you there/watching to go clean it up... sure, you were going to. but again you know everyone is not..
earned the ticket by wishing to enjoy the pristine environment and allowing yourself to feel justified in overlooking the rules.

I'll guess you've never visited Cape Lookout National Seashore or Cape Hatteras NS. If you had, you would realize that turtle nests, piping plover nests, and similarly sensitive sites are constantly searched for by NPS personnel and are immediately staked out to bar driving in the nest area once discovered. So there is essentially no such thing as a dog off-leash at a beachfront campsite stumbling upon a nest.

On the contrary, I've read many a story of over-zealous enforcement on the part of CLNS and CHNS rangers. It seems that once the Audubon Society sued the NPS for not looking out enough for the piping plover and other sea birds, forcing the NPS to enact highly restrictive beach access rules at CHNS (with CLNS next up at the plate), the suit's settlement made bad guys out of human beach users (and their pets) and that, in turn, made bad guys out of the rangers.

The beaches managed by the NPS through the CHNS and CLNS parklands are but a tiny fraction of the linear miles of sea turtle and seabird nesting habitat on the East Coast, but they are practically the only remaining Atlantic Coast beaches having decades and decades of vehicle-borne human use by surf fishermen, surfers, shellers, sea duck hunters, and birders. When the NPS first condemned the privately-owned barrier islands in the late 1960s/early 1970s for formation of CHNS and CLNS, traditional use by the public was still allowed, and the NPS pledged continuance of traditional usage as conditions within the condemnation proceedings. Everything was hunky-dory for 30 years or so, but following the Audubons' inputs, vehicle use is now restricted to a much smaller area and may be entirely withdrawn at any time due to nesting activity.

I don't pretend to know where the line between human use via motor vehicle and the needs of nesting creatures should be drawn, but I know for certain which group has essentially the entire Atlantic Coast of the US between Sandy Hook, NJ and the Florida Keys available for its needs and which group has been largely expelled from use of a tiny part of that area once open to their use.

Foy

 

[concretejungle]

Thanks for that response Foy, it is much better than i could of done. Obviously the guy has no clue...

I have had the NPS ranger actually tell me that if the nesting birds see a dog off a leash it will frighten them to where they will never nest on the outer banks again... So i'm guessing a bird can tell the difference between a leashed dog and a non-leashed dog.

Another example is that i was camped up on the north end where you can look across the inlet and see Ocracoke island. We were there for 3 days and never saw a single person. One evening, the last night we were there, we had a camp fire on the beach the only campfire we had the entire trip. We were not sure exactly where the high tide mark was as it was dark out, but we had the fire as close to the ocean as we could and not have the hole fill with water. I stepped off the surrounding area and I was approximately 200 yards from the nearest sea grass and about 100 feet from the current water line. at about 9:30 PM we saw headlights bouncing up the beach heading our way. It was a ranger who pulled up and said to put the fire out. I discussed with him why and he didn't even want to hear about it, he said put it out. So i shoveled sand over it and put it out, he then said to pour our water on it. I said well i only have about 2 gallons of clean water left i will get some ocean water, he said NO, pour your water on the fire. I thought what a total ************. So i said no, i'll get ocean water, he responded with either pour your water on the fire or i'll write you a ticket. By the way, i showed him a picture on my phone of the "rules" at the ferry landing and not one single rule said anything about camp fires.

Point is, it is a wonderful place to go and i've been going there for almost 20 years. When i first started over there you would hardly see a soul for the entire trip. Now, you will still most likely not see many, but the word is out. If you keep your sense and follow the rules, you will have a wonderful experience.

When you catch the ferry out of Atlantic, ask Kerry about the petition they have... it's as thick as a dictionary of fisherman and vacationers who were harassed by the NPS. So i'm obviously not the only one.

 

[Foy]

Delivering the NPS gospel

Yep, the unleashed dog story and the campfire story squares totally with the stories flying around on the various forums. The one time I visited PI, a 5 day/4 night tent camping trip in May 1990, we camped about halfway between the ferry landing and Portsmouth Village. We saw the rangers make exactly one trip per day up to Ocracoke Inlet and back south. Not once did they stop us when we were on the beach nor did we ever see tracks suggesting they'd looked at our campsite while we were away. The stories about rough treatment began simultaneous to the Audubon lawsuit settlement. There was a ton of ill will expressed between the parties during the litigation and the NPS was stuck in the middle. When the settlement was announced, it's clear that the NPS received its marching orders from the Audubons as to the vigorous enforcement they must engage in.

It's a damned shame when a very small group of individuals succeed in having their own vision of "the one true way" to enjoy a public resource foisted upon the rest of the world, even though their way effectively excludes the great, great majority of others. The currently developing CLNS use plan calls for extensive "pedestrian-only" areas--on Portsmouth Island and Core Banks! Maybe there are more individuals seeking backpacking access than we think? More likely, it's just more "holier than thou" attitudes by those who believe baloney such as the mere sight of a dog may cause a piping plover to leave the Outer Banks forever. Give me a break.

But it sure looks as though we'd best get used to it, to a degree. NC state and local lawmaking bodies have had limited success in pushing back on some of the more absurd access limitations given their destructive effects on tourism, the lifeblood of the coastal economies. Hopefully that sort of pressure, plus that provided by individual efforts, will preclude the nuttier aspects of land use restrictions from being enacted at CLNS. The bottom line is that the NPS has completely gone back on its word, as expressed during the condemnation proceedings, where access and use are concerned. As a result, folks in Dare, Hyde, and Carteret Counties know a lot of how the Native Americans felt when they gave up their lands, only to have the rules change just a few years later. The same thing happened to NC's "hoi toiders", only 100 years later, and in a court of law rather than the business end of a Winchester.

Foy

 

[concretejungle]

This is a soapbox for me so i hope that this thread doesn't get locked... perhaps moved.

I appreciate your feedback Foy as this place is near and dear to my heart. As a young kid, i had a family friend who lived on Cedar Island. I would go visit him and stay with him for about 2-3 weeks each summer. We would take his flat bottom skiff out through the sound and come up old drum inlet, anchor and fish all day. Sometimes we would pitch a tent out there and i always remember that as being our paradise here in NC. It felt like you were in the bahamas or something.

I understand and appreciate the efforts to protect wildlife and our resources, but they have certainly crossed the line with it.

My last comment on it in regards to complaining is that about 2 summers ago i was out camping and there was a park service employee riding up and down the beach passing out surveys. She came up to me and asked me to fill one out... i was pissed off from past experiences so I basically said i would be happy to but know that this will be a scorching survey. I told her some of what has gone on and she said to me "off the record" that they have been told to make your stay as miserable as possible so that you will not want to come back. That will be the way they quietly shut down the beach.

 

[LR Max]

Its ok. You ARE on a vacant island...so it is a double edged sword.

I say get one of the cabins that is out there and hang out for a few days. I never did enjoy beach camping.

Get your reservations for the ferry EARLY. Also bring CASH as backup. When I went, their credit card reader magically stopped working .0003 seconds before I had to pay. I had a really bad experience with the ferry company but I've heard many other people having better experiences since then.

As for actual driving, it isn't that difficult. I was in a 02 Yukon Denali AWD aired down to 18 psi, and fully loaded. Cruised all over that island with no issues.

The town of Portsmouth...its cool, but the amount of bugs makes it miserable. So bring a pair of long pants and a long sleeve shirt and plenty of bug spray. Also FYI, the little town, you are there for like, an hour. The rest of the time you are out on the rest of the island. The rest of the island isn't swarming.

We did a day trip. After we saw everything it was kinda like, meh. Hence why I say get the cabin. Then its a vacation and after cruising the beach, you can go chill out, get cleaned up, etc.

On the flipside, I did recently go to Amelia Island. Did a touch of beach driving. It was fun and a bit easier to access. Then afterwards we did normal-beach things. It was nice.

 

[onemanarmy]

This is a soapbox for me so i hope that this thread doesn't get locked... perhaps moved.

I appreciate your feedback Foy as this place is near and dear to my heart. As a young kid, i had a family friend who lived on Cedar Island. I would go visit him and stay with him for about 2-3 weeks each summer. We would take his flat bottom skiff out through the sound and come up old drum inlet, anchor and fish all day. Sometimes we would pitch a tent out there and i always remember that as being our paradise here in NC. It felt like you were in the bahamas or something.

I understand and appreciate the efforts to protect wildlife and our resources, but they have certainly crossed the line with it.

My last comment on it in regards to complaining is that about 2 summers ago i was out camping and there was a park service employee riding up and down the beach passing out surveys. She came up to me and asked me to fill one out... i was pissed off from past experiences so I basically said i would be happy to but know that this will be a scorching survey. I told her some of what has gone on and she said to me "off the record" that they have been told to make your stay as miserable as possible so that you will not want to come back. That will be the way they quietly shut down the beach.

Wow. I'm sure that comment about not wanting people to come back was said sarcastically, tongue in cheek. Do you think the federal government cares if people are on the island or not? Absolutely not. They will shut down an area regardless of the number of visitors.

I've been numerous times, the NPS staff has always been very helpful.

Not ONCE have I been asked to show my fishing license, have always had campfires every night of the long weekend with no one bothering us, and see the ranger go up the beach and down the beach once a day.

And people that bring dogs are the worst, in any situation. First, having a dog on a leash is not fun for the dog, so why do it? Second, you always have the token dog owner that lets it run free and makes everyone annoyed. And they piss and crap, and bark...all at random times.

I've seen the people that get harassed by the NPS and rangers. They get pissed, but are too ignorant to understand why they are being singled out. And then get extra pissy, which helps nothing. The type is easy to spot.

And its PORTSMOUTH ISLAND. goodness.

 

[smlobx]

I am with Foy on this...
I have been going to the OBX for about 30 years. In fact we now have a house in Hatteras.

When this litigation was going on I saw NP rangers with AR-15's stopping people on the ramps checking fish etc. AR's??.

A couple of years ago they had virtually shut off the southern end of Hatteras Island, a place known as "The Inlet" it is my favorite place in this world and I was not going to be denied being able to fish there and enjoy the solitude because of a few birds....

Anyway I launched my kayak behind the Coast Gaurd Base and paddled down about a mile to the inlet. I anchored my yak in about a foot of water and proceeded to fish the inlet all the while staying in the water and never setting foot on the sand. About 2 hours into my day 3 park rangers suddenly show up behind me (I guess I wasn't paying any attention to the beach) and "ordered " me to come up on the beach.....I told them that they didn't have any jurisdiction as I was in state waters. They said they saw me walking along the beach and I told them point blank that they were full of ****! I dares them to find a footprint that wasn't theirs ....of course they couldn't .

After a few more demands from them which I told them to get lost they finally did. I went back to fishing and a couple of hours later I paddled back home. I did catch a couple of nice Taylor blues....

After that little episode I decided to name my yak "Revenge" after Black Beards boat "Queen Ann's Revenge"" and I'll paddle that boat anywhere I dam well please..

In all fairness since the lawsuit and the law that Congress passed a year or so ago they have dialed it back a bit but jeeze why can't we all get along...

 

[rholbrook]

On our trip we had none of those problems. We saw a ranger on an ATV once a day. She never stopped to talk. When we were at the ferry dock she was very talkative and friendly. We did not have a dog. But did have 5 kids running amuck for a week. We cooked on a fire or with coals in a dutch oven most evenings with no issues. At the NPS campsites we had nothing but good experiences. One time near Rodanthe we were out late with a campfire. It was just after dark and I knew I was pushing it. The Ranger came by and reminded us of the overnight rules. I drove the truck off the beach and walked 200 yards back to the fire. He then hung out and chatted for 30min or so and told the kids about the history, pirates and such.
Like I said no issue at all.
I did once get a speeding ticket on the beach in Corrola. But that's another story.

 

[rob103180]

No! We don't want potable water! So, to the people that have been to Portsmouth, will we be able to stay entertained for 3 days? Plan on learning to surf fish and have a good time with friends. We are prepared for no water, power, or anything. I heard that there is cell service. Bummer! Where can I find total seclusion?