Trip Report: Assategue Island (July 96)
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July 5-7, 1996 Assategue Island, MD. Robert Richardson, Sonya Smallets, Courtenay Dunn, myself, Cameron Geddes, Eric Studer, Tom Kornack. This trip was totally unlike any other backpacking trip I've been on. First of all, the terrain was completely flat, being a beach. Here we were hiking along with extremely heavy packs (we had to carry all our water) along a sloping beach (so one foot was always higher than the other) amongst all the bathing people (some beautiful, most not so) in the hot summer sun surrounded by horses. Very strange. We hiked 4.5 miles south from the parking lots and bathing beaches to an established "site" amonst the dunes. To others who wish to try this trip, the rangers will offer you sites on the Bay Side of the beach. This is not desirable. I have a fairly high bug tollerance and, after venturing 100 feet down the trail to the bayside sites, we were sent running for our lives back to the safety and breezes of the ocean side. We stayed at Little Levels for two nights enjoying the incredible body surfing and trying to keep the sand out of some things. Very memorable but not really a backpack in the purist sense.
 | July 5,6, 1997. This is becoming a yearly excursion. This year, Courtenay and I went with the idea of repeating last year's trip. Unfortunately or otherwise, the Little Levels campsite was full. We either could camp on the Bay side (not an option, given the likely level of insect life) or stay at one of the drive-up sites located perhaps a mile down the beach, something I'm against just on principle.
This actually turned out rather well. The site we got was very secluded between dunes in a dense thicket with a short walk down to the surf. We spent the evening cooking dinner, setting up camp and surfing. Ah, Assategue, best surf on the east coast (at least as far as I'm concerned). Watched lots of fornicating equestrians and saw a beautiful sunset. Lazed around and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Another good trip, though again, backpacking wasn't really involved. |
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