Beach Camping at Bear Island

This past weekend, we headed to Bear Island in Hammocks Beach State Park for camping, surf, sand, and sun and to celebrate Sandy’s and Jim’s birthdays that were over the weekend. I couldn’t take Friday off from work, so we headed out early Saturday morning, while most of the others had already spent the night on the island. We left Raleigh just after six and got to the park right at 9. We had just enough time to check in at the visitor center and grab our gear to make the first ferry to the island at 930. As the ferry was ready to take off, we waited for one more camper – John, who had come up from Wilmington to join us, was the last in our group. Our Captain for the ride was Captain Bob who loves telling bad jokes on the ferry ride over; we remembered him from last year.

After crossing the Intracoastal Waterway on Cow Channel, we arrived at the island and made half-mile hike up to the pavilion and bath house. John was staying with Heidi at site 9, so he took off down the beach to set up.

Sandy, Mahesh, and I were staying on site 1, the closest one.

Being so flat, you would think the backpacking would be easy, but hiking on sand is tough and makes it seem much longer. I ran up there to make sure the previous night’s campers had left the site, and since they had, I went back to the pavilion and we grabbed our stuff and set up at our campsite. When we were done, we headed down to site 6, about midway down the beach and put up the sunshade. With all our stuff set up, we could now enjoy the beach. The surf was very calm today, so the first thing we did was take a dip in the ocean and float around amidst the gentle waves for a bit. The water was a bit chilly so after thirty minutes or so, I got out and warmed up for a bit in the sun. We made our way to the concession stand to get a cold drink with our lunch. By the concession stand, they had a table displaying exhibits of various wildlife found in the park.

These included a dolphin skull, a loggerhead sea turtle skull, various sea shells and corals, and horseshoe crab. After lunch, Sandy and I walked down the beach towards the east end of the island to collect seashells.

When we got back to our spot, we needed a rest after all that hard work! So we laid in the sand for a while. The skies were partly cloudy and the thick clouds did a good job of blocking much of the sunlight. But there were still beautiful blue skies all around. Couldn't ask for nicer weather. At one point, we could see a distinct color change in the ocean, where part of the sea was reflecting blue light from the sky and part was reflecting white/gray light from the clouds.

As the lazy afternoon wore into evening, we headed back to our campsite for dinner. Last year, we had taken our dinner down the west end of the island to watch the sunset. But there were these pesky flying ants that harassed us as we ate, so we decided to eat at the campsite this year before walking down there. After dinner, we all met back up and started the 2 or so mile walk down to the west end of the island. As we were walking, a very dark cloud rolled in and we got sprinkled with just a bit of rain, but after a few minutes, the cloud blew off and with it the rain. We also saw an interesting uprooted tree that was upside down in the middle of the beach.

It must have blown over at some point in time, but it was strange to see in the middle of the beach nonetheless. When we reached the west end of the island, we staked out a spot in the sand and waited to watch the sunset.

Clouds moved in and out from in the sun and made for a beautiful light show.

When the sun was blocked by clouds, its rays were shining out from around the clouds.

As it got lower and lower towards the horizon, the sky changed to beautiful colors of pink and orange until the sun set and darkness began kicking in.

Once the sun set, we hiked back to the pavilion and took a warm shower before going to bed.

While I was waiting for Sandy to get out of the shower, I saw an orange light in the direction of Emerald Isle. As it rose in the sky, I realized that it was the moon rising in a brilliant orange color. Walking back to our campsite, the moon and its reflection on the water made for a beautiful sight. And a good breeze behind the dunes kept the bugs away for the night and thankfully, we didn’t wake to a million bug bites.