Sandy was tired and rested under the sunshade while I hiked further down to the east end. It was her birthday, so I couldn't complain if she wanted to relax. We had slept in a bit and didn’t catch the sunrise, but it was another beautiful day. Beautiful blue skies and not a cloud to be seen. As I got to around site 9, I saw Heidi sitting on the beach looking depressed. She had gotten up early to see the sunrise and when she went back to her tent, a raccoon had chewed its way in and stolen her food bag! And it had her coffee! There are no trees on Bear Island so hanging food up in a bear bag is not really an option. Keeping food in a tent is never a good idea, but there’s nothing else to do with it. Heidi was able to get some coffee from Susie back in site 6 and John managed to find her stolen bag stashed in the shrub thickets near the site, getting stung by a bee in the process. The raccoon had made off with some peanuts and other snacks but had left the coffee, the most important thing. I finished my walk down to the east end of the beach and headed over to the tidal flats here. It was close to high tide and they were completely flooded, but I did see a couple of egrets hunting fish in the shallow water.
Then I headed back and Sandy and I took down the sunshade and headed back to our site. I went for one more swim in the ocean. It was yellow-flag conditions today and the waves were a bit stronger. I enjoy getting knocked around by the waves some so I swam for a bit and then got out. Sandy and I finished taking breaking down our campsite and met up with Mahesh, then hiked our stuff back to the ferry dock. After getting back to the mainland, we made the drive back to Raleigh, getting home at a decent hour. Mahesh was very thankful that I had shared our campsite with him and given him the opportunity to join us. I wouldn’t have known about Bear Island if several years ago, someone hadn’t invited me and let me share their campsite. So I was happy to do the same for him this year.
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