Horn Island
Saturday & Sunday, October 30-31, 2004 brint.adams@us.army.mil
This was a Larry McDuff-led "Big Boy" paddle on what turned out to be a beautiful weekend. We had six paddlers (Larry, George, Steve, Randy, Julie and I) with McKenzie and Ruby, her dog, watching after us in George's skiff, outfitted with a 25 HP motor.
We traveled west on I-10 into Mississippi and took exit 75, turned left and then right onto Hwy. 90. This took us into Pascagoula, where we turned left on Market St. to the bay, then right to the public boat ramp and parking lot. We put in at 9:30 AM, circled around the Naval Station and headed south to Round Island, where we came around the east side and stopped for lunch. On the south end of this island, there are the remains of an old brick lighthouse, which we checked out. After a short break, we continued with relatively calm seas and a following tide.
We arrived at the east end of Horn Island at around 2:00 PM and checked out a couple of areas to set up camp. We decided to camp on the north side at the east end of the tree line behind the sand dunes. Several of us split up to explore, as we were able to climb up on top of the sand dunes behind us and see across to the south side of the island as well as to the east end and quite a ways towards the west. The island is about nine miles long and fairly narrow. In some areas it may widen from 100 meters to probably a half mile. We could see some interior ponds with quite a few trees and alot of dune scrub. There are supposed to be a few artesian wells, although we did not venture down the island to the west end to find them. Maybe next trip we will camp on the west end and explore a completely different area.
I decided to check out the far east end of the island and paddled down there, which was about a mile further east. When I returned, the others were already setting up tents, so I did as well. Once everything was set up, I decided to cut across to the south or Gulf side and do some surfing. The surf was pretty rough, but only about 1-2 feet and breaking in pretty close to the beach. There were a couple more kayakers in from New Orleans already camped out on the beach on the Gulf side.
After a good Mexican wrap dinner, we sat around for awhile trying to avoid the mosquitoes before turning in at around 8:30 PM.
In the morning, Julie and I headed west along the north shoreline, she about 1.5 miles out at a leisurely pace and I went out about 2.5 miles at a 80% level workout pace. We found another group camping along the beach, who had come out in a powerboat and a few fishermen. There was plenty of barge traffic crossing along between us and Pascagoula, as we had a clear view all the way to the coastline.
After breakfast, we all broke camp and began our trek back at about 10:00 AM. It was fairly hot already, but we were fortunate to have an nice following breeze nudging us along to Round Island. This leg took us from 1-1.5 hrs as we stretched out our group on the return. Once at Round Island, we stopped for lunch and hung around for almost an hour. A couple of us had to show our macho side by climbing up on top of the 20' lighthouse ruins. McKenzie stopped to help a fishing boat who had battery problems, and so she and George took one of them to the coast and back to help them out. In order to shorten our time on the island, we decided to pull George's kayak behind mine, which also slowed me down to everyone else's pace.
On the return, we skirted around the west side of the island and headed to the Pascagoula River bridge on the west side of the Naval Station. The breeze continued to give us a good push with some one foot rollers taking us all the way in. Once we made it under the bridge and into the channel, we were greeted by a Navy boat which came out, watched and followed us for awhile as we skirted around the ships they were guarding. It was in this area, that George caught up with us in his powerboat and took over towing his kayak the rest of the way in, only about a half mile.
We arrived back at the parking area at about 2:30 PM and were all thankful for a safe trip to a most beautiful strip of island out in the Gulf.
This was a Larry McDuff-led "Big Boy" paddle on what turned out to be a beautiful weekend. We had six paddlers (Larry, George, Steve, Randy, Julie and I) with McKenzie and Ruby, her dog, watching after us in George's skiff, outfitted with a 25 HP motor.
We traveled west on I-10 into Mississippi and took exit 75, turned left and then right onto Hwy. 90. This took us into Pascagoula, where we turned left on Market St. to the bay, then right to the public boat ramp and parking lot. We put in at 9:30 AM, circled around the Naval Station and headed south to Round Island, where we came around the east side and stopped for lunch. On the south end of this island, there are the remains of an old brick lighthouse, which we checked out. After a short break, we continued with relatively calm seas and a following tide.
We arrived at the east end of Horn Island at around 2:00 PM and checked out a couple of areas to set up camp. We decided to camp on the north side at the east end of the tree line behind the sand dunes. Several of us split up to explore, as we were able to climb up on top of the sand dunes behind us and see across to the south side of the island as well as to the east end and quite a ways towards the west. The island is about nine miles long and fairly narrow. In some areas it may widen from 100 meters to probably a half mile. We could see some interior ponds with quite a few trees and alot of dune scrub. There are supposed to be a few artesian wells, although we did not venture down the island to the west end to find them. Maybe next trip we will camp on the west end and explore a completely different area.
I decided to check out the far east end of the island and paddled down there, which was about a mile further east. When I returned, the others were already setting up tents, so I did as well. Once everything was set up, I decided to cut across to the south or Gulf side and do some surfing. The surf was pretty rough, but only about 1-2 feet and breaking in pretty close to the beach. There were a couple more kayakers in from New Orleans already camped out on the beach on the Gulf side.
After a good Mexican wrap dinner, we sat around for awhile trying to avoid the mosquitoes before turning in at around 8:30 PM.
In the morning, Julie and I headed west along the north shoreline, she about 1.5 miles out at a leisurely pace and I went out about 2.5 miles at a 80% level workout pace. We found another group camping along the beach, who had come out in a powerboat and a few fishermen. There was plenty of barge traffic crossing along between us and Pascagoula, as we had a clear view all the way to the coastline.
After breakfast, we all broke camp and began our trek back at about 10:00 AM. It was fairly hot already, but we were fortunate to have an nice following breeze nudging us along to Round Island. This leg took us from 1-1.5 hrs as we stretched out our group on the return. Once at Round Island, we stopped for lunch and hung around for almost an hour. A couple of us had to show our macho side by climbing up on top of the 20' lighthouse ruins. McKenzie stopped to help a fishing boat who had battery problems, and so she and George took one of them to the coast and back to help them out. In order to shorten our time on the island, we decided to pull George's kayak behind mine, which also slowed me down to everyone else's pace.
On the return, we skirted around the west side of the island and headed to the Pascagoula River bridge on the west side of the Naval Station. The breeze continued to give us a good push with some one foot rollers taking us all the way in. Once we made it under the bridge and into the channel, we were greeted by a Navy boat which came out, watched and followed us for awhile as we skirted around the ships they were guarding. It was in this area, that George caught up with us in his powerboat and took over towing his kayak the rest of the way in, only about a half mile.
We arrived back at the parking area at about 2:30 PM and were all thankful for a safe trip to a most beautiful strip of island out in the Gulf.
posted by brint @ 9:15 PM
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