I pulled in just as the group was about to board canoes and go out into the bay. I shared a canoe with Sue, Sule and Bamidele paddled together, and Ken went out solo in his kayak. While we were on the water, it rained briefly but we were comfortable. I saw my first wild pony from the canoe--he seemed malnourished because I could see his rib cage. He was so intent on eating grass that he barely noticed us.
The pony wasn’t the only one who was hungry. I had driven for five hours and paddled for two, with only a light breakfast. So I followed Sue’s car back to our sites so I could set up and make lunch. The sites were walk-ins that were close to the ocean. However they were far from the parking area, and I got another work-out lugging my gear through the sand from the car to the sites.
After lunch, Ken and I walked south along the beach. I found the SUVs on the beach to be jarring. When we had gone far enough, we decided to try to go back along an abandoned road in the center of the island. But it did not go all the way through, and rather than trample the vegetation, we returned to the beach.
After some brief refreshments, we walked to the Life of the Dunes trail and learned about the history of the abandoned road we had tried to follow earlier in the afternoon.
After dinner, it seemed that all the nearby sites were deserted. We wondered why all the other campers had gone to sleep so early. It was a starry night, so we walked to the beach. To our surprise, we found four or five groups of campers clustered around campfires below the high-tide line. That is the only place on Assateague where ground fires are allowed.
We saw the Big Dipper and the North Star, but Orion had disappeared from the night sky. I will miss him, and I look forward to his return in the fall.
On Sunday morning, my fellow campers packed up and left. I had arranged to take Monday off, so I spent a leisurely Sunday afternoon and evening. I walked on the Life of the Forest trail, passed an old shipwreck, and saw lots of ponies and a few small deer. As I was eating dinner, it started to rain. I moved some of my gear to the car and took some reading material into my tent. The gusts of wind that night blew out one of my tent stakes, but there was no other damage. I packed up my wet tent on Monday morning and drove home.
David Levner
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