BACK BAY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE AND FALSE CAPE STATE PARK

The weather was beautiful here yesterday.  The high was 75, the sky was the bluest blue, and there was a cool wind blowing.  Sounds like a day to do something outside don't you think?

So, I decided to bike through Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge to False Cape State Park.  You can only reach False Cape State Park by boat, hiking or biking.  You cannot drive to it.  So, I park, ride to the entrance of Back Bay, pay my entrance fee, and off I go.  Once you enter, it is about a mile ride to the visitor's center.  Once you leave the visitor's center, it is 4.5 miles to False Cape.  The good thing is the bike path is level. No hills to go up and down. However, the path is not paved.  There is gravel on the road, but it is not bad.

They tell you to be on the look out for different kind of birds, turtles, squirrels, snakes (yikes!), deer and some other creatures that I don't remember.  OK, but I'm here just for the scenery and the ride.  All of you environmentalists out there, just hang on.  I'm all for keeping the environment healthy and not putting any species of animal into extinction (well, maybe not mosquitoes) and I will do what I consider my part to help with that, but I am not going to chain myself to a tree and I am from Texas where we have deer season, quail season, dove season, turkey season, etc.  But, my point is, I do appreciate the wildlife and the beautiful scenery.

Mr. W has always had a fascination with birds.  He can spot them, does things to entice them to his vicinity (bird feeders), takes lots and lots of pictures......z-z-z-z-z-z.....oh sorry, I dozed off there.  That should tell you my fascination with birds.  And when we started on this full-timing journey, I told him not to plan a lot of hikes and bike trips to bird sanctuaries because that would be BOOR-ING!

So, what is the first thing I take a picture of as I enter the refuge?  An osprey and her babies.

The ride through the refuge was great.  There were very few hikers and bikers on the trail and that made it even easier to look around as you rode and I felt like I could take my time.

They had piers all along the road so you could stop and look around.

Can you see the sand dune in the back?  It's weird to me to think that there is sandy beach and the ocean right on the other side of these marshes and wetlands.

This is the road that you hike or bike on.

Once you get to False Cape State Park, there is a Visitor's Center/Gift Shop.  Outside the VC, there are several picnic tables.  I had packed a picnic lunch in my backpack and this was the perfect place to enjoy that lunch! They have regular, flushing restrooms here. Always a plus. The gift shop was mostly water, ice cream, and mosquito spray and netting.  You can backpack into the state park and spend the night. There are no camping facilities but if you are into backpacking camping, this is your place.  Mr. W thinks that would be fun.  He is welcome to do it, but he will be doing it with one of his guy friends or a different wife. :) They also have rockers sitting all across the front porch in the shade which was nice.

False Cape State Park is the southernmost state park in the state of Virginia.  How did I know that you ask?

Once I had lunch and sat on the porch for a while, it was time to bike back.  There had been some flowers and places along the road that I had not stopped to take pictures of on my way there. So, on the way back, I did.

While I was getting the shots of the flowers, I got a couple of cool shots of a bumble bee and a dragonfly.  Mr. W told me that if I was going to start taking a bunch of pics of insects, I better not ask him to start going to an "insect sanctuary" because that would be BOOR-ING! I should have expected that.  One bad thing about today, I forgot the sunscreen.  I know, I know, I should know better.  Anyway, my arms are red as a cooked lobster. Ouch.