Ft. Desoto is a beautiful spit of land at the south end of Pinellas County, Florida, and it is one of my most favorite places in St. Pete. When I first moved to St. Pete, North Beach was a place where I could mentally sort things out, while I walked the shoreline at sunset. It is amazing to watch the clouds move over the land, out towards the Gulf of Mexico.Because of the beauty of the beaches, and the availability of an extensive bike path, of kayak rentals, and of bicycle rentals, the camping sites at this park are frequently in high demand, especially as the winter approaches. So, when a friend of mine decided to book a campsite for September back in June, I jumped at the chance to go camping again. The last time I went camping was November 2007 (but I guess, technically, I camped last this June when I hiked the Inca Trail).
At Ft. Desoto people clamor for the waterfront tent sites, so booking so far in advance got us a beautiful view at sunset, shade during the day, and some seclusion from the main vehicle thoroughfare of the campground. I arrived at the campsite after work on Friday night -- my car filled with my tent, camp chairs, backpack, groceries, and cooler. (Hike-in backpacking/camping trips are fun, but sometimes, a little car camping, right in your own backyard, is more relaxing.) Ft. Desoto is only 20 minutes from my house, and the 7-11 is only 5 minutes from the camp site, in case desperation truly sets in!
Friday night Heather and I set up camp. Her with her townhome tent (seriously, this thing was a 3-bedroom pop-up apartment), and I with my two- or three-person dome tent. (I would go with calling it a 2-person tent, but I think it's technically a 3-person tent to the manufacturer.) My tent had been rolled up for so long that it had a) moved from Fairfax, VA to San Diego, CA (thereby meaning it had spent 4 years in storage, at least); b) made the flight from San Diego to St. Pete last Christmas; and c) stuck to itself as I went about unrolling it! Poor little tent...I had even forgotten what you looked like, fully-assembled!! Behold, the lil' beauty:
Fortunately, the weekend weather was just perfect for camping! The days were hot and sunny, with a cool breeze, and the nights, thankfully, dipped down in the 60s. It was cool enough that I slept like the dead. It was not cool enough to have the rain-fly over the tent, but the weather cooperated there, too. No rain the whole time!! And my lil' tent had enough screen to keep the breeze coming through all night.After setting up camp on Friday evening, our friend Ryan joined us, we stoked the grill to make cheese quesadillas and chicken, and from our picnic table we watched the sun set over the water:
I don't think it can get more beautiful than that...(Well, it can if, on the radio, you listen to the Rays win against the Minnesota Twins, which moved them one game closer to the play-offs. Go Rays!)Saturday, Heather, Ryan, and I woke up not-too-early, considering that the sun rises around 7ish these mornings. It gave us enough time to eat a little breakfast -- banana with peanut butter and a Nutri-Grain bar..no coffee :-( -- before heading off to the International Coastal Clean-Up Day, sponsored by Tampa Bay Watch. Heather and I slogged along the road leading into Ft. Desoto park, and tramped deep within the mangroves, to pick up the trash that people chuck out of their cars, or that washes up on shore (after people chuck trash off their boats). I think I personally picked up a case of empty beer cans. I also picked up a knife. Others found a large rug, or boat carpet, which when you pair that with the knife I found...paints a bit of a CSI-like picture, doesn't it?
That morning adventure took about 2 hours, and quite a bit of sweat, but Keep Pinellas Beautiful rewarded us with a free lunch of hot dogs and cold drinks, as well as some chotchke give aways. Anyone want a neon yellow t-shirt? Anyone??
Fortunately, the campground at Ft. Desoto boasts awesome shower facilities. [I gotta tell you -- I had a little residual trauma leftover from the Inca Trail when it came time to climb in the shower. In Peru, you never quite knew the quality of the bathroom facilities that you were stepping into, whether it be a hostel or the one shower stop we had along the Inca trail. Regardless of the situation, you never really wanted to come in contact with the walls, much less the floor, and I always felt the need to get my shower over with quickly, just in case the hot water faltered.] Back in the good ol' over-consuming, bigger-is-better U-S-of-A, though, showers at a campground, especially this campground, are just what you need them to be: clean, hot, and wonderfully refreshing. Sorry if I just gushed a little there, but I love me a good shower, particularly after spending a long morning picking up other people's trash in the hot sun.
After our showers, Heather and I got ready for the beach. And then we sat on the beach, or floated in the ocean, for 5 gloriously long hours. Friends came and went, magazines and books were read, floats were blown up and deflated, and sunscreen was applied and reapplied. When we returned to camp, we cleaned ourselves up once more, and then felt the wonderful exhaustion of a day well-spent on the beach.
As we had the night before, we turned on the Rays game and stoked the grill for dinner. After dinner, we created a campfire in the grill because we didn't have a freestanding metal firepit with us and there are no firepits at any of the campsites. Our ghetto campfire still gave me a great moment of zen:
I'm still learning how to play with my little point-and-shoot camera, and even though the photo is grainy, it still manages to capture a little bit of the fading sunset, and the crackle of the fire. The icing on the cake: the Rays clinched a playoff position by beating the Twins again. YES! I celebrated with a Hunt's chocolate pudding snack pack...
Saturday gave us another gorgeous sleeping night. Again, I slept like a rock. I did not, fortunately enough, sleep ON a rock. YAY! On Sunday morning, we packed up camp after breakfast. I hit the 7-11 on the way off the island, then drove over to St. Pete Beach at Pass-A-Grille for a nice morning walk along the beach before heading home.
Parting notes: Talk about a stay-cation! For $30/night, this campsite rocked. #47 if you ever want to stay. It was such a relaxing weekend, and I didn't have to fly anywhere or drive more than 20 minutes. Plus, I even did some civic duty by cleaning up our beautiful shoreline. If this doesn't entice you to come stay with me for a long weekend, then I'm sorry, you're just a lost cause!
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