There is Always Something to See

There is always something to see on the beach.  This year, we have not yet discovered as many interesting shells as last year, or especially 2021 when the $18 million "Morehead City Harbor Dredging & Concurrent Beach Nourishment" project was underway.  Silt was dredged from the Morehead City Harbor, a State Port and the deepest one on the East Coast, and deposited on this beach, along with many, many interesting shells.  So far we have found only a couple of tiny whelks, the smallest I have ever seen I think, and some olive shells.  And yesterday I found this blue crab washed up by the tide, so whole and intact that I thought it might still be alive, and not yet discovered by the ever-watchful sea gulls.

It is almost exactly one mile each way from the condo to the Oceanana Pier just west of here, closed this time of year but elbow-to-elbow with fishermen during the season.  The first quarter-mile of that is from the building out the walkway and across the very wide, flat beach, which this time of year is usually deserted but which we usually find temperate enough, although we sometimes have to don windbreakers and gloves.

I think I always take this photo of the waves breaking under the pier, so this time I decided to post a video instead.

Saturday was a perfect day for running, and I had planned ambitiously to increase my mileage from three to six miles, always a bit of a risk at my age since I have not been completing any “long” runs for some time.  I say “long” because six miles several years ago would have been a short run, and my weekly mileage this week (twelve miles) would have been an ordinary long run.  Still, as I have said previously, I am the runner I am right now, and six miles is where I am right now. 

I did some laps in the parking lot of the Picnic Area, and then ran on the bike path all the way to the Fort.  It is a good, safe route, although sometimes cars go a little faster than they should on East Fort Macon Road.

Along the way are the familiar signs that we are now accustomed to seeing, marking our progress to the Fort.  First there is the “Union Artillery Placement” sign, marking the place where on April 25, 1862, Union General John G. Parke’s forces bombarded the Fort with heavy siege guns for eleven hours, aided by the fire of four Union gunboats out in Beaufort Harbor.  The Fort defended itself against the gunboats, but the Union guns hit it 560 times and it was forced to surrender.  The placement is on a little knoll, not even high enough to be called a hill, but a good vantage point to set up guns only a half-mile from the Fort.  

The next sign, just before reaching the gate to the Fort and opposite the Coast Guard Station, is a sign marking the location of Blackbeard the Pirate’s ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge, sunk in 1718 about a mile out to sea.  The wreck was found relatively recently, in 1996, and there is an interesting exhibit at the Maritime Museum in Beaufort which includes relics from the notorious pirate's ship.

It is sobering to run in this place where wars were fought, where men on both sides in the Civil War were killed, and where pirates were fended off.  Rounding the final curve, along a white fence, cannons on the ramparts above point out over the harbor, still fired from time to time (although without any cannonballs) on special occasions.

At the end of the Fort’s parking lot is a huge pile of Christmas Trees, which are collected here to eventually be distributed out along the nature trails on the beach side of the Park in order to stabilize the sand dunes.  Just as I always do, I stopped in front of the big pile of trees and simply stood there for a minute, inhaling the fragrance. 

 
The three-mile return trip to the condo was not completed without some walking breaks, but it felt good to have increased my mileage, which for me is the best way to get back in racing condition.  We have identified a 5-K race on February 4, one month from now, and it is good to have a goal at the end of gradually-increasing mileage and some speed sessions.  We have run the race, the Cocoa 5-K (held in conjunction with the Carolina Chocolate Festival) in all of the kinds of weather conditions that are possible in early February – rain, freezing cold, and strong winds – and we won’t know what to expect this year until a day or two before the race.  Let us hope for fair skies!