Earlier this week, I paddled to and camped at Pine Tree in Assateague National Seashore. It must have been longer than I thought since my last trip there. Searching for maps good old JSaults and McCrea bequeathed me, I found a 2014 magazine tucked in the folder with the Assateague maps. I thought there must have been a related story in the magazine--spent an hour browsing it, but nada. So, perhaps it was 2014 when I made the last trip there.
We had some great weather and I'd call it my least windy Assateague trip. Usually, 10mph wind is good weather, but that's as strong as the wind got in three days. NW on way in, SE on the way back (i.e, favorable winds both coming and going). Suddenly, a utility thwart and spirit sail seem a good idea (I don't have them). Fair weather with night temps that dipped into the high 20s. Very tolerable, but a temperature that invites a nice fire to warm the hands and toes.
Unfortunately, the NPS has "upgraded" the site by installing a permanent, ADA-compliant chemical toilet (vs old porta potty) and ADA-compliant fire rings, which took me only one night to learn to hate. The fire rings are about two feet tall and have steel double walls about three inches apart. The outer wall has holes to allow air to enter, where it is warmed by the inner wall, then rises and flows out the top. I put my bare hand on the outer wall while there was a strong fire going, and the steel was only a little warmer than the air temperature. The double wall construction is intended to prevent burns if somebody bumps into it while the fire is going, and it effectively prevents heat from radiating outside the fire ring. My second gripe is the rings have, on one side, a fold-over, adjustable-height cooking grate. Grates can be useful, but keep in mind the lowest height for the grate is the top of the two-foot-tall fire ring. There is a second grate, hinged on the opposite side, inside the fire ring, about ten inches off the bottom of the fire ring. The first night, we thought this was to hold the fuel off the bottom and used the grate in it's down position. Our fire was anemic with the fuel held so far above the coals. Maybe the grate is to put your hibachi on. The second night, we had a much better fire with the grate in the up position, but in the up position, the grate blocks a second side of the ring and reduces access.
Building a fire of obscene proportions for two guys produced the heat we needed, but it was ridiculous to have to burn so much for a moderate bit of warmth. I rate the new fire rings as "terrible."
The Pine Tree site, long a favorite, appears disused. Walking the paths is difficult due to a rampant growth of briars. Disabled folk in their off-road wheel chairs better wear chaps to keep their legs from being raked by the briars. A surer sign of disuse was the copious volume of deadwood laying about at a site where we used to have to range about looking for firewood. Or maybe the camping public has figured there's no use making a fire in those fire rings.
I'm generally all about providing access for the handicapped. I've had injuries and surgeries that left me temporarily disabled (physically, the mental part is ongoing) and learned to appreciate the challenges faced by the handicapped. So it's great that the government plans for the disabled population, but I can't help but feel they went a little overboard, and I wish the rest of us didn't have to make due with an inferior fire ring.
Other changes: I remember navigating to Pine Tree by paddling to a nav marker visible from Great Egging Island, then following the compass SE, and it would take me right to Pine Tree. My memory is either wrong, or that nav marker isn't there anymore. There are several ten foot tall stacks of 12'x12' "pallets," for lack of a better term, by the intersection of the road to the beach and the road to the derelict camp. I saw these in use on a prior Assateague trip. They are used to build a temporary road out into the marshes for "marsh restoration," meaning filling in the drainage ditches that were dug long ago for mosquito control. So, don't be surprised to see construction machinery mingling with the ponies out in the marsh near Pine Tree.
We had some great weather and I'd call it my least windy Assateague trip. Usually, 10mph wind is good weather, but that's as strong as the wind got in three days. NW on way in, SE on the way back (i.e, favorable winds both coming and going). Suddenly, a utility thwart and spirit sail seem a good idea (I don't have them). Fair weather with night temps that dipped into the high 20s. Very tolerable, but a temperature that invites a nice fire to warm the hands and toes.
Unfortunately, the NPS has "upgraded" the site by installing a permanent, ADA-compliant chemical toilet (vs old porta potty) and ADA-compliant fire rings, which took me only one night to learn to hate. The fire rings are about two feet tall and have steel double walls about three inches apart. The outer wall has holes to allow air to enter, where it is warmed by the inner wall, then rises and flows out the top. I put my bare hand on the outer wall while there was a strong fire going, and the steel was only a little warmer than the air temperature. The double wall construction is intended to prevent burns if somebody bumps into it while the fire is going, and it effectively prevents heat from radiating outside the fire ring. My second gripe is the rings have, on one side, a fold-over, adjustable-height cooking grate. Grates can be useful, but keep in mind the lowest height for the grate is the top of the two-foot-tall fire ring. There is a second grate, hinged on the opposite side, inside the fire ring, about ten inches off the bottom of the fire ring. The first night, we thought this was to hold the fuel off the bottom and used the grate in it's down position. Our fire was anemic with the fuel held so far above the coals. Maybe the grate is to put your hibachi on. The second night, we had a much better fire with the grate in the up position, but in the up position, the grate blocks a second side of the ring and reduces access.
Building a fire of obscene proportions for two guys produced the heat we needed, but it was ridiculous to have to burn so much for a moderate bit of warmth. I rate the new fire rings as "terrible."
The Pine Tree site, long a favorite, appears disused. Walking the paths is difficult due to a rampant growth of briars. Disabled folk in their off-road wheel chairs better wear chaps to keep their legs from being raked by the briars. A surer sign of disuse was the copious volume of deadwood laying about at a site where we used to have to range about looking for firewood. Or maybe the camping public has figured there's no use making a fire in those fire rings.
I'm generally all about providing access for the handicapped. I've had injuries and surgeries that left me temporarily disabled (physically, the mental part is ongoing) and learned to appreciate the challenges faced by the handicapped. So it's great that the government plans for the disabled population, but I can't help but feel they went a little overboard, and I wish the rest of us didn't have to make due with an inferior fire ring.
Other changes: I remember navigating to Pine Tree by paddling to a nav marker visible from Great Egging Island, then following the compass SE, and it would take me right to Pine Tree. My memory is either wrong, or that nav marker isn't there anymore. There are several ten foot tall stacks of 12'x12' "pallets," for lack of a better term, by the intersection of the road to the beach and the road to the derelict camp. I saw these in use on a prior Assateague trip. They are used to build a temporary road out into the marshes for "marsh restoration," meaning filling in the drainage ditches that were dug long ago for mosquito control. So, don't be surprised to see construction machinery mingling with the ponies out in the marsh near Pine Tree.
