Kayak camping Capers Island during the Leonid Meteor Shower 2009

23 Nov 2009 by Sean in Charleston Outside

Last week, I went camping on Capers Island the night of the Leonid Meteor Shower. I took my camera to document the trip. It turned out to be a really good time—in that peaceful solitude kind of way, mostly.

I did another post last week on kayaking Capers. So this video focuses more on my experience and camping on the island.

I had actually never been camping alone before. While this wasn’t exactly a week of backcountry camping in Smoky Mountains National Park, it was still a solo trip, and I was pretty cautious.

The weather couldn’t have been better.  I still packed some warm clothes just in case, but my sweater ended up making a good pillow.

I timed the tide pretty badly.  Not that I don’t need the exercise, but I paddled against a moderate current both ways, to and from the island.

The paddle over was a typical beautiful, quiet stroll through the salt marsh.  But once I hit the inlet, the tide was coming in so hard, I decided it would be better to walk as far as I could.

Pretty soon, it became clear I wouldn’t be paddling around the point.  The tide was already over the sand flats, and the waves were coming in on the beach.  Kayaking alone, there was no way I was going to attempt this.

I decided to tie some rope to the bow of my boat and walk along the inlet towing it behind me.  This system worked for a bit, but it was pretty obvious I was going to have to unload my stuff at the inlet and walk it in loads over the quarter-mile or so to the campsite.  No big deal.  I moved everything in three trips.

Dusk was upon me when I finally had the tent up and everything stowed.  I didn’t have much light to scavenge some firewood.  Normally, it’s easy on Capers because there’s so much sun-bleached driftwood to gather.  But with the moon tides, much of the wood was wet.

On my third try, I got a little flame going and pretty quickly, I had a small, comfortable fire lit.  I cracked a beer and chomped on a brie sandwich I packed.  Yum.

I spend an hour or two just keeping the fire going.  It took a lot of bellowing and a bunch of quick trips to scout out more fuel.

The early dusk was making me sleepy, and by 8:00 I decided to let the fire burn out and try to get some sleep.  A part of me wanted to stay up until 3:30 when the meteors were supposed to peak.  But that was 7 1/2 hours away, and my only entertainment would be a couple books and a journal.  Sleep it was.

Being my first time camping alone, a touch of paranoia got to me.  I kept thinking, okay, I’m alone, but how do I know that for sure?  Then, I started dozing off and dreaming about a tsunami coming.  Lame.

But I was sound asleep from about midnight to 4:00 a.m. when my alarm woke me from a surf-soothed slumber.

It was chilly, and I had to fight the urge to stay in my warm sleeping bag.  But I was on a mission.  I had to see some meteors.

I stumbled down to the beach in my Chacos and wool socks and looked to the sky.  It was still mostly clear, though you could see some clouds trying to form.

The stars themselves were amazing.  Being out on Capers Island away from the lights of Mt. Pleasant behind made a big difference.  The glow of civilization behind the island to the north and west was quite present.

It wasn’t long before I saw a prick of light trace across the sky.  I couldn’t remember which was to watch, so I decided to face east where it seemed the stars were rising.

Pretty soon I saw a couple meteors in a row.  One was noticeably brighter and left sort of a wide tail.  Not very wide but more like a medium point pen where the others had been a fine point.

Another tail.  This was pretty fun.  I had seen eight meteors already, and I’d been standing there 20 minutes max.

Then came a lull.  It didn’t take long until the chilly November night chased me back into my warm sleeping bag.

Then it was morning.

The dawn was quite pretty, rising pink over the ocean.  Wait ... “red in the morning, sailors take—.”  Nah.

Actually, there was a cold front moving in, but it wouldn’t arrive until I was long gone.  I got the weather band on my handheld VHF, so I felt pretty safe.

Somehow, I dozed off again.  It was 10:00 before I was really up and dressed.  The mosquitoes greeted me with a smile.  I scoped out some more firewood and stoked up a little flame.

Just as I was bent over blowing air into the fire, I sat up to the sight of 50 kids strolling through my camp.  What?

I was just getting used to being alone, and (literally) a boatload of kids breaks my silence.  Later, I found out this was a tour group from Barrier Island Eco Tours, and it was two boatloads of kids!

My initial grumblings faded quickly as they moved on.  It was kind of funny, really.  Quite a few of them were muttering something about Man vs. Wild as they passed me.  Hey, better to be compared to Bear Grylls than Survivorman (though Survivorman really is way cooler, I have a feeling Mr. Grylls gets more ladies, lol).

My fire didn’t really work as a heat source, and my water was barely hot-tub hot when I poured it into my French press.  Since it wasn’t that hot, I left it a good 20 minutes to steep.  It was something like coffee by the time I was all packed.

I headed back to the inlet where I had stashed my kayak.  The tide was low enough now that I could paddle around the point and sneak in by the campsite.  The boat was all loaded up around noon, and I was back underway.

I was fighting the tide once again as I pushed through the inlet.  On the inland side of the inlet, I found two nice people digging for clams.

Just as I was drifting around the inlet for the last moment, a pair of dolphins hit the surface hard.  I turned and watched as they splashed again, this time flinging a fish through the air.  It was fun to watch from the kayak, knowing these animals were bigger than my boat.

I pushed on and sneaked through the ebb tide.  My arms were getting a workout.  I tried to stay out of the channel to avoid the current.

Soon I was back at the little creek by the boat ramp, which was just about dry.  I had to walk the last bit through the sandy, muddy creek.

Finally, I met my ride just as it arrived.  What a trip!