Saturday, May 3, 2008
Night Driving Rules
Vehicles must be OFF the beach by 10:00pm and can NOT return until 6:00am.
Pedestrian access is still allowed. You can walk over at any ramp or access point and fish.
If you wish to be dropped off with your gear in any area open to humans and "Fish" until 6:00am the NPS says that is appropriate. Basically you can do everything that you could do if you were on the beach in front of the Villages.
Since there is no camping allowed on the beach you must be actively engaged in some approved pursuit. These would include: Stargazing, Shelling, Fishing, Yoga, Wave Watching, Shooting star counting, Marvelling as the milky way moves across the sky, Teaching your children how small a part of the universe they occupy.
The Night Time is the Right Time and offers an experience with no real substitute. The sky Scape in front of the Villages does not compare to the experience miles from the nearest light source.
The argument that night driving disturbs the birds and turtles rings a little hollow when there is a pair of Oyster Catchers on a nest, not a hundred feet off of Rte 12 between Hatteras and Frisco for at least the last two years. If you know where to look you can see the bird very clearly and it is not paying any attention to the traffic. As to Turtles,we are told that there is no significant difference between the ratio of false crawls to nests between Pea Island and the rest of the Seashore. Since Pea Island has no ORV use, no piers and no Villages how do you reach the conclusion that ORV use in the Seashore is responsible for false crawls and is disturbing the Turtles.
It's all spilt milk at this point and the best we can do is adapt and make the best of the next few years. We ask everyone to obey the rules, as much as they chafe, because if we don't things will get worse.
We want to share a poem written by a "Beach Bum" named Russ Britt who was taken from this wonderful place by cancer. Russ remained strong in his love right to the end and we fight on in his name.
Peace’
I find my peace out on the sand
Beside the sea- not beyond or behind
but on the edge, on the border of foam and grit
where sandfleas scatter among the crashing froth
And the plovers scurry along in front of each dying wave
probing after some unseen morsel.
I find my peace in the damp salt air
blowing in from the tropics or the stream
carrying aromas of fish and marsh and memory.
days long past return as just yesterday
recollections triggered by a wafting scent
only to dissipate with the changing breeze.
I find my peace in the red-orange sun
rising from the watery abyss once again as before
throwing warmth and brilliance against morning clouds
an endless fantasy fueled by fire
the phoenix rising again to fly across the sky
and plunge back into the depths.
I find my peace casting among the breakers
with the same hopes of those who fished before me
the limitless optimism and simple faith
that some morsel of bait or metal trinket
will bring the surging run of a bull redfish
or the glimmer of a seatrout in the wash.
I find my peace in thoughts of days gone by
time spent with friends I may never see again
Images fill my mind on the flood tide
and with the rising sun, and on the evening breeze
scenes that can never, will never be repeated
but each time there is one less memory.
Someday the sun will rise, the breeze will blow
the plovers will run along the tideline
and I will be just a memory on the breeze
perhaps some passing fisherman will see my face
briefly in the foam, before it scatters on a new wave
and find his peace out on the sand.
R. A. Britt
aka Subourbon
Pedestrian access is still allowed. You can walk over at any ramp or access point and fish.
If you wish to be dropped off with your gear in any area open to humans and "Fish" until 6:00am the NPS says that is appropriate. Basically you can do everything that you could do if you were on the beach in front of the Villages.
Since there is no camping allowed on the beach you must be actively engaged in some approved pursuit. These would include: Stargazing, Shelling, Fishing, Yoga, Wave Watching, Shooting star counting, Marvelling as the milky way moves across the sky, Teaching your children how small a part of the universe they occupy.
The Night Time is the Right Time and offers an experience with no real substitute. The sky Scape in front of the Villages does not compare to the experience miles from the nearest light source.
The argument that night driving disturbs the birds and turtles rings a little hollow when there is a pair of Oyster Catchers on a nest, not a hundred feet off of Rte 12 between Hatteras and Frisco for at least the last two years. If you know where to look you can see the bird very clearly and it is not paying any attention to the traffic. As to Turtles,we are told that there is no significant difference between the ratio of false crawls to nests between Pea Island and the rest of the Seashore. Since Pea Island has no ORV use, no piers and no Villages how do you reach the conclusion that ORV use in the Seashore is responsible for false crawls and is disturbing the Turtles.
It's all spilt milk at this point and the best we can do is adapt and make the best of the next few years. We ask everyone to obey the rules, as much as they chafe, because if we don't things will get worse.
We want to share a poem written by a "Beach Bum" named Russ Britt who was taken from this wonderful place by cancer. Russ remained strong in his love right to the end and we fight on in his name.
Peace’
I find my peace out on the sand
Beside the sea- not beyond or behind
but on the edge, on the border of foam and grit
where sandfleas scatter among the crashing froth
And the plovers scurry along in front of each dying wave
probing after some unseen morsel.
I find my peace in the damp salt air
blowing in from the tropics or the stream
carrying aromas of fish and marsh and memory.
days long past return as just yesterday
recollections triggered by a wafting scent
only to dissipate with the changing breeze.
I find my peace in the red-orange sun
rising from the watery abyss once again as before
throwing warmth and brilliance against morning clouds
an endless fantasy fueled by fire
the phoenix rising again to fly across the sky
and plunge back into the depths.
I find my peace casting among the breakers
with the same hopes of those who fished before me
the limitless optimism and simple faith
that some morsel of bait or metal trinket
will bring the surging run of a bull redfish
or the glimmer of a seatrout in the wash.
I find my peace in thoughts of days gone by
time spent with friends I may never see again
Images fill my mind on the flood tide
and with the rising sun, and on the evening breeze
scenes that can never, will never be repeated
but each time there is one less memory.
Someday the sun will rise, the breeze will blow
the plovers will run along the tideline
and I will be just a memory on the breeze
perhaps some passing fisherman will see my face
briefly in the foam, before it scatters on a new wave
and find his peace out on the sand.
R. A. Britt
aka Subourbon
