What a surprise to find ourselves completely alone at the St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park. There weren't even any rangers there today, even though it was a weekend. The downside to that was that there was no golf cart tram to take us to the beach. However, the 3/4 mile each way on the boardwalk didn't seem as long this time, despite walking with wet feet and Crocs.
We were also surprised to see that the beach had eroded quite a bit since last year, most likely with our last stormy weather. The sand comes and goes all the time. This time it made a big ridge and berm.
The beach was so much narrower that the waves were reaching up to the protective sea oats that had been planted. You can see the dark wet sand in the photo and this was at about an hour after low tide.
We didn't attempt to walk all the way down to the inlet with the rising tide. We would have had to walk on the dunes and sea oats to get there, and we didn't want to destroy any of them. It was still a fantastic outing and we sat on some benches watching a few huge Sportfishermen going out the inlet in the distance, crashing through the waves like they were Waverunners. There were also several sailboats heading south just offshore. When we got back to our kayaks on the Intracoastal Waterway, there were finally a few other boaters and yakkers arriving. It was time to turn over the park to them.
Footnote: I almost forgot to include our fantastic experience with several dolphins hunting right near our kayaks. They were scaring the fish, causing schools of fish to 'spray' out of the water. They threw them in the air to stun them and eventually ate them. Then to top it all off, I watched an osprey chase a bald eagle over the ocean. Then later, the eagle was flying in circles over our heads, giving us a perfect view of it. It was a 10+ day!
😎
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