12 December 2010

Team Sheepleg at Cumberland Island, GA

 

At Sheepleg we believe the best place to work isn’t in a stuffy corner office, it’s under the stars and in the great outdoors. We recently took a backpacking trip to beautiful Cumberland Island, Georgia, a national park island just outside of King’s Bay and St. Marys, Georgia.

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It’s winter, but in southern Georgia, the temperatures are still great for hiking and backpacking. We took the ferry, the Cumberland Lady, to get to the island from St. Marys. On board the ferry we met lots of other backpackers including a scout troop. Cumberland Island has a full-featured camp called Sea Camp on the southern end of the island that has amenities like clean water, bathrooms, cold showers, and camp sites with picnic tables and fire rings. We arrived at almost noon, so we set up our tents at Sea Camp and explored the south end of the island.

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There’s impressive ruins of a mansion that was once the estate of Thomas Carnegie known as ‘Dungeness’.  Wild horses roam around the island, and armadillos seem to be everywhere.

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The following day we headed up the beach to one of the backcountry camping sites further north. The beach is listed as one of America’s best beaches for collecting sea shells, we found lots of Florida cones, sand dollars, and angel wings along the way.

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During the winter, the wind on the beach can be pretty chilling at times, but the thick gnarled canopy of trees on the island does an excellent job of cutting the wind, making for a much more comfortable camping experience. The backcountry camps were well designed, and also had fire rings to help fend off the cool evening weather and encourage late night fire-side chats.

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If you’re starting to get cabin fever from the cold northern temperatures, we at Sheepleg give Cumberland Island, Georgia, a hardy thumbs-up.

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