Cumberland Island: You can't go there anymore

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Brickhill Bluff looking SW. Brickhill River by Don Shirk

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January 18, 2001

Update! Success!!! Update! Success!!! Update! Success!!! Update! Success!!! Update! Success!!!

Congratulations Fellow Paddlers,

I got a call from Art Fredrick, the Superintendent of Cumberland Island this morning.
The paddling community and the NPS have reached an acceptable compromise!

Preliminary plans are to locate Brickhill Bluff Campground roughly 100 yards south of its present location still on the Brickhill River.

This satisfies the obligatory requirements that the NPS has to labor under and still allows paddlers critical access by water to the campsite.

According to Mr.. Fredrick, the final decision is seven or eight months down the road.

Details will be posted on the Atlanta Kayakers site as they become available.

Thanks to all that took an active role in the preservation of Cumberland Island as a viable paddling destination

November 2001

Have you ever wanted to paddle to Cumberland set up a tent and heave a sigh of relief?

Those days may be over! Read on Gentle Paddlers, perhaps we can make our voices heard.

Cumberland Island has been a favorite of paddlers for many years.

A few of the AK members paddled to Cumberland Island this month and had occasion to engage in a conversation with a ranger who mentioned that the Brickhill Campground as it is to day will be closed. That was distressing enough to trigger a spate of research on my part that resulted in the creation of this page.

A recent decision to move Brickhill Bluff Campground might prohibit camping as we know & love it. Brickhill Bluff Campground is the only back country area accessible by kayak.

According to the information operator at Cumberland Island This gorgeous campground will be closed as of January! (I have recently heard that it will be moved and that may be 5-6 months down the road but don't count on it)

The problem is that moving the campground may be just as effective in preventing kayakers from enjoying this wonderful barrier island as closing it entirely.

As we understand it the campground will be moved at least 1/4 mile from the takeout. Anyone who has kayak camped has an idea what a challenge this can be under the best of circumstances.

Don't forget that there is a developing market for stolen kayaks developing on the East Coast.
What does that mean? Well you get to portage your boat, your gear and yourself.
Wheeled carts of any type are likely to be banned not that they would help all that much. So how can you overnight on Cumberland under those conditions? Beats me.
It may be impossible for you to move all your gear, your boat and get it packed in time for the tide. This sometimes has to be done before sunrise. The only way to pull it off without leaving things behind is to partially load the boat on the beach, load the last few items & take off. Moving a loaded boat very far is not an option nor is leaving an unprotected boat full of gear near the water.

Read on fellow paddlers. But don't weep, ACT.

This is an excerpt from the Cumberland Island Management Plan referenced below:

"After the establishment of the trail system the NPS may need to move the specific location of some camp areas to avoid conflicts with private property, retained rights of holders and cultural resources. To protect wilderness resources and enhance the overnight visitor's experience in the wilderness the NPS has established the following objectives:

Enable hikers to stay overnight in a variety of island settings and locations throughout the wilderness:
Minimize impacts of overnight visitors to a camp with a sense of remoteness and solitude;
Separate campers from roads and island residences to enhance visitors' wilderness experience and protect residents' privacy;
Enable kayakers/canoers to have reasonable access to camp areas;
Provide campers with opportunities to obtain drinking water from existing sources within the wilderness; and
Provide opportunities for challenge and primitive recreation."

In this same document the NPS acknowledges the importance of providing for paddlers but admits that it hadn't in it's original plan.... It would seem like leaving Brickhill Bluff alone with Sea Camp as an alternative would be fine. Paddling up to the area of the Cumberland Warf on the extreme northern end of the island adds about 4 miles to the trip for a total of about 16 miles from Crooked River State Park. Or for that matter, taking out at Brickhill and portaging gear and boats over a long distance may be impossible for a lot of paddlers.

Unless constraints of tides moon phase, sunrise/set time are carefully considered a paddler could find him/herself in a dangerous or even deadly situation. This is over a 12 mile paddle as it is, much of it in open water, some of which is heavily trafficked by large boats.
A very lucrative market is developing along the East Coast for stolen kayaks. Kayakers wishing to camp would have to portage all gear and their boats to wherever the NPS decides to locate Brickhill.
Because of this, Relocation of the Brickhill Bluff Campground any distance from the take out would effectively render Cumberland Island extremely dangerous for kayakers wishing to camp.

Relocation is more than a hundred feet or so it would effectively put the NPS out of compliance with the clause highlighted in red above.

This decision by the NPS is base on a dig by archeologists the unearthed some evidence of pot shards and possibly the buried ruins of a 200 year old fort that kayakers' cat holes have the potential to disturb.

And Here it is folks.. straight from the Wilderness Management Plan to your eyes. They will Close "move" Brickhill!

"Wilderness Camp Areas: The NPS would establish camp areas at Sweetwater and Christmas Creek. Thus the number of wilderness camp areas would increase from four (as recommended in the GMP) to five. However, the capacity at the camp areas would decrease, thus increasing the sense of remoteness at each camp area. The sense of challenge and risk may decrease somewhat because campers would be able to explore the north end without returning to a more southerly location to spend the night. Because water would not be available at either of the new camp areas, overnight visitors would need to plan their trips more carefully. In this way the sense of challenge and risk increases."

"Because the NPS would relocate the Brickhill camp area, the chance for cultural resource degradation would decrease. [How's that?] Fewer overnight campers in the wilderness would also reduce the potential interaction between humans and animals. Because visitors would stay on trails and roads, their effect on the natural environment would be minimal and reduced over that described in the GMP. "

I'm having a little trouble following the Plan's logic here.

"Kayakers, canoers, and boaters may use any of the five camp areas; their entry into the wilderness would differ from that described in the GMP. Because they may enter at different places than the backpackers, the sense of remoteness for all wilderness users may increase."

As far as I know there are four takeouts on the western side of the island: (from the South)

Sea Camp Dock: It's about .75 mi to the campground but there are carts. Check in can take forever. Not a bad CG but not primitive.
Plum Orchard: The closest place to camp from there is Yankee Paradise, about a mile portage. No water.
Brickhill Bluff: Primitive, pristine, you pull up and you're there. There is a pitcher pump for water. This is the site that the NPS wants to close (or to use their vernacular "move") which for practical purposes may amount to the same thing for kayakers.
Cumberland Warf: Sweetwater/Christmas Creek area: This is where the little church is and a former settlement that the NPS refers to as "cultural recourses." There is no water.

The NPS wants to put campgrounds in that vicinity. This area is very close to the private holdings on the northern end of the island. The WMP mentions in several places that they were concerned with protecting the privacy of the residents. Why then do they want to put two campgrounds so close to the residents? Incidentally, it's a much longer walk to the beach from there than any of the other western campgrounds.

This sounds like taking a good idea (Wilderness Management) way too far.
Nothing has actually been done yet. It may not be too late to derail this blow to the paddling community.
This change should it occur will leave Sea Camp as the only campground accessible by kayak or canoe with the nearest back country site being Yankee Paradise which is a VERY long portage from Plum Orchard.

The WMP also outlines plans for:

The installation of underground utilities which will require bringing in heavy equipment and digging miles of trenches.
Plum Orchard Mansion rehabilitation to house commercial enterprises. Proposals are already being accepted.
A regularly scheduled van and ferry route from Sea Camp to Plum Orchard and the northern cultural resources. (there was some discussion over weather 12 or 14 passenger vans would have more environmental impact!)

In conclusion Gentle Paddlers, I have done enough research to convince me that, to not put too fine a point on it, we're getting SCREWED as are backpackers who will have to hike another 4 miles and carry their own water.

So what now? I guess that's a matter of conscience. There are links below to contact various powers that be. A couple of things to keep in mind are that the NPS is a Federal Agency and a division of the Department of the Interior. As such it is subject to congressional review so pitch the folks that will do the most good.

I have created a "topic" on the Atlanta Kayakers to facilitate the unfettered exchange of ideas.

Update

Previously I had directed my fellow paddlers to Art Fredrick NPS Superintendent, Cumberland Island. This was done based on information gotten from the information operator on CI. Mr. Fredrick failed to respond to phone calls and e-mails sent over a number of days seeking more complete and accurate information. Mr. Fredrick was out of town during this time and doesn't check e-mail and phone messages.

Mr. Art Fredrick called this morning. We had a lengthy, pleasant conversation during which:

He said he has received hundreds of e-mail messages that he could not respond to. (Good Job Fellow Paddlers);
Mr. Fredrick expressed that there were at least 4 public meetings during which commentary was heard by the NPS in both St. Mary's and Atlanta ending in July of this year;
Mr. Fredrick expressed that my information was wrong and that the NPS is not closing Brickhill Bluff merely moving it but could supply no details. I told Mr. Fredrick that as a practical matter from a paddlers' standpoint it probably amounts to the same thing. For more about this click here;
Mr. Fredrick stressed that his part in the decision making process had drawn to an end.
That the final decision had not been made. and that any future e-mails or phone calls should be directed to the people below.
I take that to mean that Kayakers Can Have An IMPACT on just how far from Brickhill Bluff the campground is moved.

Up to the minute update 12/10/2001

POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS

I got phone calls from Rich Sussman and a gentleman by the name of Mr. Winegar (at the behest of Jerry Belson the regional director.
They are both pleasant and reasonable men as is Art Fredrick the Superintendent of CUIS.
Mr. Sussman seems willing to be consider paddlers' needs in making the final decision about where to move Brickhill Bluff CG. Another source of influence is the archeologists who will be on the island on the week of Jan. 6, 2002.
Mr. Sussman will address the location of the CG using the water pump as a reference point. Although he couldn't commit at this time it sounds like he is inclined to move the CG the minimum distance necessary to satisfy the archeologists.

SO Please contact the folks below and make your thoughts on this matter known! Please treat them as you would have them treat you.

There are some redundancies on this page fellow paddlers. There is a point to that. The we need to send a redundant message to the decision makers from a lot of people that share the same concerns.

ADD YOUR VOICE! Contact the powers that be in the National Park Service:

Rich Sussman, Regional Director of Planning and Compliance rich_sussman@nps.gov 404--562-3162 x 601

Jerry Belson, Regional Director NPS jerry_belson@nps.gov 404-562-3100 X 675

This is a link to the whole 600 page Wilderness Management Plan for CI. You will need

NPS CI Press release and contact information.

Zell Miller

Georgia Office Holders This is federal folks. Speak with your keyboards, your phones, your pens and your votes.

House Members by State

Senate Members by State

ADD YOUR VOICE! CONTACT THE NPS AND YOUR CONGRESSMEN

Cumberland Island NPS official site

E-mail the http://www.atlantakyayk.org/discus/messages/14/21814.html?1122937658. I welcome any comments.

http://www.atlantakyayk.org/discus/messages/14/21814.html?1122937658s: STEAL THIS CODE and feel free to post it on your own website! I only ask that you link back to us or at least post any updates. This page is dynamic and prone to change based on input from the NPS and various elected officials.

Thanks

http://www.atlantakyayk.org/discus/messages/14/21814.html?1122937658

Last updated 02/22/07