Day 49: The end of a great trip

While Richard spent Thursday night was spent in a comfortable, air conditioned and heated house and actually slept in a bed with a mattress, it was not his most comfortable night of the trip.

He tossed and turned in bed all night long. I joked that maybe he should have set up a tent in the Bigler’s yard instead of sleeping in their guest room. Richard woke up for the day around 5:30 or 6:00 AM. He regretted leaving the river the previous day – he learned from his lesson and he says that he’ll never do that again. The break from the wilderness was too drastic and since he still had to paddle out to Dauphin Island, he wanted to stay in the mindset of living along the river.

He finally got back onto the river around 8:00 AM. His plan was to paddle from Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island, where the Gulf of Mexico begins. Richard describes the paddle from the Bay to Dauphin Island as “one wild paddle.” He noted that the closer he got to the Gulf of Mexico, the bigger the waves were. The was surprised to see oil rigs right there in Mobile Bay and the great number of boats harvesting oysters in the area. There were about 40 boats out there around the bridge to the island raking in oysters. The water is shallow there, only about 4-6 feet deep.

The waves continued to build, but they did not break like they do when they reach the beach. They just rolled on by. He described this experience to “paddling a rollercoaster”. He opted not to wear his PFD or spray skirt that his sister had brought for this section of his trip. He paddled to Dauphin Island wearing just his swimsuit. He finally arrived at the island around 1:15 PM. He was sad to see his trip end, he commented that he could have stayed there and paddled all day long. It was a perfect day.

His trip ended at the ferry landing on Dauphin Island out near Fort Gaines. He took a few pictures of the fort and visited for a few minutes with Billy Ray and Margaret, two of the “Alabama Yellow Hammer Campers” who came to see Richard finish his trip. While they were waiting for Richard to come in, Billy Ray met a group of cyclists who were cycling from California to St. Augustine, Florida. They average 60 miles per day and were waiting for the ferry to take them from the West side of Dauphin Island over to the East Dauphin Island. There are 2 sides to the island and the ferry is the most efficient way to travel from one to the other.

His sister, Donna was also there at the ferry landing, ready to take him back to Atlanta. His GPS read 851.7 miles when he completed his trip. Shortly after finishing, he and Donna packed up his things and headed back to Atlanta. They were on the road by 2:20 CST. They arrived safely at home around 8:30 PM on Friday night.