Nassau County Group

Explore, enjoy and protect the planet

Outings

 

 

 

 

  • 7th Annual John Muir Family Walk:  Saturday October 11, 2008   9:00am

     

Our Yulee Historic Council has annually sponsored a hike to commemorate John Muir's walk through Nassau County.  We would like to invite all current and former Sierra Club members from Nassau and Duval Counties to join us for the next commemorative walk.  Due to limits on the size of the group we can handle, attendance will be by invitation only.
 
This year the walk will be held on October 11 in Crandall Pasture.  Rayonier's Chief Forester will lead the walk and provide a narrative about the history of the area and modern timber farming practices.  The trail will take us from a large picnic site near the Bells River, through uplands to a scenic viewpoint on a high bluff and return and will be approximately 3-4 miles round trip.  We will probably offer a shorter walk for those who do not want to make the full hike.  This area is, without a doubt, the most scenic and geographically unique in Nassau County.
 
We will all meet at the John Muir Park in Yulee near the US Post Office at 9am on October 11.  There will be a short ceremony where Rayonier will convey ownership of several acres of land for park expansion to the Yulee Historic Council.  Then we will drive in convoy to Crandall for the hike.  Attendees should plan to bring a picnic lunch and beverage and dress for the hike. 
 
We are doing our final planning now and need your help.  Could you please provide me with either the names and mailing addresses of individual members (preferred) or a Club mailing address as soon as possible so Rayonier can mail out formal invitations with RSVP instructions?  I need to build a comprehensive attendee list ASAP.  Please call me if you have any questions.  I look forward to seeing you there, too!
 
Mike Pikula
904-556-1098

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  • 04 Oct 08    Outing to the Jacksonville-Baldwin Rail Trail


 

The usual suspects enjoyed perfect weather, bicycling along this delightful, wide asphalt, off- road trail. We started at a gem of a city park in downtown Baldwin off Center Street, and rode along the shady and uncrowded trail for about 7 miles, passing over Otis and Halsema Roads. A bit beyond Halsema, we found Camp Milton, a preserved Civil War campground complete with an old homestead (being renovated). A circle of trees growing from seeds of trees in famous southern locations, for example a honey locust tree from the site of Lincoln's Gettysburg address and oaks and magnolias from various battle sites, is completed by a water fountain (including a bowl for dogs!) and benches. A nature/history trail includes a cool, shaded boardwalk with historical markers. We found one battle Sierrans could easily endorse - a nighttime battle with pine cones between Georgia regiments. From the marker: “The skirmish lines became engaged, the lines of battle then moved forward and such fireworks I have never witnessed...” We bicycled back, had a pleasant picnic lunch at a pavilion at our trailhead, and made it back home in time to enjoy an afternoon at the Amelia Island Book Festival. In particular, Maria Struss and I enjoyed attending a travel writer's seminar with Lucy Beebe Tobias, a former Nassau Sierran who used to work for our News Leader (excellent presentation, of course). Naturally, I shared the bike trail experience with her!

 

Winifred Stephenson

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  • 6th Annual John Muir Family Walk:  Saturday October 13, 2007   10:00am – 2:00pm

Please join us for this year’s walk that will take us to the John Muir Ecological Park in Yulee, FL and to some very lovely woods in Nassau County for a light walk and picnic.   We are most grateful to Pat Edwards and Stan Longenecker for allowing us to visit their woods.

We will meet in Yulee for a brief visit to Nassau County’s newest park, the John Muir Ecological Park, on the 140th anniversary of naturalist John Muir’s famous visit to this site. We will then drive in our cars ten minutes to the Edwards/Longenecker woods, a private hunting preserve that will be ours for the day.  We will have an easy two-mile walk through a lovely forest and then return to the John Muir Ecological Park for our picnic lunch. Families, children, and dogs are welcome.

This is a joint event of the Yulee Historic Council (that helped develop the Park) and Sierra Club of Northeast Florida.  Leaders are Todd Sack, Brian Paradise, Lawrence Piper and Mike Pikula.

Where:  Meet at 10:00am in Yulee, FL at the John Muir Ecological Park, located on the north side of Highway AIA, 2.4 miles east of Interstate 95 (Exit 373, “Fernandina Beach, Callahan”), approximately 45 minutes from downtown Jacksonville.

What to bring:  wear long pants, walking shoes, hat, bug repellant, camera, picnic lunch, and plenty of water.

Reservations:  For safety, we need to know who is coming along.  Please call Brian Paradise (904-710-0479), Todd Sack (904-403-6446 or 904-733-6500), or Mike Pikula (491-8673).  If lost or questions on Oct 13, call Todd Sack.  No fee.

 

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  • 06 Oct 07  Celebrate National Public Lands Day!

Join Nassau County Sierra Club for a working outing this Saturday, October 6, at Egan’s Creek Greenway, 9 am at the Atlantic Recreation Center entrance to the park. Wear long pants, bring gloves, sunscreen and bug spray, and a hat if it’s hot.  We’ll help remove invasive plants, then move to Jasmine Street entrance, where we’ll take salinity readings and monitor the tree die-off.

Call Winifred, 277-4187, if you have any questions.

 

Here are pics from this morning's (very wet) Public Lands Celebration.  Actually, 4 groups were using the Greenway this morning, we have pics from our local birding group (with some brave souls from Duval Audubon), our Sierra Club celebration, the Our Greenway cleanup, and representative City, County and State employees!  A soggy but good time was had by all, until it really poured and began to lightning and thunder.  We postponed the salinity study (a superabundance of fresh water, though), pulled up invasive morning glories, and spotted anghina, a peregrine falcon, house finches, and a great number of wading birds! Not to mention 3 alligators.  Bright spot: the rain kept all mosquitoes away! We had a pretty good turnout for the weather, and  considering several faithful members are taking a course to be Master Naturalists, and Teen and Jeff Peterson's daughter is getting married today! Congratulations to the young couple!! I did suggest they relocate the wedding on the greenway, but considering the weather, perhaps it is just as well.
 

 

 

click pix to enlarge

 

 

Following is the 2007- 2008  - Schedule of Field Trips - Nassau County Bird Club
 
 
 
 
December - Audubon Christmas Counts
 
January 5, 2008 - Fort Clinch State Park Fishing Pier 
 
February 2, 2008 - Huguenot Park
 
March 15, 2008 - Amelia Island Plantation
 
April 12, 2008   - Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
 
May 3, 2008 - Simmons State Forest
 
June 2008 - Summer Break
 
July 2008 - Summer Break
 
August 16, 2008 - Huguenot Park for Fall Migration
 
 
 
Trips are generally on Saturday at 8 AM.  We will determine the time for the January 5, 2008 as we get closer to that date and know what the tides are.
 
Directions and instructions will be available before each trip.
 
For more information call Carol Wyatt at 261-9272 or Bob Wells at 491-6166. Or E-mail Carol at carolinewy@aol.com or Bob at rwellsjr@bellsouth.net.
 

 

 

 


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