St Vincent Is, FL Sambar Deer Hunt Dec 2012
Planning for this hunt begins in May with an application to be drawn for one of the 200 permits for the primitive weapons hunt. Dennis put in our group application (including Dan, John, Eddie and me) and we were selected, paid our fees and received our permits. Final planning requires that we decide what we need to be self sufficient on the island for 5 days because the only facilities are a small sandy clearings in the brush for tents and a few porta-potties graciously provided by the NWMA staff. This is not just a primitive weapons hunt (Bows or black powder), but primitive camping. We have done this before and were successful this time because at the conclusion of the hunt our list of "should a had" items was very small.
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| St Vincent Is |
Geologically speaking the history of the island is short, only about 3,000 years. Beach ridge islands such as this only form on accrecting beaches of low wave energy. They are constructed by wave run up and grow upward and seaward as sand is deposited. The oldest parts of the island are the north area, mostly marsh and bayou. Generally sea level has been falling for the past 6,000 years with intermittent periods of rise. Sedimentation on the island gives a pretty good picture of these rise and fall periods through analysis of the deposition of sand, silt, and shell beds. The resulting ridge and valley landscape has produced a unique habitat with the valleys holding freshwater marsh and ponds. The ridges are predominately pine, palmetto, and scattered oak. Portions of the north shore are maritime forest with lots of live oak and palmetto palms. The Gulf -facing south shore consists of coastal dunes with sea oats. Not surprisingly there is evidence of prior Indian habitation of the island at several sites. There is an extensive road system on the island. The roads follow the ridges and in a few places cross the valleys. Generally the roads are sand and shell and are passable with the park rangers 4wd vehicles of which there are only a few. Often, when there has been adequate rain to pack the sand, bicycles are effective transport. We found the bikes to be of little use on this trip in the dry loose sand.
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Slash Pine
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Typical view down one of the valleys
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