My First Day Alone = Not So Good

Today's plan was supposed to be a practice run for me to do the beaches alone.  I don't feel confident enough yet to be alone, however it happened anyway.  Steve woke up with me, and helped pack up the Mule.  He took the truck with extra screens and fishing gear.  The idea was that he'd fish while I surveyed the beaches and help if I needed it.  I drove North Beach and found nothing.  As I was preparing to start North Middle, grey clouds starting moving in.  I got all the gear in the kayak, grabbed the bike and pedaled hard.  I returned with no crawls, but relieved it hadn't started pouring yet.  As I was riding, I thought of the convenience of the truck to provide shelter with A/C and radio to ease the time. Steve had no luck with the cast net.  I offered to try to get bait for the next stop but we noticed a poorly inflated tire on the truck.  He didn't think it would be a good idea to drive south, so I was on my own.  I'll admit I had been cranky this morning and when Steve offered to finish the beaches for me, I got angrier.  I refused, because I needed to try.  Looking back, I wished he had come along.

I arrived in the south and decided that since I hadn't been rained on yet, I should survey with the ATV before it started.  I had a lot of gear to take, reorganize, and get out there.  It took me much longer to push off with the kayak than any other morning.  I landed, and loaded all the stuff on the ATV.  The winds picked up and the skies darkened.  I knew I couldn't avoid it now.  The ride north put me straight into the wind, making my survey effort much harder.  I was almost to the north end when I spotted a crawl.  I quickly looked at it, and hopped back on the ATV to finish the beach.  Nothing else to worry about, so I went back to work it up.  By this point, the rain had started, worrying me about the phone, GPS, and field book.  I needed to call Steve, look up old nests/crawls, and check my location.  This nest had misguiding clues, as well as missing clues from last night's storm.  The GPS showed that I was close to a nest that was relocated two days ago, but I was pretty sure I was there for it, and did not recognize this location.  I called Steve hoping he could remember anything.  He couldn't help.  By this point I was beyond frustrated with my situation, but knew I had to keep trying.

The crawl itself threw me off.  The tide line I had been following made me believe that it was a crawl from yesterday, and therefore Steve missed it.  I knew, however, that he would not have missed this.  The turtle crawled over an old thick wrack line, through some fleshy grass, and into a small washover fan surrounded by shrubs.  As I looked around, there were no other spots like this.  She had found the one and only entrance to sand for meters in both directions.  I hated the idea that she'd nest here, but I had to try.  There were some clues to a nest, but the rain had really erased most of the evidence.  The fact that there was a track differential forced me to believe it wasn't a false crawl.  So, I got to work.  Probe, dig, nothing.  Probe, dig, crab hole.  Probe, dig, roots.  I took off 6 inches of sand and started over.  Again, nothing.  More sand removed, still nothing.  After working on this spot for 2 hours, I gave up.  I called it a false crawl, but I'll have my eye on it throughout the season.

By this point, the storm had ceased and sun came out.  I packed up the ATV, and drove the entire beach again, worried I'd missed something earlier.  Nothing new, so I got on the kayak and headed for the Mule.  South Beach also had no crawls.  It was 12:45, I had been out for over 6 hours, and all I had was a false crawl.  I counted on today to build my confidence, but instead, I keep going over the details of the only false crawl.  Did I miss it?  Only time will tell.