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Watching one of the last of the undeveloped sandy southwestern beaches go the way of the big money seems to have drawn me there lately; getting there while the getting is good, so to speak. Made me think of the archived photos I have of those pre-development days. when a rugged trail lead to the point and the eastern and western beaches.
Ditleff Point
This photo was on the cover of old editions of St. John Off the Beaten Track. To get here walk south along the coast from Ditleff beach.
Tide Pool
"the times they are a changing"
Native fishermen used to use Ditleff Beach for picking whelk, diving conch and inshore fishing. Before that the Tainos had established a settlement there.
Ditleff Beach Western Side
Ditleff Beach is a sand and coral rubble beach. Even if land access is closed the beach remains public and can be accessed by boat or by swimming or snorkeling from Klein Bay.
Beach Fish Bay Side
Rubble beach on the Fish Bay side.
View of the beach from the old trail
The previous owners, Dow Chemical heirs, I’m told, wanted to keep the Point as it was save for bulldozing a dirt track over the old narrow trail. When they passed the new owners decided to develop.
Overview
The Point as seen from the Fish Bay Road before development.
overview of Ditleff Point from the development road
Ditleff Point
Yesterday I was out early in the morning checking out the south side for some photos and when I came to Ditleff Point I noticed that although the gate controlling the vehicle traffic was closed a walk through gate remained open. Taking advantage of this access were dog walkers and joggers all of whom were familiar to me.
Passing through the open gate, I began to walk down the now bulldozed and paved road, which not long ago was a rugged dirt track. Along the way I met Miles Stair of Holiday Homes fame. He slowed his pace and waled with me.
a squall blows in from the east
Rainbow
On our way back to the main road a squall blew in from the east. The mist from the squall produced a beautiful rainbow that arched over the Point from east to west. I’m excited to come back here, shoot some photos, and take a few jogs, before, and hopefully this never happens, that access is closed off to St. John residents and visitors.
Gated Community
About Beach Access
“…While the coastlines and beaches of of the Virgin Islands are public domain the question of access has nor been formalized. In most jurisdictions which have public beach access laws the owners of properties adjacent to beaches are required to provide public access through the land. Here in the Virgin islands developers and landowners have taken the position that access is only necessary via the sea and providing land access is optional. This interpretation is not always so. For example, the Pond Bay Club on Chocolate Hole was required to provide land access to the beach, Ditleff point apparently not as the gate suggests.
“Historically, land access to Ditleff Point goes back to the first inhabitants of indigenous peoples who had a settlement there some two thousand years ago.
Poor whites abnd freed slaves lived there during colonial times. During substance farming days, a family lived in a house whose foundation still exists, lying just inland from the southern end of the beach.
After that Ditleff Beach was used primarily as access to the sea for fishing and the gathering of whelk and conch as well as recreationally for swimming, snorkeling, diving and fishing. Original trails were replaced by a bulldozed road when a group of mainlanders purchased the point declaring that they had no intention of developing it. For many years St. Johnians and visitors used this road as access to the beaches. When the mainlanders passed away and the property passed to their heirs, the land was cut up into parcels, developed and put on the market, with a gate at the entrance to control access.
Hawksnest Bay in the early morning with waves breaking over the reefs lying just offshore. It's a beautiful, quiet morning. There's nobody here but Habiba and I.
The pavillion offer venues for community events, birthday parties, family BBQs and other gatherings.
Just to the west of the popular Hawksnest Beach, lies a much smaller and far less visited stretch of soft coral sand known as Little Hawksnest.
I revisited this little beach yesterday and realized that it has been some time since I had been there. The tide was high and the surf was up (our St. John winter season is just about upon us) and there wasn’t much beach to speak of with waves washing up almost to the vegetation line.
It isn’t always this way and on more normal days one can find a quiet little beach just to the west of the public beach.
To get to Little Hawksnest, you’ll need to walk to the far western end of the public beach, take the trail through the woods that parallels the shore until you get to the rocky coastline separating the two beaches. A relativity easy scramble will bring you to the beach.
Thinking back (all the way to 1972) I remember attending the wedding of Charlie Deyalsingh (Trinidad Charlie) and Cathy Hartford on this very beach, where among other festivities we had a pig roast.
Remember I said relatively easy scramble, but thinking about it, setting up a pig roast on that beach must have been fairly challenging. I guess we all were a lot tougher in those days.
I try to get over to Trunk Bay in the late afternoons for a nice long swim. It’s especially inviting during these summer months when the water is good and warm, just the way I like it.
Trunk Bay Stamp
The view from the Trunk Bay overlook on the North Shore Road is probably one of the most photographed scenes anywhere.
There’s even an official United States Postal Service stamp featuring that world famous vista.
Trunk Bay is the favorite destination for cruise ship passengers and day-trippers from St. Thomas and tends to be fairly busy, at least by St. John standards,
As the sun sets over St. Thomas, however, the scene changes and the beach is often just about empty.
The late afternoon at Trunk now attracts lovers of all kinds, beach lovers, beauty lovers and young lovers of all ages.
I shot this video of a typical Trunk Bay sunset a few days ago.
I-Tal
The music is by our own St. John culture bearer, I-Tal Anthony from Salt Pond Bay, enjoy!
There’s that saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. So, here’s some photos taken yesterday, which was another incredibly clear day. St. Croix and the Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra were again visible as was the mountain, El Yunque, on Puerto Rico itself. And the sunset was spectacular.
Trunk Bay Afternoon
Ghost Crab
St. Croix as seen from Boatman Point - St. John USVI
On Sunday mornings Chelsea O’Brien and I meet at Maho Bay for our weekly Sunday morning swim.
We’re doing a nice long swim. It used to be three miles, but we’re presently down to two and working our way up again.
Just about every Sunday morning we see the same St. John characters either here at Maho or running along the roadside; familiar exercise addicts like ourselves; serious runners and swimmers and bike riders; people like Miles Stair, Hank Slodden, Moe Chabuz and Pat Mahoney.
There’s no Sunday morning sleeping in for this crowd.
At sea, like on land, it’s the same story, we see the same familiar characters, only here its fish and sea creatures instead of people.
There’s the one big turtle and the two little ones swimming over the seagrass in the middle of the bay, who I like to think of as the mama turtle and her two children.
There’s the schools of fry surrounded by jacks and Spanish mackerel in the shallow waters along the edge of the bay as we turn to swim towards the point between the two Mahos while pelicans await in the trees or circle above.
Green Turtle
When we reach the big rocks at the point, you can bet that we’re going to see those same schools of yellow French grunts hovering above some submerged boulder.
Then nothing much as we pass by Little Maho and the beach at Francis Bay, until we arrive at the northern end of the beach where the sand gives way to the rocky shoreline and there’s that same big barracuda claiming his territory.
Sunday morning Maho with its familiar cast of characters. Check it out. We’ll all probably be there, at least for now, being as we are – creatures of habit.
We began at the trailhead out on East End, where a National Park Service sign marks the entrance to the trail. Parking for three or four vehicles is available here.
A short distance from the road, the trail forks with a trail to the left leading to the Virgin Islands National Park firing range and the Brown Bay Trail running straight ahead and up the hill.
About a hundred yards up the trail we came to something I had never noticed before, the remains of a large concrete cistern supported on the lower side by buttresses. Apparently it was previously hidden in the bush, but it’s extreme proximity to the trail makes me wonder about how much attention I was paying on all those previous hikes.
More ruins
View to the south
We followed the narrow trail leading to the cistern and once there we discovered more trails and more ruins. We’ll need to investigate in order to find out a little of the history behind these structures.
The Brown Bay Trail runs up the hill on the southern side of St. John crosses the ridge of hilltops forming the narrow peninsula of East End and then descends to the northern coast.
The southern face of the hillside shows evidence of once supporting animal grazing. This section of trail is by and large hot, dry and scrubby, but here are several places from which there are openings in the bush allowing for good southerly views.
Genips
Habiba and the Donkey
Crossing the ridge and descending the northern hillsides is a welcome change. It’s cooler, shadier and more importantly, we’re now going downhill.
Here we met a donkey that was hesitant to pass us on the narrow trail. Behind him was a hiker with two dogs, that barked threateningly, such that the donkey was even more hesitant about turning around and going the other way. Eventually, we stepped back into the bush far enough so that the donkey could pass us and go on his way leaving us and the dogs behind.
The environment on the north is dry forest and not nearly as disturbed as the southern side. I noticed a lot of West Indian Birch along the trail, which I used to cut for fish pot braces. Guavaberry trees also caught my eye, but most welcome was that genip tree with ripe genips that required some work to gather, but tasted pretty sweet.
Brown Bay
Salt Pond
The trail descends to the northern coastline and meets a spur to the beach at Brown Bay. Previous visitors have constructed rudimentary benches where one can sit, relax and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of this rarely visited beach.
Trails behind the beach lead to a salt pond and an area of extensive ruins, well worth exploring.
St. John Sunday Swim
Chelsea O’Brien and I have re instituted our “St. John Sunday Morning Long Distance Swim.” Next week we’ll be at Maho Bay at 8:30 AM and the course will be from the Green Building on the west end of the beach along the Maho Bay shoreline to the end, then around the point to Little Maho and on to the northern extreme of Francis Bay and back. We believe the course is about a mile and half or maybe a little more. Today we were joined by Sam from Pond Bay. Anyone who wants to join us is welcome and can do as little or as much of the course as they want.
Sea Turtle
Maho Bay: The Place to Find Sea Turtles
On the first leg of the swim along the Maho Bay shoreline, we saw turtles, just like last week and the week before. And I mean lots of turtles, I counted twelve today. There are several small ones some medium sized and one big mama turtle. I believe she’s a mama because she has two little ones following after her most of the time. They are Green Sea Turtles and are most commonly are around the grassy areas just about ten yards off shore.
Anyway, I know a lot of visitors like to see turtles. If you do, Maho Bay is the place to find them know. You can’t miss. Just snorkel around the grassy areas around the middle of the beach and look around.
The Rocky Point Between Big and Little Maho
The large rocks around the point between the two Mahos are a good place to see fish, especially these large schools of bright yellow French Grunts. There’s also some nice sponges, sea fans and some coral.
Francis Bay
Francis Bay: An Active Hunting Ground
At the northern end of Francis Bay we are seeing a lot of activity. Fry of different sizes, some rather tiny, some sardine size and some larger sprat sized ones abound and all the usual suspects are ready for the feast. Lurking on the outskirts of the schools of fry are the predators, jacks, Spanish mackerel, barracudas and tarpons darting into the masses of fry while from the air pelicans swoop down grabbing mouthfuls of fish. None of these guys seem to pay any attention at all to the two big fish, Chelsea and I, swimming in the middle of all of this commotion.
Back to Maho We return to Maho Bay good and tired after the swim. Feels good!
Strange Maho Bay Fauna
Sunday morning Maho Bay fauna almost always includes a sub species of human beings called physical fitness fanatics. Today, of course there were Sam, Chelsea and I and we saw Miles Stair taking a swim after his morning run. Last Saturday we bumbed into Hank Sloddin who does a cross country Sunday run starting at Maho, on to the Leinster Bay Trail, the Johnny Horn Trail over to Coral Bay and then up Kings Hill Road and back down to Maho. Talk about eight tough miles! Also last week we say Pat Mahoney, who was finishing up a twelve mile run. There’s always someone we know. Something about Maho Bay Sundays.
On St. John, we have a lot of options when it comes to going to the beach. Some have facilities and some don’t. Some attract tourists in taxi-vans and some are rarely visited except by locals. Some can be reached by walking just a few yards from your vehicle and some can only be reached by walking trail.
That is, if you’re coming by land, but what about those that arrive by sea?.
In order to protect the undersea grasslands that have been decimated by anchors over the years, the National Park has instituted rules concerning anchoring at National Park park beaches. Generally speaking, anchoring is prohibited within the boundaries marked off by the white swim swim buoys that can be found at almost all the beaches. Small craft may enter these bays through the channel marked by the red and green buoys to pick up or discharge passengers, but cannot anchor within that area. Boats must either be hauled up onto the beach or moored or anchored outside the protected area, in which case you’ll either have to swim in or catch a ride. (leaving the dinghy operator with no other choice but to swim or stay aboard)
But hauling a boat up on the beach is problematic for all but the smallest dinghies. Most dinghies are simply too heavy to pull up to a safe distance on the beach where waves and tides will not threaten to take the craft back out to sea, minus captain and crew.
It used to be so convenient. If you had a small boat you could anchor in sand near the beach and have easy safe access. But boaters who would lay their anchors in the seagrass beds, ruined it for the rest and now no one can anchor right off the beach.
One Exception
A little known fact is that there is one National Park beach where you can still anchor close in. And its a beautiful coral sand, north shore, palm tree lined beach to boot. That beach is Little Cinnamon and it’s the only one of its kind on the north shore. Pull right up to beach and set your anchor, but be sure to watch out for patches of reef lying near the shore.
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