Welcome back!

As promised here are some more photos of the overlooks recently cleared by Jeff Chabot and his crew of intrepid volunteers. From those of us who hike the trails of St. John:

THANK YOU!!!

View from the Bench on Caneel Hill

The Caneel Hill Bench

View from the Caneel Hill bench

Hikers following the Caneel Hill Trail beginning from the National Park Visitors Center in Cruz Bay or from the Caneel Hill Spur will arrive at a wooden bench just before they reach the summit of Caneel Hill. There is now a view from this very welcomed resting spot that at least for the view to the north goes, rivals the view from the viewing tower at the summit. This thanks to the hard work and dedication of the trail crew from the Appalachian Mountain Club.

St. John Blues Festival

“The hottest blues festival on the coolest Caribbean island”

Wednesday – March 17th through Sunday – March 21st

The main show is Saturday evening March 20th – 7:00 PM in the Coral Bay Ball Field

STARRING

The Deanna Bogart Band – The Ford Blues Band – EG Kight
JP Soars & The Red Hots – JT Lauritsen – Shakura S’Aida
Billy Gibson – The Ty Curtis Band – Washboard Jo

TICKETS PURCHASED IN ADVANCE ARE $25 (TICKETS PURCHASED AT THE SHOW ARE $30)

TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE

On St. John at:
Connections – Cruz Bay
Connections – Coral Bay
Chelsea Drugs – The Marketplace

On St. Thomas at:
Chelsea Drugs – Red Hook

Food & Beverage Service Available all evening long
So bring a blanket, bring a chair, but please be cool………..no coolers

$5 Safari taxi rides all night from Cruz Bay to Coral Bay Ball Field & back to Cruz Bay

Special 1:00 AM Passenger Ferry from Cruz Bay to Red Hook

For additional information go to stjohnbluesfestival.com
or contact Steve Simon at 340-643-6475 or at
stevesimonlive@yahoo.com

I woke up yesterday morning to a heavy squall, thunder and lightning. I was looking forward to taking my son, Jacob, to the big Just Play happening at the Sprauve School ballpark. I was hoping that the weather would improve and wondering if the event would be canceled.

Meanwhile the organizer of the event, Dean Doeling, was probably also hoping that the weather would improve, but there was no way that he was going to consider cancellation. Like the US Post Office motto, “neither rain, sleet, snow or gloom of night” was going to keep Just Play from happening.

The weather did improve and Jacob and I made it down to the ball field just in time for the singing of the National Anthems and the Virgin Islands March.

As it turned out, despite the muddy field, the first annual Just Play event was a resounding success. It was just plain fun! You could see it on the faces of everyone there, not only the kids, but also the organizers and volunteers, were having a blast.

The kids were separated into age groups for competitions like the 50 Yard Dash, Football Throw, Soccer Kick For Accuracy, Obstacle Course, Dodge Ball, Tug Of War, Relay Soccer Race and  Kick Ball.

In addition to the games there was music, demonstrations, prizes, free gifts, food and drinks.

Just Play was organized and supported by Sport for Social Change, Nike, the St. John Community Foundation, the Virgin Islands Department of Housing, Parks and Recreation as well as by several local businesses.

The youth (of all ages) of St. John will be looking forward to next years replay.

Way to go, Dean! Thank you!

The Maria Hope Road opens up a lot of hiking possibilities for those who wish to hike between St. John’s north shore and the mountain ridge area (Centerline Road). It’s also a beautiful trail running down the Maho Bay Valley in a tropical forest environment of beautiful trees like bay rum, guavaberry, hog plum and West Indian locust (Stinking Toe Tree). There’s also some nice overlooks with views of West End Tortola and Big and Little Maho Bays.

Maria Hope Road Images

Maho Bay View	Tortola View
Hog Plum	Bay Rum Stand

Sunrise Over Chocolate Hole

Last night was flashing lightning and booming thunder, shaking the house, but leaving a spectacular sunrise.

Erika Rainbow

Erika had even lost her tropical storm status as she passed way to our south as a mere tropical depression. Yesterday was cloudy, windy with occasional squalls. This morning the skies are still cloudy.

Just before sunset an approaching squall gave us this spectacular double rainbow.

St. John US Virgin Islands
Press Relase

Steve Simon Presents:

Bluzapalooza

BLUZAPALOOZA V

The Pizza & Pyramid Tour
October 21 through November 1, 2010

Starring Zac Harmon with Special Guests Deanna Bogart, Terry “Harmonica” Bean and Steve Simon, this 10 day tour includes a show at the U.S. Naval Base in Sicily, Italy and then on to Cairo, Egypt for command performances at the Pyramids, The  Cairo Opera House and the Cairo – American University.

For further information contact Steve Simon at 340-643-6475 or at stevesimonlive@yahoo.com
Check out www.myspace.com/bluzapalooza

The Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park have just completed their project of a handicap accessible boardwalk running along the salt pond at Francis Bay. It’s really a great thing, not just for the handicapped, but also for the general public and the environment.

Now people in wheelchairs can have the opportunity to go “off road” on St. John, to experience the mangrove forest and salt pond environment and to be able to engage in bird watching, safely and comfortably.

The boardwalk, which runs above ground eases the problem that often plagued this particular section of the trail, which was that after strong rains the trail would become flooded and  muddy. The elevation of the boardwalk is also sound environmentally as it allows wildlife to be able to pass underneath naturally, unrestricted by the trail.

An early morning trail walk
Wanting to check out the new project, I took a walk on the trail early in the morning. I parked the car near the stone building at the intersection of the Leinster Bay Road and the Maho Bay Campground access road and began my walk.

The Francis Bay Trail is probably the easiest trail  walk on St. John. It’s only a little more than a quarter mile long, there’s only one small hill to climb and the trail itself is in excellent condition, cleared and smoothed.

At the top of the trail’s only hill are two benches where you can sit and observe the activity in the salt pond below. There’s also a great view of the St. John coast and the islands and cays looking to the west. The trail descends from there to the beach at Francis Bay. Here you’ll come across some tall tamarind trees and the footing for what must have been a dock sometime ago. You can access the beach from here or continue along the trail which now runs through the mangrove forest right alongside the Francis Bay Salt Pond.

After about twenty yards or so you’ll come across a wooden bench strategically placed to observe the pond. Continuing along the trail you come to the new boardwalk, which runs from there to where the trail exits near the Francis Bay Beach. The boardwalk includes a bench  and a pier that juts out into the pond from where you can have an excellent view of the birds and ducks and crabs that frequent this environment.

So if you suffer from a handicap that limits your ability to walk, if you like bird watching, if you want to experience a salt pond or would just like to see some of the off the beaten track areas of St. John with a minimum of exertion, this is the trail for you.

an old residence on the trail	benches on hilltop overlooking the pond	a nicely cleared mostly level trail
Francis Bay Beach	bench overlooking the Francis Bay Salt Pond	handicap access boardwalk
handicap access bench	handicap access pier	doves at pond

Maho Bay

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.

Little Cinnamon, a beach for small boats

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.

Click for more information about Little Cinnamon Beach