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Sign Nine

Sea Fan

Sign Ten

Turnaround	Sign Eleven	Sign Twelve
Sign Thirteen	French Grunt	Sign Fourteen
Sign Fifteen	Sea Urchin Sign

More Trunk Bay Snorkel Images

Black Ball Sponge

Blue Bell Tunicate

Feather Duster Worm

Trunk Bay Snorkel Trail

Just off the east end of Trunk Bay is a small island called Trunk Cay. On the west side of the island the Virgin Islands National Park (VINP) has created a snorkeling trail for visitors to this the most popular beach on St. John.

Trunk Cay

I revisited the snorkel trail a few days ago with an underwater camera at my side and the following is a recap of my snorkel adventure and what waits in store for others planning to see for themselves.

Trunk Bay Snorkel Trail Experience

Beginning of the trail

The first sign is located under the red buoy just off the beach on the west side of Trunk Cay. The next sign is informational. Follow the arrows or the orientation of the signs to reach the next one in the series.

Directions

Sign Three

Please Don’t Touch or Stand on the Coral

The third sign is there to warn those that don’t know any better not to touch the coral. Even light touches can be damaging and in these days of extra warm waters, which have resulted in the kill off of the symbiotic algae that nourishes the coral, corals are more susceptible than ever to disease. Also worth mentioning is that touching the coral often leads to flesh wounds that take some time to heal.

Sign Four	Sign Five
Yellowtail Snapper	Sand Diver

Sign Six	Elkhorn Coral
Star Coral	Finger Coral

Sign Seven

Sign Eight

Parrotfish

It’s swim practice time so I can (theoretically) compete in the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park “Beach to Beach Power Swim.”

With this aspiration in mind, I drove out to Trunk Bay yesterday afternoon for a the first practice swim.

For those interested, late afternoon and early morning are the best times to enjoy Trunk Bay. There’s no fee involved because the National Park people are either not there yet or have gone home already and you’ll find the beach relatively empty, devoid of the taxi van loads of cruise ship people, the way a beautiful Virgin Islands beach should be, according to me.

The only downside is the lack of facilities, which are only available during the day, the only one I miss being the showers or at least the running water to get the sand off your feet. In order to mitigate this relatively minor inconvenience, I bring a bottle of water with me to serve this purpose, the shower stalls, although without running water, providing privacy in which to change into dry clothes.

Anyway, it’s just before sunset and I’m completing my second lap my swim from one end of the beach to another.

They say “one picture is worth a thousand words,” but finding myself without a camera or the talent needed to draw, I’ll have to use the proverbial one thousand words this time.

I’m at the west end of the beach near the rocks and as a pick my head up to take a breath I see what looks like two deer walking along the beach.

I stop swimming and look out at the scene. What appeared to be two deer walking along the beach was, in fact, two deer walking along the beach.

The late afternoon sunlight brought a softness to the vivid colors of the sea, the sandy beach and the palms on the shoreline. At the other end of the beach, a wedding was in progress, beautiful people gathered together watching the bride in her flowing white dress and the groom also dressed in white running down the beach, barefoot, hand in hand.

I stay still for a minute or two taking in the scene before continuing my late afternoon swim.

Trunk Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands (USVI)

Trunk Bay Overlook

Trunk Bay is the jewel of St. John’s Virgin Islands National Park. It’s got it all, incredible beauty, facilities, lifeguards, underwater snorkel trail. And if you would like to experience Trunk Bay, practically deserted and without paying a fee, just arrive early in the morning or late in the afternoon. See Trunk Bay – Google Map

Trunk Bay

Trunk Bay Trail
Years ago, my friend, John Gibney told me about this old trail that he remembered from his childhood that ran from Trunk Bay up to Centerline Road. I searched for it with him, but we never found it. To tell the truth I never really believed it existed until I was shown the old Oxholm Map of St. John in 1850, which clearly showed a road extending from Trunk Bay to what is now Centerline Road., but I was till convinced that it was irretrievably lost in the bush.

Not that long ago, another hiker, Bob Garrison, known as the Trail Bandit, told me that he was searching for that same trail. I warned him, that he was wasting his time. Gibney had been all through there and I had did a little exploring myself. “Not there,” I remember telling him.

But lo and behold, he found it,  and yesterday I walked that old road with Bob through the beautiful forest above Trunk Bay.

We headed into the bush just a little to the west of the large Trunk Bay ruin on the North Shore Road.

Just about 20 yards from the road we came to a small ruin that had been recently cleared.

Trunk Bay Ruin

Ruin	Stairs at Entrance

Continuing on we made our way further up the valley. The forest was cool and shady and had more guavaberry trees than I have seen anywhere and I made a mental note to pass through here in November when they bear the berries used to prepare guavaberry wine, preserves and pastries, traditional Virgin Islands Christmas treats.

At the higher elevations we started seeing more big trees such as the West Indian Locust or “stinking toe tree” and old gnarly hog plum trees. Also noteworthy were the large rock formations covered with lush anthuriums and bromiliads.

The old Danish road was well defined by the dry stacked stones that served as retaining walls for the track’s lower side. Although the trail could definitely use some work, It is a fairly comfortable hike, not too steep, shady and easy to follow, at least for now.

Trunk Bay Trail

Trail

Stone Wall

There was at least one point on the trail where with a little work, there could be a magnificent overlook. It can be appreciated somewhat right now, but that awesome full panorama view is obstructed by bush.

We continued up the valley until we reached a two foot high barb wire fence just before reaching Centerline Road. The  trail continues on the other side of fence, but runs through private property.

In order to stay on public land and rather than go back the way we came we took an intersecting side trail leading to the Susanaberg Road. This trail is in poor condition but we followed it anyway.

Being that the trail to Catherineberg is in even worse condition, I would suggest that unless things change, as they always do, that you enjoy the Trunk Bay Trail up to the top of the valley and then go back the way you came once you meet the fence.

The 1966 copy of VI View, lent to me by Maureen Anderson contained one of the chapters of Erva Boulon’s  book My Island Kitchen, which was published in its complete form in 1969..

In her blog, Random Thoughts, Bish Denham, Erva’s grand daughter, who grew up on St. John writes about her grandmother.

“…After World War II Grammy ran Trunk Bay as a guest house. She did it without electricity, cooking three meals a day for her guests. John Dos Passos, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer and his wife were among some of her more well-known guests. She gained the reputation for being a superior hostess and an excellent cook. Using local foods, she learned how to prepare them in ways that would please American taste buds. An article was written about her in the cooking section of the New York Times and she wrote a cook-book call My Island Kitchen. I loved having breakfast at her table because she would toast your bread on a charcoal pot set on a small table next to her chair….”

When Trunk Bay was sold to the Virgin Islands National Park, Erva moved over to Maho Bay with a new husband, Bill Thorp, and built another small guest house called “Lille Maho” next to the present Maho Campground, which she operated through the 1960s.

Trunk Bay Overlook

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!

The following story was told to me by a young doctor who used to practice in St. John here in the Virgin Islands:

One fine afternoon a man was taking a swim at Trunk Bay when, all of a sudden, he felt something go inside his ear. He swam to shore, stood on the sandy beach and tried to get it out.

He used all the everyday remedies that people use for this sort of problem. He tapped on the opposite side of his head with his hand. He jumped up and down while tilting his head to one side. He put his finger in his ear. All to no avail.

The feeling that the man had in his ear was causing him a great deal of discomfort. He could hear a kind of buzzing or scratching, and he had the distinct feeling that something was moving about in his inner ear.  He felt dizzy and nauseous. The man decided to seek medical attention and drove himself to the clinic.

The sensation the man was feeling became more and more disturbing, and by the time he was finally able to see the doctor, he was beside himself with nervousness and worry. His agitation had increased to such a degree that the attending physician was inwardly debating whether or not to sedate his nervous patient. He decided not to, and began his examination which quickly revealed the source of the problem; a small crab had taken refuge in the patient’s ear.

Now  those of you that like to swim at our  beautiful beaches must understand  that crabs don’t usually swim in people’s ears. It is, in fact, extremely rare, but this is exactly what happened to this unfortunate individual.

The knowledge of what was causing the problem did not serve to alleviate the man’s anxiety; it actually increased it. He began to plead with the doctor to “Please, please, hurry up and GET THAT CRAB OUT OF MY EAR!!!”

The doctor got to work. Armed with magnifying glasses, a special light and a medical tweezers he fished about in the man’s ear for the little crab. The patient squirmed, and the doctor exhorted him to “SIT?STILL!!” and, after what seemed like an eternity to the patient, the doctor was successful in removing the crustacean intruder.

“I’ve got it!” said the doctor.

“THANK GOD!” exclaimed his grateful patient.

“And here’s the culprit” said the doctor, as he put the captured crab on his hand and brought it into view for the man to see.

At this point something quite unexpected occurred. The crab did not hesitate for one moment. Just as soon as it was released from the grip of the tweezers, it jumped off the doctors hand, scurried up the man’s arm and leapt right back into his ear!

“What happened?”cried the man.

“OH NO!!! IT’S BACK IN MY EAR!!! GET IT OUT, PLEASE!!!”

After another fifteen minutes of crab hunting, and apologizing profusely to an extremely upset man, the doctor was finally able to recapture the crab.

This time he did not give it a second opportunity to escape.

Trunk Bay, St. John Virgin Islands

As an official baby when it comes to complaining about cold water temperature, at least for swimming, I hereby declare the beaches of St. John to be warm enough to enjoy a little soak now and then.

After returning from America, I bravely drove to Trunk Bay early this morning and took my first of the season one mile daily swim, of which I completed about 2/3 mile. The water was a bit chilly at first, but a whole lot warmer than just a month ago.

Speaking of this swim, a visit to Trunk Bay early in the morning or late in the afternoon before the tour busses have arrived with or after they’ve left is a such a delight that I would rank it right up there with the top pleasures of life. To “be here now” on this magnificent coral sand beach, with its crystal-clear water, tropical vegetation and incredible views – it’s hard to believe it’s not a dream.

So speaking to the Virgin Islanders who so often get caught up in everyday life and to those visitors who would make the effort, I say, check this one out, you’ll be glad you did!

Yesterday afternoon the fire dancers Brenda Sylvia, Chris Bailey and Corey White, returned to Trunk Bay for another video shoot. This time we were more prepared. I stood back and videoed on a wide angle using a tripod. I had the benefit of Bill Steltzer’s expertise and help in faring a whole lot better than the big zero I ended up with on Monday. Meanwhile Bill hand held the camera and shot close ups.

Brenda Sylvia, Chris Bailey & Corey White

The seas were calm and the afternoon light at trunk bay, as usual, was beautiful. The performers wore their black and white traditional costumes as opposed to the island look they had on Monday.

Next week, the plan is to get together with Bill and edit the videos from the two cameras.

The following links will take you to the my unedited videos. I present them here for those interested.

Monday Trunk Bay Fire Dance Video (1) Chris & Corey
Monday Trunk Bay Fire Dance Video (2) (Chris)

Wednesday Trunk Bay Fire Dance Video (1)
Wednesday Trunk Bay Fire Dance Video (2)
Wednesday Trunk Bay Fire Dance Video (3)
Wednesday Trunk Bay Fire Dance Video (4)
Wednesday Trunk Bay Fire Dance Video (5)