Keeping up with T&D on the Road: Atensa Otie Key

We've had a great 10 days in Cedar Key and have met some great people. We've shared a few meals, a few beers and a few "campfires". Although there is a community campfire ring, we have been sitting around a "campfire in a can".

It definitely has it's advantages over a regular campfire as there is no smoke to get in your eyes! And, at the end of the night, your clothes don't smell like a campfire. Charlie and Dot, who own the one we have been using, did the calculations comparing the cost of this ($100 or so) and the propane that it takes to run it vs buying firewood. They said that the campfire in a can is actually cheaper.

The weather here has been a mix of gorgeous, windy, and overcast and we've been trying to coordinate a kayak trip. Last Friday, we packed up and headed out to explore Atensa Otie Key. Atensa Otie Key is located in the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge consists of a number of islands ranging in size from 1 to 120 acres....totaling 762 acres. Atensa Otie is the most frequented island but there is also Deadman's Key (don't want to visit this one!), Snake Key (nor this one!) and Seahorse Key. I really would like to go to Seahorse Key but, it is quite a distance to paddle and it is closed to the public Mar 1-Jun 30 to protect the nesting birds.

We put the kayak in at the boat landing in downtown Cedar Key and off we went....

It took about 15 minutes to get to Atensa Otie. We had a very nice beach to dock at....

Atsena Otie (which incidentally used to be called Depot Key and then Cedar Key) provides a dock, interpretive information and a hiking trail that leads to a cemetery. Ruins from the Faber Pencil Mill (built in 1868) were also supposed to be visible near the dock. So off we were....

View on the way to the trail

Clear trails and wonderful woodsy feel!

We came across a few relics and couldn't distinguish what they were. We think this is an old windmill....in pieces!

After about 10 minutes, we came upon the cemetary...a very very old cemetery. Call me crazy but I am fascinated with old cemeteries and old churches.

Based on the marker at the entrance to the cemetary, there are about 38 graves. We walked around to check out the dates...

1835!

1861

The graves were all from people born in the early-mid 1800s. Part of the cemetary was fenced off...the fence was very intricate....

I guess I can add "old fences" to my list of things I like!!

On the way out of the cemetary, we saw this.....

This is a burial site of a Timucuan Indian. Carbon dating has indicates an age of at least 4000 years old! The little sign says that to these Indians, the Suwanee River was sacred to their Sun God. To them, the moon of the Suwanee put the colors of the rainbow into the earth. The Sun drew the colors out into the flowers. Pretty cool, huh?

We walked back to find a place to have our picnic lunch. Here's where we decided to enjoy our sammies!

We almost had the island to ourselves! There were a few people there that were waiting on one of the tourist-y shuttle boats to take them back to the mainland.

Once they left, we DID have the island to ourselves! It had a very cool Survivor-y feel to it!

After lunch, we went to check out the remnants of the Faber Cedar Mill Site. The mill produced the cedar slats for pencils.