Beach Camping with Wild Ponies

Well, that title pretty much sums up my last weekend. I know it sounds a little bizarre, but that's exactly what I did. It wasn't exactly something I'd ever thought of when moving to the DC area! Friday after work I drove up with my brother and some friends and we met at Assateague State park in Maryland. We had a little bit of trouble getting there due to some faulty directions, but we made it there just after midnight. Some of our group had left earlier in the day, so it was nice that camp was all set up when we got there. Although, that didn't mean we went to bed right away. The campground was just off the beach, so we walked down there in the moonlight and waded a bit. Assateague is an island famous for its wild ponies and we saw plenty of them that evening. Then we all stayed up talking until around 3. It made for a short night since the sun was up by 6 and I couldn't sleep much after that.


Saturday we spent the whole day at the beach from about 10 to 4. I LOVE the beach! I'd never really been to the beach until last year when I took a trip to Florida, but I discovered a love for it then and had a blast here too. I love getting out into the surf and riding the swells as they come in or swimming into the breakers. We didn't see many ponies in the morning (except for the one that walked into our campsite), but sticking with the pony theme, we buried Dan and made him into a sand centaur.

Rachel Atwood, Ryan Thomas, Ryan Nokes, Curtis Seare, & Marin Arnell with Dan as a centaur--I know its a bit difficult to see at this angle.)

Marin brought a boogie board that was a lot of fun. I'd never done one of those before but it was not too difficult to get the hang of and sometimes I could ride a wave all the way into the shore.

Later in the day some of the ponies walked right down onto the beach among all the people. Everyone was snapping pictures and they actually ended up staying down on the beach for quite a while. So apparently these wild ponies have been living on the island for quite a long time. They are pretty mangy actually because their diet on the island is very poor in nutrients, but since the ponies are wild, the park service doesn't really take care of them; they merely monitor them and make sure they are protected and that people don't disturb them.

Ryan Thomas, Marin Arnell, John Arnell, me, Dan, & Rachel Atwood

Although, I'm trying to figure out what exactly the "Pony Patrol" does.

(As a side note, all I was intending in this picture was to get a picture of the "pony patrol" vest because I thought it was funny. It was only after I took the picture I realized I also captured the "horseplay.")

We finished off the day building sandcastles...


...or rather, John and Dan built Egypt.