viewtopic.php?f=57&t=2021&p=34181&hilit=Portsmouth+island#p34181
My wife and I have been talking about it off and on for awhile and when our other vacation plans this summer didn't work out, we booked this trip.
The Ferry for our TB and 3 people was right about $125.
If you like the idea of a place where you can fish, enjoy the beach (surf or sound), the kids can play and you want to be away from the crowds, this is a great trip. We stayed 4 nights and rented one of the cabins. I would have loved to try to tent camp there but the idea of bad weather coming when you can't just pack up and leave was a little more than I wanted to risk, especially on our first trip.
The cabins are little duplexes that are step above tent camping but picky women might not be able to handle it. The cabins rent for about $90 per night.
They have running water, toilets, showers and lights, gas stoves and kitchen counter tops.
They are old and with beach sand blowing in them all the time they aren't real clean. They are so close to the ocean that at high tide you can see ocean spray on the window screens.
They do not have refrigerators and most do not have AC.
With the windows open and the breeze blowing they weren't too hot.
I asked the the park ranger about bringing a little dorm sized fridge and she said that there likely wasn't enough current to run it. They have had folks running a hair dryer and a griddle throw the breaker. She also let me know that the breaker is in a locked room between the two rooms and a ranger would have to reset the breaker.
Packing enough food and supplies in the TB for 4 people for 4 nights was quite a challenge, especially with all the fishing gear and beach supplies the kids might need.
The only thing you can buy on the island is ice and fuel($5 per gal).
here is a pic coming over on the ferry.
It looks like you could fit about 5 full size trucks on there.
here is a side view of the cabin.
there is a trail that runs kind of in the middle of the island behind the dunes. There are about 18 miles of this trail with ramps onto the beach about every 1/2 mile.You can ride most of the island on this trail. The north end of the island begins at ramp 1a and then 1/2 mile later ramp 1b etc. The cabins are at about the 16 mile mark, 2 miles from the south end of the island.
It is more interesting riding on the trail than the beach but you run much slower.
here is a pic to try to give some perspective on the variations in the trail. I actually bumped one of my skid plates pretty good coming back up one of these hills. I'm not sure a stock truck could get through some parts of the trail.
There is an abandoned village at the north end of the island that we were headed to when we came up on this washout at about 4 miles from the north end of the island, I think this was ramp 4B. The sand was deep on both sides of the washout so we didn't risk it and backtracked to get around it on the beach side.
We went about 2 more miles and met one of the biologists who was blocking off access to a part of the island. She said with all the recent rain that we couldn't get to the village without wading through a few hundred yards of mosquito infested flooded back country. We could only go from this point on the beach front and the tide was rising so we turned back to try again later in the week.
The first night we were there was a super moon, it was too cloudy to get a pic early in the night when it was larger.
We also got a few sunrise pics on the morning we were leaving.
We never did make it back to the village, we made another attempt on our last full day but at the entrance of the road to the village was a really steep hill that was really sandy and I just wouldn't risk it with the family and the nearest help 15 miles away. We did venture to the northern tip of the island and it was the prettiest part of the island. We bumped into one group of fisherman and of course they were having much better luck than we had or anyone else we had talked with, I even picked up a few tips that helped me later that day. The water at the north end of the island was a lot clearer and bluer than at the southern end where we spent much of our time. We'll spend more time up there next his was right after we talked to the biologist and turned around. You can see the tidal pool to the left and the rising tide to the right, we didn't want to risk it.
here is a random pic from the south point of the island. At low tide we waded across the inlet to another island that no one can get to except by boat. We found some awesome shells there!
I was really pleased with how well my Toyos performed in the sand, even stopping in the deep sand I was able to move well. I had aired down to about 25lbs and could have a good bit more but it wasn't really needed.
I'll have to admit, I was a little down that I didn't finish getting my axles and lockers installed before the trip. Next time we'll be back with those and 33s and get to see the village and spend more time at the north end of the island.
