Weekend Warrior: Riding and Chilling in Fort Pierce, FL

“Friday…the famous F word we thank God for every week.” ~Unknown



Need a getaway?  Yeah, me too!



Let’s face it…life is hectic.  An endless slurry of activities and deadlines, chores, responsibilities, traffic, and work.  And every Monday, it’s rinse-and-repeat.  The monotonous droll of it all is enough to send one to the liquor store on a regular basis.  But all that Monday to Friday slogging need not be for nothing!  Let’s make the most of what we have from Friday afternoon until Monday morning.  Let’s suck the marrow out of the precious little time we are allotted to really make it count.  Let’s be Weekend Warriors!



I religiously try to follow that mantra every weekend.  This weekend’s destination?  Ft. Pierce, FL.  Hmm…Ft. Pierce, Ft. Pierce…what exactly is in Ft. Pierce that should be familiar or famous or exceptionally enticing, you ask?  It is actually what ISN’T in Ft. Pierce that makes it extraordinarily appealing.  I spend (too) much of my time in a metropolis.  And that same metropolitan crowd has the same Saturday and Sunday off that I do.  So that tends to lead to crowds at the weekend spots, even out on the water.  It gets old, and it gets loud, and it eventually gets stale.  It was time to go where the people weren’t…but where the riding and scenery and true beachy vibe are.



A world of beers in a tiny general store!

 I am fortunate to have a friend who owns a family beach house on Hutchinson Island, just a quick trip over the bridge from downtown Ft. Pierce.  And by downtown, I mean a quaint, low-key, modest but still well-maintained central business district that boasts a beautiful marina lined with charter fishing boats and luxury yachts, tiki bars, a pleasant public waterfront, and a number of locally owned and operated restaurants and shops.  Among my absolute favorite is the P.P. Cobb General Store, a fixture in town since 1896.  Today it is home to a quirky and delicious gourmet delicatessen that also sells an eclectic variety of souvenirs and antiques.  But best of all, this tiny store stocks over 500 varieties of beer from around the world, as well as an impressive collection of hard-to-find sodas and ginger beers, and the owner personally has tried every last one and can provide colorful and accurate reviews of anything in the store.



Access to paradise



State Road A1A (Florida’s beach boulevard for most of the state) through Ft. Pierce is light on traffic and heavy on appeal…there are miles and miles of easily accessible beachfront along several stretches of undeveloped nature preserves. And where there are homes, they blend pleasantly with the littoral surroundings.  There is not a highrise in site.  Down by the Ft. Pierce inlet jetty, there is a small collection of quintessential beach town restaurants, one of which was opened by a local surfer who previously traveled the world in search of the finest surf, and made a viable income cooking for the surfers that frequented the best wave towns.  And of course there are kayak rental shops and biker bars.  But best of all, there was an impressive selection of FREE public boat ramps and very nice public parks along the waterfront.  The lack of crowds also means a lack of messy litter and parking shortages.  None of those things were an issue.  And I can promise you it will be hard to find a more friendly lot of locals anywhere in the state.



Endless mangrove trails



Getting out on the water is easy.  There is conveniently a nice park with a boat ramp right next to my friend’s beach house.  Saturday brought warm breezes and a good deal of sunshine.  After some breakfast beers and a double bacon sourdough sandwich, we were ready to launch.  Just north of Ft. Pierce inlet is a series of spoil islands (man-made islands composed of piled up dredge materials).  There are more of them than you have fingers and toes, and getting one all to yourself is almost guaranteed.  So we spent some leisurely time islet-hopping, wandering around their quiet shorelines, and exploring the interiors, many of which contained evidence of recent campfires, all while sipping on fine spiced rum.  But the aerial maps I had looked at before arrival promised many hidden passages into the endless maze of mangrove channels, often only accessible by shallow draft boat…or PWC!  We weren’t disappointed.  We followed several mangrove trails deep into the preserve, siting manatees along the way.  In one place we even found a well-hidden lagoon teeming with tiny fish leaping through the air.



Tranquil palm grove on a bay island



The afternoon wouldn’t be complete without a trip through the inlet to the open ocean.  On the way out the inlet, there was a small floating restaurant set up on a barge, accessible only by boat.

There was also a sand replenishment project going on, that entailed a gigantic 150’+ commercial vessel moored to a barge right at the edge of the jetty, pumping sand from the channel bottom up to waiting bulldozers, who then pushed the sand out to the storm-depleted beaches, widening them by several dozen feet.  Once we cleared the jetty, we were rewarded with some of the most amazing giant swells.  They were rolling in at a perfect clip for jumping and soaring, and great fun was had chasing the waves.



House of Refuge near Stuart, FL



The journey back southward on Sunday afternoon was an adventure itself…taking the beach roads much of the way back, and traveling through some towns I had never been to, like Jensen Beach and Stuart.  We stopped often on remote beaches, or anywhere else that looked appealing.  A stopover was also made at a Florida Heritage Site called the House of Refuge…a structure built in 1904 that served as a respite for shipwreck survivors along Florida’s east coast at the turn of the century.  The afternoon was baked to perfection after a randomly picked Japanese sushi restaurant turned out to be the best sushi I have ever had.  Who knew?

Coming back from a weekend of that much awesomeness sadly does make Monday a little more lackluster than normal.  But alas…the good news is, another weekend is only a few days away, and with it comes an opportunity for more adventure!  Don’t be the lame guy in the break room on Monday morning talking about how you pressure washed your deck and watched the game, and then despondently fell asleep on the recliner with orange-stained fingertips from the bag of cheetos you were attempting to gain nutrients from before passing out in a glory of orange drool.  Be the guy or gal with a ring of attentive listeners who regularly live vicariously through you!  Grab your ski and hit the road next weekend…warriors, unite!



Sunset over a gloriously unpopulated Hutchinson Island