Guest Author - Jessica Hoffmann
When you hop on the boat for the ten minute ride into Mosquito Creek to the Lodge at Little St. Simons Island, you can leave behind your cell phone, your fancy clothes and your worries. From the moment you arrive on the simple boat dock, the staff ensures all your needs are met as you explore the 10,000 acre lodge and preserve.
A quick orientation in the Hunting Lodge introduces you to the island’s history. Brief stints at oyster, rice, and cotton cultivation eventually gave way to the island being sold in 1908 to the Eagle Pencil Company. However, the island’s cedar trees proved to be too twisted to serve for pencil making, and Philip Berolzheimer soon fell in love with the island’s tranquility and purchased it from his own company for personal use.
Since the early 1900’s, the island has been carefully preserved and the current owners have continued the legacy of rustic, private retreats. Since 1979, public visitors have had several lodging options to choose from, ranging from a cozy room in the Hunting Lodge to the riverfront Helen House, a tabby cottage built in 1928. The River Lodge and Cedar House both offer more updated amenities and are tucked quietly on the edge of the river with expansive porches.
We stayed in the Helen House, with its chapel-like living room and inviting stone fireplace. The wood beams throughout the house and the well-worn, but elegant décor make guests feel at home instantly.
Our first adventure entailed a bike ride to the beach, which is two miles from the heart of the Lodge on Mosquito Creek. The beach was completely void of people and buildings, though a small shed supplies guests with bug spray, sunscreen, towels, chairs and bocce ball. With a maximum of 32 guests, a delicious and contagious feeling permeates, making visitors feel like the island is for you only.
We soon pedaled back in time for the lunch bell, and devoured spice-rubbed ribs with local collard greens and homemade beans and slaw. By afternoon, we paddled further up Mosquito Creek to explore the marsh. Enormous, moss flanked live oak trees anchor the creek banks, sometimes with gnarled and exposed roots breaking through the sandy soil. Thanks to careful preservation of the island, over 280 species of birds swoop, fish and peer at you along the reedy waters.
Evening kicked off an oyster roast, which was a great opportunity to meet other guests and wash down the bottle of champagne we found on ice in our rooms. All meals at Little St Simons Island are served family style, and we all swiftly cleaned our plates, leaving no trace of the halibut with triple onion sauce or the eggplant mashed potatoes. We grabbed a glass of wine to go and lounged the evening away with a hearty fire in the Helen House living room.
Saturday morning, I headed out for a pre-breakfast run to the beach, encountering birds, ducks, hawks, raccoons and armadillos. The true wildlife bounty came when I went on a birding tour of the north end of the island. We peaked at a Bald Eaglet in its enormous nest, baby alligators sunbathing around their mother and American Coots sharing the tidal duck marsh with pelicans, loons, and geese.
We pedaled out to our afternoon picnic at the South End, along Mosquito Creek. The Seafood Broil overflowed with local shrimp, scrumptious sausage and juicy corn cobs, while decadent brownies finished the meal despite increasing winds gusting off the water. Our next meal was another hit- lowcountry crabcakes with buerre blanc sauce and organic vegetables from the garden, although we had fallen prey to some afternoon snacking on the homemade trail bars. Suffice it to say that guests are well fed and well acquainted by the end of their stay.
Each day’s activities are ever changing, allowing seclusion for bookworms and robust hikes and trails for those who never sit still. Consider time at the Lodge at Little St Simon like a sophisticated adult summer camp, with as many optional activities as you could possibly need. Cool spring weather kept us from swimming at the beach or the pool, yet the waterways and trails took center stage.
Before leaving on Sunday, I caught a glimpse of a white, European fallow deer, which was originally introduced for hunting purposes and has continued to thrive on the island. I also visited Norman the alligator at Norman’s Pond and saw some of the most dense, enormous, and cryptic Live Oaks I have ever seen along the Marsh Road.
Lucky for us, this island has been carefully preserved, and visitors can experience the bounty of wildlife and plants that thrive throughout the island. The Altamaha River continues to add silt to the north end of the island as it spans throughout Georgia, and meets the Atlantic Ocean, merging with an ever changing the beach landscape.
Every member of the LSSI staff was incredibly helpful and knowledgeable, accommodating but engaging. It is difficult to step back onto the boat to return to normal life, but the 10 minute ride across the breezy water gives you plenty of time to dream up an excuse to return to the Lodge at Little St Simons Island.
