Kayaking and camping - Horn Island, Mississippi

Stretching from Lake Borgne to the west, and Mobile Bay to the east, there are 6 offshore barrier islands separating the Mississippi Sound from the Gulf of Mexico. From the west, the first is Half Moon (also labeled Grand Island), then Cat Island, Ship Island (now two separate islands), Horn Island, Petit Bois Island, and then Dauphin Island in Alabama. I'm not counting Deer Island as an offshore island since it's so close to the mainland, but it does make for a great paddle also:
http://www.southeasternlouisianapaddling.com/2016/04/kayak-around-deer-island.html

Each island is very different, and you should research each paddle to each island individually, with regards to seasonal info, conditions, allowable landing areas and allowable camping areas.

By the way, various restoration projects are underway affecting these islands, and I hear talk of Ship Island being restored to one piece.

This post is about kayaking to Horn Island, and in particular, kayak camping on Horn Island, Mississippi.

Before I even get started actually describing the trip and island, I have to do this:

The main reason I haven't posted anything about kayaking to these islands yet is that I fear that I could be giving the wrong person an idea for a potentially dangerous paddle. Also, I have not done many trips out to these islands yet (to be continued), so I almost don't feel qualified to write about it.

To be blunt: people have died paddling out into the Mississippi Sound in the wrong kayak and with inadequate skills and/or knowledge. There are so many considerations that any list I make would be very long, and still fall short. So I'm not going to do a long warning section here. I will say this, and move on:

Before you decide to kayak across a large body of water, beyond your comfortable swimming distance, where large and very large vessels cross,  and where weather could change, you need to put aside any cockiness and really make sure you're ready.  And go with others who have already gone. This post is NOT a how-to. It's a "where-I've-been". I would consider it semi-risky for me to kayak to Horn alone--just because of how many "what-if's" I am not prepared for. For example, I'm not very good at getting back in my kayak from the water alone(self-rescue), so what if I flip in big waves or the wake of a fast moving yacht?  Go with someone (or better, a group) who's been and has rescue and open water experience and training. And it'll be a great kayak  trip.

Okay, about the trip options and the island: 

Horn Island is really a beautiful place to explore and camp. It's a barrier island, so it's beaten and rugged. But it's a beautiful sliver of a beach--one side on the Sound, and one side on the Gulf, with trails connecting the two sides. The dunes make great camping bowls, and the "interior" has some lagoons and ponds, and gators. Raccoons should be expected. It's a fun place to explore, take pictures, and just check out from the rest of the world. Needless (?) to say, it's all primitive.

On each of my trips, 2 paddles there and 2 paddles back, I learned and relearned how paddling several miles across tidal currents, even mild ones, is not simply a matter of picking a point and paddling towards it. In the Mississippi Sound, the tidal currents actually have an east-west/west-east flow, and if you look at a couple of my route pictures below, you'll see that we drifted and had to correct--yet another reason to paddle with experienced sea kayakers. The crossing out to Horn Island is between 7 and 9 miles, depending on your launch spot and landing spot. In the first trip I describe here, the actual "straight line" crossing was probably just over 7 miles, but we drifted far enough west as we crossed that we paddled perhaps a mile east along the northern shore of the island to get to our camping spot. For the second trip I describe below, the crossing to the northern shore was very close to 8 miles, and then we paddled a little more than 2 miles to round the island and find a good spot to camp.

By the way, it's very common to see dolphins nearby on these trips. 

Horn Island is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, run by the National Park Service, and there is a ranger station on the island. The ranger may very well stop and visit to make sure everything is okay and as it should be.  On the first of my two trips, she did stop by and checked out where we were building our fire, for example. Our next trip was during a government shutdown, otherwise she probably would have visited us then. Remember, you're likely building one of the only fires on the island--she'll probably know you're there. 

Here's a great reference map I found through Google:

As of this writing (Jan 2019), I've paddled to Horn Island twice--Once in November and once in January. These were both camping trips, so we chose winter months(this is the south--freezes aren't common). BUGS are way up on the list of reasons why winter is best for camping on these islands. Even in that January trip--it had been a mild winter so far--mosquitoes were collecting in/around the tents. Of course, this is a barrier island, so you should always expect a good breeze which could make the bugs less annoying. In fact, plan on windchill on your winter trips.

Before landing, and especially before camping on Horn Island, do your homework. Much of the island is off limits for environmental reasons---some good (bird nesting), and some bad(hazardous materials). On both of my trips, I went with people with knowledge and experience, and they picked our spots. I do have some general info links below.

We camped in areas with ample firewood. In one case, the group knew the area already. On the other trip, our trip leader landed and scouted around once or twice before we picked our spot.

One of my trips left from Ocean Springs and camped on the north side of the island on the Mississippi Sound beach, and on another, we left from Pascagoula, paddled to the eastern tip of the island, took a snack break, and then continued around to the southern side and camped facing the Gulf of Mexico.

I'll describe each trip separately:

My first trip was the one from Ocean Springs to the north side of the island. We parked along the edge of Belle Fountain Drive, next to a small sandy launch spot:

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3427541,-88.7079043,120m/data=!3m1!1e3

Here's a Google Maps image of our start and finish:
From here, we paddled "straight" across(with a western drift from the tidal currents), about 7 miles to the island, then followed its northern edge east a mile or two until we reached the camping spot my friends were familiar with. In the image below, don't be fooled: We did paddle all the way back, but my old GPS died.

It's reasonably safe to assume you'll have a calmer beach landing on the north side of the island, versus the Gulf side, and our paddle along the northern shore to our campsite was very easy. On this day, the water was very shallow and calm:

On this side of the island, in November, the sun sets across the island. But even though you won't get water sunsets from this beach, you'll still get great shots. Or it's a short walk across the island if you do want to see the sun melt into the water.

You do get really great sunrises:

On our January 2019 trip, we left from the Beach Park Fishing Pier in Pascagoula, bypassed Round Island on the way out, and paddled straight to Horn. The incoming/flood tide was pushing us west a little, but our trip leader kept us on track.

Here's our launch and return:

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3450181,-88.5624872,73m/data=!3m1!1e3

And the trip out as recorded by my Garmin:

We took a short break on the northern side of the eastern tip before heading out into the gulf.

As we rounded the eastern tip to the gulf side, we did get to play in some fairly light surf. We had frequent 2'-3' incoming waves across our beam, swelling up and breaking as they approached the island. Many of these waves really did swell up just a few feet to our left/south and would often break just as they crossed us. It was a fun guessing game--you had to pay attention and be ready to react. It slowed some of our crew down quite a bit, but my kayak seemed to enjoy it.

On our return trip, we did stop at Round Island for a snack. The incoming tide on this day was a bit stronger, and we had to pay attention to our landmarks and GPS to stay on course. By the way, 9 of us did this trip, but four of us had to leave a day early. One of our four, Maarten, kept us straight on track, and I honestly believe it was his skill and experience that kept us from drifting west and paddling more than we wanted. As I said at the beginning--skill, knowledge, and experience really matter in long, open water paddles.

On this trip, we had dolphins tagging along for part of the trip, and we watched them playing just a few hundred yards from our campsite in the morning.

Here are just a few pictures from the island on this trip:

The slight curve of the island gave our campsite a great "melting into the water" sunset:

 And a great "out of the water"sunrise:

Packing up to return home (easier with less water and food than the trip out):

And lets see how long this link works:
https://www.facebook.com/chet.jaynes/videos/10212823878969849/?t=7                                           

Obviously, there's a special appeal to paddling a few miles out to a primitive island and camping, and Horn Island is a great distance for a good paddle, and just a great island for an escape. As we setup camp in January, we did have company on the island--a couple walked past us, and we saw folks on the north side as we walked around. But these folks were in motor boats and gone by nightfall. So this is not your typical campground camping!


Here are some info links:

https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2006/5287/pdf/Miss_Sound_Gulf%20Islands.pdf

http://mscoastbirdingtrail.audubon.org/barrier-island-sites.html

https://www.outdoorhub.com/stories/2018/06/29/explore-mississippis-unspoiled-barrier-islands/