A Day Late or Short One- MD Challenge Day 2 Part 2

Continued from A Day Late or Short One- MD Challenge Day 2 Part 1


Here's a photo of the Lens in Hooper Strait Lighthouse-




Here's a photo of the Fog Bell tower originally at Point lookout. It's on the grounds of the Chesapeake Maritime Museum right next to Hooper Strait Lighthouse.




We left the Museum and decided to take a ride over to Tilghman Island. It was a good decision- we got to see another new Lighthouse for us- Sharp's Island.

If you drive down to the very end of RT 33 which goes from St michaels to Tilghman Island you get a distant view (about 3 miles) of Sharps Island Lighthouse.

I was driving along and noticed this object out in the water that had a strange slant to it. I thought it might be a Lighthouse but wasn't sure. I parked at the end of the road near a Observation Post of some sort and took a closer look with my binoculars and lo and behold it was a Lighthouse. I couldn't remember the name of it, but I knew I had seen photos of it before.

I took this photo- at maximum zoom (equvilent of 350mm). It's not a great photo but you can see it.



We drove back to St Michaels and stopped to eat at a restaurant called Chesapeake Landing. If you are in the area stop there- the food is plentiful and good and the prices are not bad.

Dennis

continued in The Day After The Challenge

http://www.lighthousekeepers.com/forums/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=000874

Ah Dennis, memories of our Reunion lighthouse tour with St John. Surprised by all the separate admissions? Did you guys do that at the NJ Challenge? Good topic for our LI meeting. Thanks for the narrative and pics.
Bob

Bob,

Fortunately most of the Lighthouses in the NJ Challenge do not have set admissions or have agreed to let people who are doing the Challenge to get the card for thst specific Lighthouse without paying an admission.

You pay a fee for climbing or touring at Cape May, East Point, Hereford Inlet, Tinicum Rear Range and Absecon

There is still the request for donations, but that at least isn't mandatory. It can get a bit pricey with a large group of people.

I'd say that if you can get the places in long Island to waive fees for those who don't want to actually climb it would be a help in your Challenge.

At the very least if possible people should be able to get their token without having to pay whenever possible.

Dennis

Dennis, the costs of our Challenge is at the top of the list to be address for next year.

Joyce

As I recall, last year we didn't have to pay an entrance fee at Point Lookout Park. Hooper did have a reduced fee as long as you didn't start there. The ones you could understand a fee for were Cove Point, where they had to rent buses, and Turkey Point where they also had to rent buses (but I think they used a donation jar).

Some of the lights do need to get on board with the concept of the weekend - let's get people interested in lighthouses. Reducing or waiving admission fees will help this along.

Thanks for taking us along on your adventure, Dennis. Brings back memories of a fun challenge last year.

Joyce,

I hope it didn't come off as a complaint. I'm sure it's one reason some people don't do it, though.

We're lucky in NJ that most don't have an admission fee to begin with, or the token can be given out easily without having to pay the fee.

The challenge with doing that with the MD Challenge is the fact that so many of the Lighthouses are located inside a Museum or Park.

I hope you can find a solution to that part of it.

Dennis

Dennis, you were not the only one to mention the high fees. We also heard from some people that they would not do it again because of the costs. We tried to get the fees down, but with recovering from Isabel they would not budge as they needed the funds. We hope we have better luck in lowering them next year.

Joyce

Joyce,

You mention a good point- many of these places got hit hard by Isabel last year and I can understand their reluctance to lower their fees .

Hopefully next year it can be gotten across that a small loss on one weekend can bring in revenue many times over after that weekend.

The idea behind these Challenges is to get people interested in the Lighthouses specifically- but if you get them out to a State Park or Museum they haven't been to previously it might spark some interest in that Park or Museum for the future.

I know it's hard to get people to see the big picture when the coffers are low.

Dennis

Isabelle hit all of out here in MD pretty hard especially in Havre de Grace, Solomons, and St. Michaels areas for light. Navy Point took on some damage, but CBMM was repairing the damage there on top of building the new building at Navy Point, the challenge is a good way for a mass influx on people who otherwise normally would not visit the facility.

A good number of our lights had no admission until the last year or so to offset damage costs. But since the attacks a lot of our tourism here in the Maryland-DC area took a beating and the money had not been so strong, the lighthouse challenge allowed for a few of the lights I've worked for to recoup slightly with the two day influx in visitors.