We’re an off-the-beaten-path sort of family, always seeking the hidden gems of whatever destination we’re visiting. St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands had been on our journey list for several years and we knew that, as national parkland, it would be the perfect place to find less traveled trails and secluded beaches. So when we decided to make St. John one of our summer vacation spots, my research lead me to Pam Gaffin, author of Feet, Fins and Four Wheel Drive and barefooted St. John tour guide extraordinaire.
Prior to landing in St. John in 1989, Pam traveled extensively. When I asked her from where she originally hailed, she replied, “Before I came to St John I wandered around the world, changing countries about every 3 to 6 months, doing all kinds of bizzare and wonderful jobs. I thought St John was just another stop along the way and much to my surprise, I never left!” And what a treat for both the St. John community and visitors to the island that she decided to make it her home.
Because I am a planner by nature, I ordered Pam’s fantastic book as soon as we booked our flights. The guide offers a comprehensive overview of many of the innumerable trails and beaches throughout St. John, as well as detailed island driving tours, funny anecdotes and tidbits of island lore. I studied the extensively prior to our trip, and was thrilled to see a note at the end in which Pam offers herself up for guided hiking and snorkeling tours to “nice people; no whiners please.” She seemed like my kind of lady.
So we decided to reach out to Pam to arrange for one of her guided hike/snorkel excursions and a couple of weeks before our trip I sent her this email:
Hi Pam! My family of 5 (husband and I plus our three girls 11, 9, & 7) will be in Coral Bay from 7/1-10 and would love to arrange a 4-hour tour with you. It’s our first time on the island and although I’ve read your fabulous book cover-to-cover, I’m not sure where we should plan to go with you.
We are avid hikers–the girls are all pretty strong hikers–but they don’t have any snorkeling experience. We’re going to try to suit them up in the pool here at home so they can give it a trial run before we’re in STJ. I’d love to do Annaberg and Waterlemon with you, though I’m not sure that will be too much swimming for the girls. Obviously I’ve read about how amazing Waterlemon is–is it worth it to snorkel there even if they aren’t strong enough to make it all the way around the cay?
So there’s my free association thinking for you! Let me know your thoughts and your schedule. We’ll likely do whatever you recommend!!
I heard back from Pam the very next day and she suggested we head out to the island’s East End to the Brown Bay trail where we could hike, see some cool ruins and go out for an easy snorkel around the reefs which were just off shore. She told us to wear our bathing suits and bring our snorkeling gear along with a snack and gave us detailed directions to the trailhead where we planned to meet a few days into our trip.
On the morning of our hike, we called her to let her know we were up and on our way (only a 5 or 10 minute drive from the house we were renting in Coral Bay) and set out very excited about the coming adventure. As someone who has run a family hiking group for several years, I am all about having the proper gear–especially footwear. I wasn’t used to letting my girls hike in just their bathing suits without any shorts or anything. I insisted they wear their good hiking sandals on the trail as I have a long-standing ‘no flip flops’ rule when there’s any sort of lengthy walking involved. They each carried their backpacks in which they held their towels and their snorkels and masks. Jon carried a bag with everyone’s fins and I was in charge of my own gear and the snacks and water.
Pam was far less encumbered, being only one person, wearing a short, blue sundress over her bathing suit and carrying a small, drawstring bag with her snorkeling gear. She offered to bring along some swim noodles for us to use when we snorkeled and we helped to carry those as well. The most surprising thing, however, was that when we set out along the trail I realized that her feet remained bare.”Are you really going to hike barefoot?” I asked. The trail ahead was rutted with roots and rocks that were none too small and I had yelped in the parking lot when I’d stepped out of the jeep without shoes, promptly impaling my foot on a sharp stone. I couldn’t imagine doing a whole hike unshod.”I never wear shoes,” Pam informed us. “When I absolutely have to wear something on my feet, I wear flip flops.” This was our first introduction to Pam’s rugged nature.
“Remember,” I whispered to the girls with a wink as we set off up the trail, “no whining”
My warning would soon prove to be entirely unnecessary as Pam completely engaged all 5 of us the entire time we hiked. She is an absolute fount of knowledge about island flora and fauna and we would recognize the plants and animals she pointed out to us everywhere we went for the remainder of our trip. We plucked tiny vines off the ground to go fishing for tarantulas in the half-dollar sized holes we saw on the trail. We attempted to catch the little lizards that skittered about in the brush after Pam told us that the local kids liked to get them to latch onto their earlobes and dangle like earrings. We learned about Virgin Island Christmas trees and various cacti. We discovered the mud nests and trails of termites that we’d seen covering the trees and watched, slightly horrified, as Pam sampled the tiny, crawling inhabitants and Jon promptly followed suit declaring them, “nutty.” We learned the difference between the sheep and the goats that roamed in large herds around the island (sheep have tails that hang down) and, perhaps most wonderful of all for my hermit crab lover of a daughter, we encountered countless crabbies along the trail, from teeny tiny to the size of our 7-year old’s fist. Pam told us all about the incredible hermit crab migration that she’d witnessed the previous August and documented in the video below by her good friend, photographer Steve Simonsen.
And this was just the above-ground portion of our time with Pam. When we arrived at Brown Bay, the water was a bit too rough for a good snorkel, so we headed instead along the trail to explore the ruins of a Dutch estate house from the 1800s, during which time Jon decided, and soon regretted, to join Pam by leaving his shoes behind for this portion of the hike.
After visiting the ruins, we made our way back to the trailhead and headed to Hansen Bay Beach, a couple of miles east, where our underwater adventures began. Pam dove down below the surface repeatedly throughout our snorkel to show us some of the creatures that lived in the crystalline waters. We watched sea cucumbers squirt water and dove down ourselves to poke at feather dusters making them hide into the rock and coral to which they were attached. Pam brought us to see a small shipwreck and taught us the names of all sorts of fish we would see snorkeling in the coming days.
All that hiking and snorkeling helped us to work up our appetites, and upon returning to shore from our Hansen Bay snorkel we bid Pam a fond farewell and set off for lunch just down the road a bit to Vie’s Snack Shack for her famous garlic chicken and conch fritters. Yum!
We were so glad we opted to meet with Pam at the beginning of our trip as everything she shared with us would continue to resonate throughout our time on St. John. And the confidence the girls gained snorkeling with Pam that afternoon allowed them to be more adventurous when snorkeling on their own. Our morning spent with Pam was one of the absolute highlights of our trip. The girls asked repeatedly if we could go out with her again and I’m sorry that we were not able to do so. When they all tasted some termites on our last day at Solomon beach, they decided that they were going to write to Pam to tell her about it. Imagine their delight when we bumped into her that night at Skinny Legs in Coral Bay where we’d gone for dinner. They bubbled over regaling her with tales of seeing squid, sharks and barracuda, of diving down and poking feather dusters on their own, of tarantula fishing and termite sampling. She beamed at their excited storytelling, as generous of spirit as ever.
Meeting Pam was a joy and a pleasure and she is someone that I am honored to know. And I am absolutely certain that another adventure with Pam is in our family’s future!
I highly recommend spending some time hiking and snorkeling with Pam Gaffin. It’s sure to be a highlight of your trip!
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