Gunnison Beach and Martha's Vineyard (Aug. '14) It's been almost a year since I went on these trips, but I've been busy with life. I figured it was still worth it to post about them though, so here they are. Gunnison Beach Since I had to travel across country to get to my new job in Massachusetts, I figured I would stop and hit one of the few legal nude beaches in the U.S on the way. I left my friend's house at perhaps 5am (she was my half-way point on my cross-country trip), and endured the 6 hour or so butt-numbing drive to New Jersey, which Gunnison Beach is connected to. Thank God for GPS, because I got to the park entrance without any significant snags. At the park entrance, I had the joy of sheepishly asking the beautiful park worker (a woman around my age that looked a bit like Pippi Longstocking) how I could get to Gunnison Beach, and if the beach was open (because once the parking lot maxes out, no new people are allowed in for a period of time). Thankfully, the beach was open, and she didn't crack any jokes. I paid my fee, drove to a parking lot, and then circled around a million times until I found someone who could tell me if I was in the right parking lot or not (they aren't well marked). Thankfully, I was in the right one. I parked and got ready to start my day. Cue the heat. It was pretty smoldering that day, and humid. I grabbed my towel, sunscreen, and food for the day, and headed across the road to the bathrooms and vending area. Since I was going to be down at the beach for some time, and had just got done driving hours upon hours to get there, I figured it would be a good idea to use the restroom before I set up at the beach.
It was a good thing I was going to a nude beach, because my shorts were already getting sweaty. I'd say dropping them to chill on the toilet helped, but it didn't. The humidity was that bad. As I sat on the john thinking about my day, I balanced my towel with all my belongings in it between my legs. I wasn't going to let my belongings touch someone's pee. When I was done with my business, I cleaned up, flushed, and worked on zipping up my shorts. You would think zipping would be an easy task, not so much when you're trying to hold a towel with a bunch of random objects in it. Just as I thought I was going to be successful, I moved my body ever so slightly. Hindsight is 20/20. Kersplash! What just landed in the toilet? One of my juice boxes! I contemplated for a moment how nice it would be if juice boxes were flushable. But since they aren't, I stuck my hand where thousands of men have laid down their burdens, shook my juice box off, and dried it with toilet paper. You would think that would be the end of my woes, but it wasn't! Much to my surprise, there are no garbage cans at the park or beach! Whatever you carry in, you have to carry out! Had I been intelligent, perhaps I would have put the defiled juice box back in my car and forgotten about it, but I was too eager to get to the beach. I rinsed the juice box in the sink and carefully put it in my towel far away from my other belongings. I then headed toward the beach walkway. The walkway was quite long. I don't know if they didn't want people to see others naked by accident, or if they were concerned about keeping buildings and roads away from hurricane level waters, but I certainly wasn't able to strip off my clothes and hop into the water right after leaving the parking lot. Eventually, I got down to the sand. Very quickly a sign caught my eye that said BEYOND THIS POINT YOU MAY ENCOUNTER NUDE SUNBATHERS. Of course, the sunbathers were still far off, but that thankfully meant the beach was quite large (it would stink to try to fit 500-1000 people in a little area). I kept on walking toward the water, getting closer and closer to the incredibly large crowd. I set up my towel right near the volleyball court. I figured if I had a chance to socialize with anyone, it would likely happen over a game of volleyball.
Unfortunately, there were no people playing volleyball, and there wasn't going to be for a while, so said the guy near me who was in the know. Due to this, I figured I'd take a couple pictures (after making sure I had sunblocked myself), so I asked someone near me to get a shot of me. I would have done it myself, but this was before Selfie Sticks. Afterward, since I had nothing better to do, I figured I would walk down to the water.
The water was cold, but a decent temperature considering how hot it was outside. There were people all around, though it seemed liked many of the people stayed on the beach. I noticed there were about three or four guys for every female that was there, but that didn't surprise me given how much society sexualizes and objectifies females' bodies (making women fearful and insecure). Thankfully, Gunnison has both official lifeguards and law enforcement around as part of the park staff, so it's probably one of the safest clothing-optional beaches in America. A couple did get arrested while I was there because the female started giving the guy a handjob, but not everyone understands the point behind a nude beach, and the police made sure to let them know that their actions were not appropriate, and they *I'm pretty sure* were escorted off the beach. Back to the water- after being in for a bit and striking up a conversation with one of guys near me, I decided to go back to my towel to see if the volleyball players had arrived yet. No luck, so I decided to take a stroll down the beach to see how far it went down. It went down pretty far, and I think it may have had a small arc that went out into the water a bit, but I didn't feel like going out to the last possible point, so I headed back. Eventually, the guys showed up who regularly play volleyball at Gunnison. I asked if I could play, but apparently they only were interested in high level players. I watched them play for a bit, and then noticed a few guys around my age tossing around a Frisbee. I went over and struck up a conversation and joined them throwing a Frisbee around. The rest of my stay consisted of tossing the Frisbee around, going in the water, and eventually borrowing a volleyball to bump around with a couple of people who were there. Because I had a five or so hour drive to my final destination, I headed back to my car around perhaps 2pm. I wasn't planning on finding my car battery dead, but I had forgot that I had had my lights on earlier in the day. Thankfully, the park staff had someone who was able to come over and give me a jump. And then I was off- to Massachusetts! Martha's Vineyard So there is an unofficial nude beach (the locals that use the textile beach connected to it are aware of it and don't seem to care) on the island of Martha's Vineyard, which is off the coast of Massachusetts. The beach is located in the town of Aquinnah. I headed toward the island this past Saturday, and was supposed to catch the 9:30am ferry to get to the island
and meet with the naturist group that I was going to be hanging out at the beach with (Pilgrim Naturists of New England). Unfortunately, I missed my ferry (finding parking and riding the shuttle bus to the ferry terminal can take a while), and so had to wait another 1.5 hours before the next ferry showed up. This gave me time to call the group leader for the trip and to ask for directions on how to get to the nude beach on my own. Another hour later, I finally made it to Martha's Vineyard. I then had to figure out which buses to ride to get me to Aquinnah (thankfully the ticket-master I bought my fare from knew his bus routes). It took getting on two different buses (and an hour of travel time) to get me to my destination. I at least made it to the beach though. Moshup beach. Largely a textile beach. You can't see the nudists from the entrance to the beach. I had to ask some random non-nudist where the beach led to if I traveled really far in either direction. One side she said went on for miles and miles without change. The other side she quickly mentioned led to the nudist beach. I thanked her for that information, and headed on my way. Nudists eventually came in sight. "Pilgrim?" I hollered at some guy who was staring at me like he knew me. He didn't answer, but a voice off to the side did answer. It was the trip leader I had hoped to meet hours earlier. The typical demographic of American naturists- the leader was a white male who appeared to be in his 60's or so. The leader was friendly, and he talked to me at length about the beach, naturist groups and places in the area, as well as various other topics. A few other of the guys that came with him were quite open to conversation as well (there were 7 guys in the group that came and one woman). The few in the group and myself talked for a while, until the leader suggested showing me some of the rest of the beach, including where some war-time structure had fallen off a cliff into the water a long time ago. Walking down the beach, you could tell there weren't many naturists there that day. Outside of the 20-25 that were within sight of the main area, there might have been maybe another 10 or so sprawled out on what seemed like a mile or so more of beach, and some of those were women who simply were using a section of the beach to tan topless. The leader and I finally did make it down near the cliffs a bit more, but I didn't see the war-time structure at all, which he mentioned was both because we were further away and because the tide was up. When we got back, several of us decided to hop (or already were) in the water.
Cooooold... is how best I could describe the water. While it wasn't like ice cubes, I could only stay in the water for so before my teeth started chattering and I had to get out to warm up. But, while in the water, one of us almost stepped on a crab. This led the four of us in the water to trying to hunt the crab down, as it kept hiding in the sand. The crab won every round. I eventually did catch a crab, but it took many times, a couple rocks, and some favor with the waves going in and out. Someone also mentioned seeing a seal (the animal) that day at the beach, but I didn't personally notice it (they have been noted to show up there from time to time though). After a bit of Frisbee and more chatting, it was time to go. The leader offered for me to join them on the ride back in their taxi, and he showed me around town and gave me the historical background of the place as we walked around. I eventually made it to my ferry, and late that night eventually made it home. Below are a few pictures from the trip: