Topsail Hill Preserve State Park is a large / well run / organized state park with over 40 volunteers on site at a given time (more on volunteers later).  The park is set up with RV sites, tent sites and cabins.  A shuttle runs from the camping areas to the beach area on a paved road.  Hikers and cyclists also use the road.  The park has a number of hiking / cycling trails.

Pic of shuttle stop near beach and also bicycle parking in same area:

 

I reserved a tent site as all the RV sites were already taken at the time of my reservation.  This is a popular park and making reservations 6 months or more in advance is necessary.  I had friends (Jim and Rebecca) who were volunteering at the park during my visit.  As such, on my arrival I was greeted with a surprise.

It was great spending time with Jim and Rebecca.   They introduced me to other volunteers at nightly campfires, transported me to various music venues and cooked / joined me for meals.   Pic of them.

One venue was the Music & Coffee location.  In the evening, the 30A Songwriters Radio Station broadcasted live music.  Some nights it was an open mike and other nights invited acts.

We spent two nights at this venue.  One night we saw two brothers from Santa Fe play, called the Prickly Pears.  Really good talent.  The second night Jim and Rebecca joined the open mike and did 3 songs, with Rebecca on guitar and vocals and Jim on harmonica.  They sounded awesome.

The other venue was Stinky’s Bait Shop:

We saw TKO’ed with Mark.  They are a local band and are very good.

The majority of my time was spent at the beach or hiking / cycling the trails.

My tent site worked well, until the 7th day.  I received a call from a Ranger.   Since I was at a tent site, I needed to have a tent and also needed to sleep in the tent.  Hmm, well what to do.  Luckily, Jim had found an abandoned tent earlier in the month stuffed in the bushes.   With a little ingenuity and duct tape, I was able to have a standing tent.  My camping neighbors had fun watching me piece the tent together.  A ranger stopped by while I was putting on the finishing touches and gave me a thumbs up.  Problem solved.

A picture of my “tent” and my site.  The pic with the van is “pre-tent”. The tent sites do have electric which allowed me to charge various items during my 10 days.

I mentioned earlier in the post about park volunteers.  By volunteering, a person can camp for free in exchange for a certain number of hours per week (usually in the 14 to 20 hour range).  Requirements are different at each park.  In some cases, only one person needs to work (if a couple).  Other locations require both to work.  Volunteers are assigned to all types of work (usually one type of assignment per stay).  I guess you can include campground hosts under the volunteer umbrella.  Depending on the park, there is backlog (years sometimes) for a spot.  Most will require you to stay as a volunteer for at least a month or more.

From the park, you can cycle on a paved pathway along highway 30-A for 20 or more miles.  A great ride.  My favorite stop was at Red Fish Taco’s. Yummy!