.02 Wrightsville Beach, NC
My husband travels for work (he’s an electrical controls engineer) and he is gone for weeks at a time at some points throughout the year. This particular trip, he was doing work for FedUp Foods in Wilmington for two weeks and it ended up working out for me to visit for a weekend. This was my first time in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach and I honestly really liked the area. My one and only complaint (and this is an entirely personal opinion) is that it’s a bit too big for me. Regardless, I really enjoyed my time there.
When I was working out the details of my weekend, I had originally planned to start with the north end. And then I saw someone in one of my shell groups on Facebook post that she had some really good luck at the south end past the jetty. So I switched up my plans and decided to hit the very last access point first. Since my husband would still be working the weekend, I planned my beach visits for the first low tide of the day. This meant a 5:30a alarm for both days. Now, I know there a lot of people who would never set an alarm while on vacation at the beach. But with sunrise around 6:30am and low tide at 6:46am on Sat Nov. 9th and 7:58am on Sun Nov. 10th, which meant I was getting up early if I wanted to get the best options. Early bird gets the worm and all that jazz.
Sunrise on Wrightsville Beach, Access 43, 6:25am Saturday, November 9, 2024
I got one of the last 3 parking spots at 6:15am on Saturday morning. I had pretty high hopes for the day. And it started out alright, but I quickly realized that the shells beds were not what I was looking for. I did find some cool pieces - calico scallops are my favorite shell and I found the prettiest one I had ever seen before. The perfect pinkish light lavender. And a green crab carapace which I was most excited about. And then I accidentally broke the crab shell and lost the scallop and that was where my hopes for the morning went downhill. My best finds for the day ended up being some colorful calico scallops, a particularly stunning spectral bittersweet clam, a few pieces of coral, and a couple larger pieces of white sea glass. It wasn’t even close to my best haul but it wasn’t the worst either. I gave them all an initial wash and then bagged them to rewash when I was home.
Saturday’s haul after their bath
Saturday afternoon, I saw a post in a shark tooth group I’m in about someone finding a couple incredible teeth near the pier that morning. I decided I was hitting the beach earlier on Sunday morning and parking at Johnnie Mercer’s pier. I got out on the beach at 6:07am Sunday morning. My first cool find was 6:33am - a chipped but mostly there shark tooth. Nothing crazy, but still, already better than the day before. I found a beautiful piece of grass green sea grass around 6:45am. There were a couple Portuguese Man-o-wars on the beach; I had never seen one in person before that day. I met some amazing pups (and their humans) and did about 3.5 miles in less than a .5 mile stretch of area. Shortly before 9am, I had some awesome pieces of sea glass, calico scallops, beach pebbles, corrugate jewel boxes, and several species of Venus clams. I was definitely happy with the weekend’s haul, but there hadn’t been any super special pieces I was extra stoked about, especially after my favorite finds from the day before either disappeared or broke.
Now, here’s where things get cool. In addition to shelling and beachcombing, I have learned a thing or two about shark tooth hunting over the past couple years thanks to my in-laws. It’s one of those things where you either have a trained eye or you don’t. Or maybe you’re just lucky. But either way, at 8:50am, I watched the cutest doggo poop right in the path of where I was looking in the current shell bed. I originally thought to give the area a wide berth, but as I watched his humans pick up his crowning achievement of the morning, I figured why not just go ahead. The waves will take care of what’s left, right? RIGHT, Y’ALL. RIGHT. Because less than a foot away from the exact spot he had stopped to use the bathroom was the largest Great White tooth I have ever personally seen or found. Just laying there, right on top of the shell bed. My first thought was, “How did they (the pup’s family) miss this??” I was THRILLED. Immediately sent pictures to my husband, best friend, and MIL. AND THEN, exactly 20 minutes and maybe 10 feet later, came the find I kept feeling but kept missing. A phenomenal angustiden tooth, missing only a single cusp and the very tip of the tooth. A pretty large tooth from an extinct prehistoric species, and it was JUST SITTING THERE. I squealed, cussed, and did my little happy dance right there on the beach. I personally feel like shark teeth are meant for certain people to find. Multiple different people walked over those exact spots I was looking in, people who were looking for shark teeth, but I ended up being the one to see them. Like I said. Meant to be.
Even without those teeth, the weekend would have been worth it. I deeply enjoyed spending some child-free time with my husband, as well as the 12+ hours I got to spend beachcombing with zero interruptions. But the THRILL of finding a tooth like that, the dopamine hit that comes with an absolutely epic find? There’s nothing like it. And THAT’S how I know I’m exactly where I’m meant to be, doing exactly what I’m meant to be doing.