Just got back from riding.
It was sweet.
Okay... so this morning I went in and talked with a few of the rangers at Ft. DeSoto and talked with Jim Wilson for about 45 minutes. Here are some facts (many blew my mind).
In the last month, North Beach has averaged 6 people stung per day on the week days.
On the weekends, North Beach averages 12 people stung... per day. That's just NB... not all of SPB or anything.
To me, these numbers are pretty crazy. I was guessing 3 per day on the weekend when I went in to ask. Jim told me at one point in time 2 weekends ago that they had 17 people at once receiving aid for being stung by a ray.... INSANE!!
Other numbers of interest. Ft. DeSoto receives more visitors per year than the number of visitors to the top 3 State Parks combined. Ft. DeSoto has more annual visitors than Yellow Stone National Park. I knew the place was hopping (which is why I asked), but would not have guessed they received THAT many visitors. Those numbers are not guesses, they are hard numbers based on toll booth stats and other census techniques used by the park. The actual number is a little over 3 million visitors annually.