The hike to and through Stones Creek Game Land

Entrance to Stones Creek Game Land at NC 210 beside Sneads Ferry Presbyterian Church

It's tiny.  At under 3000 acres, Stones Creek Game Land is like a gleaming pearl engulfed in the great oyster that surrounds it: 160,000 acre Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base.

To get to Stones Creek Game Land traveling trail-westbound via the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the hiker spends hours paralleling the Live-fire combat training grounds that border on Dawson Cabin Road and High Hill Road:

Then the trail plunges into a 4.6 mile corridor through the heart of the oyster:

This section of US 17 has base property on both sides of the highway and includes three bridges that do not go over streams.  They span base roads that are used regularly by tanks in combat training exercises that can encompass both sides of the highway.


Taking the pearl metaphor a bit farther: the luster of Stones Creek Game Land comes in the form of its variety.  There are seven man-made lakes (borrow pits for the building of the three bridges on US 17 just mentioned above) and a surprising variety of forest types, including wetlands (here's the minor ford where the MST crosses Stones Creek),

scrub oak barrens,

and Longleaf Pine Savanna lands of various ages from the familiar mature open woodlands with large trees ...

... to large tracts of young woodland that is being restored.  Here's an example along the section of trail that sees very little traffic:

Though the seven lakes are man-made, they are unspoiled by other human trappings.  The trail route encounters only one of these lakes, but it's one of the two largest and most picturesque.  Here's a sampling of views the hiker will have of this lake, some taken on previous visits:

It's over all too soon.  But on either side of the Camp Lejeune - Stones Creek complex there are more interesting venues.  Next to come westbound is an 8 mile beach walk on Topsail Island - the final taste of the Sea.  Look for that report upcoming.  Back on the eastbound side, there's a magical place along Dawson Cabin Road with a pretty fishing pond on one side of the road,

And another proud standing specimen tree beside a small private cemetery on the other,

This latter tree was the subject of a photo taken in February 2013 that was one of the finalists in last year's Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail photo contest:

Yep, for me a good sky can make any scene better.  So for a little variety I'll end the account of this hike with an industrial scene.  Along US 17, wedged between Stones Creek Game Land and Camp Lejeune, is a large Onslow County Water treatment facility.  I passed it at sunrise, and through all the industrial clutter, the sky stole the show.  In the eye of this beholder, there was beauty even here.

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Below is the GPS track for this section of the trail with a link to a slide show with many more photos, some taken in previous hikes, including several taken in the small Stones Creek Game Land parcel adjacent to High Hill Road where there is an opportunity for a detour through very pretty woods, but it's not the designated MST.


MST days 22 and 23 - Stones Creek Game Land at EveryTrail
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Hiking Jacksonville - Old Bridge over the New River

The New River passes the heart of old Jacksonville. This view is from the Old Bridge Street bridge.

Jacksonville, North Carolina is the city the Marines built.  It's dominated by the huge Camp Lejeune and adjacent New River Marine Corps Air Station.  Rush hour in Jacksonville concentrates traffic at the two Main Gate entrances to these two facilities.  The economy is robust and stable, yet I've never seen so many single-wide rental trailer parks anywhere else in the country.  The rank-and-file soldiers that make up the base of the military pyramid are itinerant, short-timers.  So like any government town (Washington, DC is the other example I'm intimately familiar with), there's no sense of permanence.

But for the hiker, Camp Lejeune has provided half the land, and probably a lot of the resources, either directly or indirectly, to allow the construction of Jacksonville's magnificent 6.4 mile Rails-to-Trails Greenway.

It's paved, wide, smooth, and for much of its length it's corridor is wide enough to feel like a walk in the woods.  For me the centerpiece is this aesthetically pleasing three-span dedicated footbridge over 6-lane NC Highway 24:

It's such a delight to my eye that I had to share another view.

As apparent from the first bridge photo, the route is posted every half mile with these nearly indestructible mile markers - the one below is part of the long walk right beside the Camp Lejeune chain link fence on property they donated/dedicated to the trail:

The footpath also has its own bridge over Northeast Creek.

The route starts in Downtown, just beyond the Old Bridge over the New River (view shown up top), right after you pass the front door of the courthouse,

And it ends at the Camp Lejeune Main Gate.

On either side of the Greenway there was some road walking on grassy shoulders ...

on sidewalks and frontage roads (with some rather peculiar friends) ...

through two major shopping centers ...

... and on lightly traveled residential streets.

All in all, I had a delightful two days of hiking to traverse this coastal NC city.  And in the end, as I left the west side of town, I guess it was inevitable ... I've always known that sooner or later I'd end up here.

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Below is a map of the route through Jacksonville and environs.  The link in the title will send you to a slide show with lots of photos.  I took a photo at every intersection, and there were a lot of them, so they may seem tedious and repetitive.  The point was to document each turn, and the geo-tagged photos serve as enhanced waypoints.  This is for any future hiker who wishes to use the info provided.


MST Days 20 and 21 - Jacksonville Rails-to-Trails Greenway at EveryTrail
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Stella by dawn-light

Quiet morning on the White Oak River at Stella, NC

The second of two near-perfect hiking days (weather-wise) began before sunrise in the sleepy little town of Stella, NC -- little more than a quaint little post office at an intersection of roads beside the White Oak River.

For those of the younger generation who may have missed the reference: "Stella by Starlight" is a Jazz classic from the 1940's.

It was calm.  It was serene.  The temperature rapidly soared from the upper 40's into the 70's.  Spring birds were cheeping, spring frogs were peeping, the bad dog was sleeping, and the white rooster was keeping us all informed that it was a morning to crow about.

When the bright yellow sun came out to shine, the land seemed to bathe in the new season and the trees seemed to lift their arms to rejoice!

Morning with tree and bird near Stella, NC.  Can you find the bird?

And the spring jonquils came out to shine right back at the sun

I was hiking a new route for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.  Having left the sea behind, my next destination was the city of Jacksonville, so it was a shock to learn that I was on the Jacksonville City-to-the-Sea bike route--something I'd not known about until I saw this sign.

This bike route goes from the Jacksonville Mall to the free ferry to Hammock's Beach State Park - an undeveloped island with about 8 miles of pristine beach.  This is another North Carolina Bucket List item - not to be missed.

Today's walk was on paved roads, mostly wonderfully quiet except for a bit of a morning 'rush'.  Yesterday, by contrast, I had hiked most of the day on a series of virtually unused Forest Service roads through the far western end of Croatan National Forest.  I encountered no more than two or three vehicles all day.  There wasn't much to photograph - just peaceful woods:

It's not easy for a photo to capture the serenity of such a natural and unspoiled place on such a perfect day.  You just have to go.  Come out there and absorb the magic.

This is why I hike.  This is why so many dedicated trail volunteers like me are willing to scout, to build, to promote, and to lovingly maintain trails like the MST.

Why? Because we want to share this inexhaustible joy with as many of you as will hear our call.  We want you to come out and discover it!

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Below is the map of the route taken on these two hiking days, with a link to a full slide show with more detailed highlights of the hiking experience.  Enjoy.


MST days 18 and 19 - Stella, NC at EveryTrail
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Adventures in Croatan National Forest

Forest Road 154 fords this wetland near Pringle Road

If you go to the USDA National Forest Service web site and look up Croatan National Forest, the very first paragraph of the forest's home page informs you that "Bordered on three sides by tidal rivers and the Bogue Sound, the forest is defined by water."

What it failed to say was that after a heavy rain, such as we had on Friday, much of the forest *is* water.  Even with the sandy soil found on the highest ground, in the unique and special Longleaf Pine Savannas, the soil does not drain well, so that every slight depression contains a boggy meandering little stream.  When four-wheel-drive vehicles establish an unimproved track across this type of terrain, every boggy little stream becomes a deep wallow.   And when a hiker coming through scouting a route for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the result is plenty of "take-your-socks-off, roll-up-your-pants-legs, and start wading."  The worst of it was knee deep.  I don't know if this shot conveys the impression, but as I forded this not inconsiderable stream it felt as though I was in a watery version of the famous Appalachian Trail's 'Long Green Tunnel'.

The Neusiok Trail, on which I reported in the last installment, provides plenty of Croatan Forest adventure.  But at 160,000 acres there's plenty more adventure to be had, and the new route that the Mountains-to-Sea Trail is following takes advantage of much more of it.  After leaving the Neusiok Trail, there's potential for a western extension with at least five miles of foot trail heading toward the military town of Havelock and emerging somewhere along US 70, either on the southern fringes of Havelock or perhaps here at the Craven-Carteret County line.

Since that five miles of trail is yet to be built, there's currently some road walking to do through the east side of Havelock.

Then, before plunging back into Croatan Forest on the east/south side of US 70, the MST takes you on sidewalk through the sleepy little town of Newport ...

Where there's a newly constructed Civil War exhibit commemorating the Feburary 2, 1864 "Battle of Newport Barracks".  The exhibit is beside the large and impressive Newport Historical Museum building, shown in the background.

Then, just across US 70 from Newport it's back into the forest by way of a permanently gated forest road where the hiker passes more fine examples of Longleaf Pine Savanna ...

And some less common examples of boggy Pond Pine Pocosin:

These woods roads were where the watery adventures took place, yet in other sections the road was more like a giant sandbox.

But either way, I  was never far from the serene Savanna scenery.

Savanna is rare in the United States, and I don't seem to tire of its charms.  The shot below was taken just north of the Patsy Pond Nature Trail across NC 24 from the North Carolina Coastal Federation's main office.

In the future, I have hopes that the MST can swing down and join this 1.9 mile loop trail, but there would be a bit of boardwalk/bridge building required.  The NCCF office is a great stop for the hiker.  Restrooms are available during business hours, and you'll find plenty of information and exhibits about the coastal environment along with a friendly, engaging staff.

So let this be my little bit of lobbying for today.  Among the top priority 'wish list' items for new trail ought to be the bit of boardwalk needed to cross a tributary of Broad Creek and take the hiker down to ...

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This report covers three days of hiking, and below you can find the GPS tracks, including some routes scouted, all documented by many geo-tagged photos.  Follow the link in the title line for a slide show and access to more of the GPS information.


MST Days 15-17, Croatan National Forest at EveryTrail
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The most popular thing on this blog ...

... is not at all what you would expect.

Something I wrote has gone 'semi-viral,' and I wouldn't have predicted it in a million years.  But the statistics are inescapable, and there's a lesson to be learned here.

Last month was the best month ever for this blog, as defined by the number of page views - about 3700.  And much of this growth is due to the unexpected popularity of a single entry.  Here's the overview - a graph of Page Views per month:

The steady upward trend is great news.  Most of us maintain blogs in order to attract and please a target audience. And the statistics can help us evaluate whether we're succeeding.  The number of visitors to my blog has been steadily increasing since I set it up and wrote my first blog post back in February 2011, so it seems that my efforts are at least modestly successful.

But what are the visitors coming to see?  Are they doing what I hope they will do, which is to be entertained and informed while at the same time gently being exposed to the books I've written and am hoping to promote? The answer seems to be 'Yes'  -  but with a significant twist.  Here is a list of the most popular individual entries.

And therein lies the big surprise.  The hands-down most visited post on this blog every day is not a current one, and it's not one that I ever targeted for attention.  It's a nearly three-year-old entry - just the third one of more than 500 that I have now written.

That 'semi-viral' post simply presents a straightforward tutorial on how to write a specific form of poetry, giving a few classic examples then a bunch of examples that I wrote myself.  Here's a link to that post, and the title I chose for it:

The Tight-Rhymed Fourteener Couplet (poetry) 

Does that sound like a winner?  Sounds pretty 'nerdy' to me.  The good news is that this entry is directly related to the one of the underlying missions of my blog - to expose readers *without charge or obligation* to my novel 'Eden's Womb'.  The content of this entry refers to the book and gives specific examples that are part of the book (I use a short poem in this form as an 'epigraph' to every chapter).

One might conclude that the lesson here is 'Throw a bunch of *bleep* at the wall and see what sticks'.  But I don't think that will work if all you do on your blog is throw out *bleep* all the time.  The other popular posts in the list suggest that diversity of content and genuine human interest are vital.

My other writing project is to write a book about my Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2012.  And many of my blog (and Facebook) followers were attracted to my on-line presence in order to follow that hike.  On the list above, the second most popular entry ('Pinnacle and Pulpit') as well as the 5th, 8th and 9th are all focused on Appalachian Trail topics, and the most popular of these also have compelling human interest stories.

'Pinnacle and Pulpit' is about my encounter and extended conversations with a Transgender married couple--a significant rarity--a marriage between a man and a woman both of whom have chosen to change their sex through operations and hormone therapy.

'R.I.P.' and 'Connections' are posts that cover the heart-wrenching story about my meeting with and interactions with a hiker who lost his life in a drowning accident when he was within 100 miles of completing his Appalachian Trail thru-hike.

'Hiking Oregon Inlet Bridge' is also a hiking post, but not about the Appalachian Trail.  It's about North Carolina's Mountains-to-Sea Trail, which I'm currently hiking; and I owe its popularity to the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Facebook Page, where they have been sharing links to my blog with their 5000+ followers. This is an example of networking for mutual interest.  My hike benefits them through My Charity Donation Page.  And they gain exposure with a wider audience.

The entry entitled 'Paradox, Of Huxley's Islet' is pure personal philosophy, though I manage to get in a mention of 'Ice King' there.  It's a post that I shared with my ATTMP family of authors (nearly 100 strong)--perhaps I have them to thank for its popularity - Networking is always a good thing :-)

And similarly, the last post on the list features Stella G. Maddox, an author friend who has quite a significant following on Twitter.  She writes clever and hilarious tweets about her parenting experiences that have been repeatedly recognized as 'favorites' by Huffington Post and other high-exposure web sites.

Okay ... so the stats seem to tell me that this blog is more-or-less on the right track.  It's not exactly "trending" in the cyber universe, but perhaps it's the 'tortoise' playing the role of 'slow and steady' in contrast to the frenetic internet 'hares' that come and go in a flash.  Of the more than 850 million currently active web sites, this little blog ranks up there among the top 19 million according to VampireStat.com:

Wow!  My URL is worth about the price of a decent pizza!  And earning 15 cents a day I can provide one meal to one starving third-world kid every other day.  For those kids, that ain't chicken-feed.

Hiking the Neusiok Trail and its approaches

Built and maintained by volunteers from the Carteret County Wildlife Club with the help of the US Forest Service, the Neusiok Trail is a footpath that emulates the venerable Appalachian Trail (AT).  Its well-marked route has undergone constant maintenance and upgrading since its inception in the early 1970's.  There are miles of boardwalk, gravel has been laid on other boggy sections, the entire trail is well marked with the same 2" white circles that the Mountains-to-Sea uses, and it is immaculately clear and weed free to a width of four feet (much better than the AT in many places in New England).

The former route of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail followed the entire 20.7 miles of the Neusiok Trail, but I'm sad to be the bearer of the news that it is likely that the northern 40% of it (with the greatest lengths of boardwalk and also the most boggy non-boardwalk sections) won't be a part of the new MST route, which is scheduled to be announced in August 2014.

The problem is that the former MST route (shown in black on the map below)  crossed the Neuse River via the Cherry Branch - Minnesott Ferry and then proceeded west all on country roads past New Bern, Kinston, Wilson, and on to Raleigh.  The new MST route (shown in green and red - red for off-road trails) swings much farther south, with several interesting off-road trail sections and a lot of public land where more off-road trail is possible.  This new route follows the ecologically sensitive and diverse Cape Fear Arch through or near Havelock, Newport, Jacksonville, Surf City, Burgaw, Clinton, Smithfield, and Clayton before reaching Raleigh.

Courtesy of Friends of the MST, the blue line is the Neuse River paddling route

What I'm going to report on today is the result of two days of hiking and scouting the part of the Neusiok Trail that is likely to be on the new MST, as well as the approaches to it from either end.  Day one started out mild and springlike but turned bitter cold as a cold front with brisk breezes dropped the temperature twenty degrees in an hour.  Day two was one of those rare truly bitter cold days by coastal NC standards--the temperature never got above freezing, drizzle coated everything, and the brisk wind did not relent.  But if one is dressed for the conditions, then such weather presents no problem.  The photo-documentation, however, suffered because of the dreary overcast conditions.

Since I'm hiking the MST from east to west, that's the order this report will follow.  And since it has been my responsibility to act as a scout for this part of the MST - from the Neusiok Trail to Burgaw, NC, the report contains details about the route that may seem tedious to some.

I started Day One where busy NC 101 crossed the Intracoastal Waterway at Core Creek.  It's a nice high bridge with minimal shoulder and I had the pleasure (not) of having two eighteen wheelers pass one another at 55mph exactly as they were also passing me.  I could almost hear the drivers shouting from their cabs: "Dude! This bridge ain't big enough for the three of us!"  Of course you know which of us three would be sacrificed.  Luckily I came through the experience unscathed and even managed to pause and snap this shot of Core Creek from the 'summit' of the bridge.

Coming off the west side of the bridge I took the opportunity for a short shoulder-walk to serenity, picking up a wonderful little-used road called Hardesty Loop Rd. - the route of the old highway before the fancy new bridge was built.  The short walk down the shoulder and along the bridge easement is easy and the grass is kept mowed by the state.

After 2 1/2 miles of quiet, Hardesty Loop returns to NC 101, then after a short walk on the busy highway the MST turns south on Old Wineberry Rd.  From here the MST hiker has three options to get to the Neusiok Trail:

1.) The shortest route is via FS 124.  This route leaves Old Wineberry after 1.1 miles and intersects the Neusiok 1.8 miles down this seldom-used woods road.

2.) Continue south on Old Wineberry another 2.6 miles to its end at Mill Creek Rd, turn left, and take up the Neusiok Trail where it crosses Mill Creek Rd. just a tenth of a mile west.  That's where you'll find the sign and boardwalk shown at the top.

3.) Continue west on Mill Creek Rd. past the Neusiok Trail for just another tenth of a mile then turn left and follow the dirt road to the Neusiok Trail southern terminus trailhead and parking area at Oyster Point.

Although this means crossing your own path and an extra 3.8 miles of hiking, I recommend this third option because this southern 1.7 miles of the Neusiok Trail south of Mill Ck. Rd. is exceptionally scenic, with views of the Newport River from Oyster Point ...

... and of the extensive Mill Creek tidal wetlands.

Continuing north on the Neusiok, you find the trail exceptionally well maintained.  Somebody took the time to haul tons of gravel and build up the wet sections so that you walk along a firm mound of piled gravel.

In this section, south of the crossing of FS 124 where option 1.) joins the Neusiok Trail, you also pass the first of three AT-style lean-to's complete with water pump but without privy.  This one is called Blackjack Lodge:

North of FS 124 there is a boggy half mile in the middle of the 1.5 miles before you emerge on another quiet woods road, FS 169.  It brought back unpleasant memories of some of the boggier walking along the AT in Maine, but didn't last.  I met two guys breaking camp at a primitive campsite along this section.

Coming out on FS 169 the northbound Neusiok / westbound MST now follows this arrow-straight woods road for nearly two miles ...

... before turning left on another forest road and then plunging back into some very pretty Longleaf Pine Savanna and passing beside this cute little pond:

Finally the MST has to say farewell to the Neusiok Trail where there's a very short access trail to FS 147 about 0.7 miles south of the second of the Neusiok Trail's three shelters, called Dogwood Camp.  I did take the detour to check out that shelter and was surprised to find myself walking through a distinctive 'island' of upland mixed forest that included all the familiar Piedmont forest species--white oak, white ash, tulip poplar, and american beech to name those I recognized.  This is the only such ecosystem I've encountered so close to the coast, and surely an isolated remnant from the last ice age when sea level was substantially lower.

Someone might want the MST to continue to hike the entire Neusiok Trail.  If that's the case, there is a loop walk available, crossing your path once at NC 306.  Hike the NT on north to its terminus then return south to NC 101 via Pine Cliff Rd and NC 306.  I did not do this but will probably come back and hike it this summer so I can consider it part of my overall MST thru-hike.

But back to today's business.  Leaving the Neusiok Trail via the short access trail to FS 147, the proposed new MST route now follows that quiet winding woods road for 2.3 miles to where it comes out on NC 101.  After just 0.8 miles on this road there's a possibility of plunging into the woods for about 5 miles of off-road trail through the Croatan National Forest.

This potential future route would start near the point shown below, where Weyerhaueser forest property borders on the National Forest and Weyerhaueser maintains this boundary road through their plantation.

But for now the MST must follow busy NC 101 for about 3.5 miles into the town of Havelock.

And that's where this report ends -- looking wistfully down a private road into the off-limits road system of the vast Weyerhaueser property as the traffic whizzes by just inches from my frazzled frame.

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Here's a map of the two days of hiking.  The title line is a link to the slide show with many more great photos:



MST Days 13 and 14 - Neusiok Trail at EveryTrail
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