OBX
We drove from Swansboro up to Morehead City. From there it was over to Beaufort and then a pretty drive up the peninsula to Cedar Island. I had been warned that the drive would take longer than we'd expect. We left early, and of course arrived more than an hour ahead of the ferry departure. We spent the time driving through a nearby wildlife refuge, which appeared to consist of some marsh and a boat ramp. Well, I'm sure the wildlife like it. Not that there appeared to be any wildlife around to confirm this assertion.
The ferry left at 3pm, and we made the long, uneventful journey to Ocracoke. As we approached the island, we had a nice view of the Ocracoke lighthouse. This is as close as we got though, as we didn't have time to explore the island. The NPS campground on the island was still closed, and I didn't find any private campgrounds in my trip planning. So, we had to press on to Hatteras. I regret this, as the "village" looked interesting without being obnoxious. We'll make sure to spend some time in Ocracoke the next time we visit the outer banks.
We left town and drove through a beautiful stretch of undeveloped beach. This was my favorite part of the outer banks, and once I again I felt regret at having to rush by. We did make one stop though, to see the "wild" horses. This was probably the biggest disappointment of the trip. The horses were in a pen, and appeared to be as wild as those on any farm. We spent a grand total of five minutes there before heading for the ferry to Hatteras.
I was glad we rushed, as there was a huge line for the ferry. We waited 45 minutes, but still made it to Hatteras by 7. From there, we drove to Buxton and stopped at the Cape Woods Family Campground. We got one of the few tent sites amid a sea of motor homes. It was a decent site, with a few trees and a creek. The site also featured an impressive assortment of mosquitoes. I had been expecting them throughout the trip, but this was the first place where we had a problem. We thought a fire would help, but that wasn't as simple as expected. The fire pit was a 2' deep hole, and there was no oxygen circulating down there. The wood we bought was also wet, which added to the challenge. I tried several methods to get a fire going. I went through three fire starters and a newspaper. Adding Coleman fuel to the fire was exciting (Don't try this at home!), but not terribly effective. The final insult came when I dropped a fuel soaked paper towel onto the few remaining coals. The moisture put the coals out.
We enjoyed our first showers of the trip, and then spent the evening relaxing around the smoke. Well, we would have relaxed around the fire, if there had been one. Finally, as we neared bedtime, inexplicably the smoldering fire really began to burn. Christy was ready for bed, but I stayed up. Now that I finally had a fire going I was determined to enjoy it.
WEST NILE
Wednesday morning's highlight was a wonderful breakfast of French toast and bacon. Oh sorry, I forgot that French is politically incorrect now. Wednesday morning's highlight was a wonderful breakfast of bread dipped in egg and fried, plus bacon. The low point of the morning was the impressive assortment of mosquito bites I had acquired. I was beginning to look like a leper.
We broke camp and continued our journey north. Our first stop was the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Our visit was indicative of our usual timing, as we arrived two days before it opened to the public. It was still interesting to tour the grounds around the lighthouse. Then, we went out the beach and let Saucony go swimming. The view of the lighthouse from the beach was much better than from the grounds.
We continued up the coast, passing through several small towns which seemed to consist entirely of vacation homes. These interruptions were annoying but bearable. Actually, I had expected worse. Between towns the beaches were still pristine, and it was liberating driving along them.
We reached the Oregon Inlet Bridge, where we stopped in search of a lunch spot. The bridge was impressive, but it was too windy to eat there. Instead we continued a couple of miles further to a beach access. We took our picnic lunch out to the beach. This was a great place. There were plenty of people around, but no development. It was what I'd been hoping to find at the outer banks.
After lunch we visited the Bodie Island lighthouse, which isn't open to the public. From there we drove to Nags Head. This area looked like Myrtle Beach after the lovely islands to the south. We drove out to Collington Island in search of a campground. We stopped at the Collington Island campground, which looked a bit spooky at first. From the road, it appeared to be a run-down trailer park. I was beginning to see why it was so much cheaper than all of the other campgrounds. We drove around without checking in, and found a nice little remote area for tents. It was situated under tall live oaks on the shore of Roanoke Sound. There was only one other camper out there, and it looked really nice in contrast to our first impression. We returned to the office and paid for two nights.
We set up camp and then drove to Kill Devil Hills. Our destination was Jockey's Ridge State Park. The park was high on my list of things to see, and we weren't disappointed. The primary feature of the park is the high sand dunes that tower over town. We joined a parade of folks for the short but strenuous walk to the top. We climbed through the sand, and it was easy to imagine that we were lost in the Sahara. Well, easy to imagine if you could ignore the nearby tourists in Bermuda shorts.
The view from the top was nice. In one direction the ocean was visible, while in the other we could see Roanoke Sound beyond more dunes. We looped around by a different route, which took us away from the crowds and allowed us to enjoy walking through the park's unique environment.
After our hike, I went running and Christy went shopping. She dropped me off at a beach access, which turned out to be where the Mountains to Sea Trail leaves the beach for the final time. It turns inland at Kill Devil Hills, and terminates at the top of the dunes back in Jockey's Ridge. It was interesting to have hiked the final mile of the trail. I decided to improve on that by running the final two miles of the MST that are on the beach. It was actually rather boring, as I ran by an endless row of houses.
Christy picked me up after my run and we returned to camp. After showers we grilled salmon over the fire. It was the best meal of the trip, and was highlighted by a sublime sunset over the sound. There was no sign of our campground neighbors, so we had the whole peninsula to ourselves.
NAGS HEAD WOODS
Christy got up early Thursday to run. Afterwards we had a hearty omelet breakfast. Then we headed out to the beach. The morning started off sunny, but it began to cloud up shortly after we arrived. It was windy and chilly, so we didn't stay long. We needed something else to do, so we headed for Nags Head Woods.
Nags Head Woods is a preserve owned by the Nature Conservancy. It is certainly a nice contrast to the rest of the Nags Head area. In fact, I think it's the only remaining part of the island that isn't a vacation home, miniature golf course, or a "Wings". Dogs aren't allowed in the preserve, so we had to leave Saucony in the car. Fortunately it was a cool, cloudy day. "Picnics" also aren't allowed in the preserve, but their definition of picnic was unclear. To me, fried chicken is a picnic. We brought along some chips and lemonade, which doesn't qualify as a picnic in my mind.
We did a 5 mile hike over to Blueberry Ridge. In doing so, we covered about half of the trail mileage in the preserve. It was a nice, quiet walk. Along the way we passed through swampy forest. The dry ground featured pines, while the swamp areas had cypress. There were a few live oaks as well. It was a pretty place, and we enjoyed our walk. If you're in the area, Nags Head Woods might be worth a couple hours of your time.
We returned to camp and showered. Then we drove to Manteo to the NC Aquarium. This was another highlight of our trip. For only $6 we toured exhibits featuring river otters, alligators, sea turtles, rays, and many varieties of fish. They even had sharks in a giant tank. It only took us about an hour to see everything (we even visited the otters and rays twice).
We returned to Nags Head and went out for seafood. Afterwards, it was apparent that the perfect weather we had enjoyed throughout the trip was coming to an end. The sky was dark and ugly, and the wind was howling. We returned to camp and just made it into the tent when the storm hit. The wind was vicious coming off the sound, and we had little choice but to huddle in our shelter. It was hard to sleep that night as we worried about getting blown off the island.
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