I walked the MST to learn about North Carolina. I know Southern Appalachian Mountains quite well but I’ve only been to the major cities in the rest of the state. The trail goes through Croatan National Forest, between New Bern and Morehead City on the Neusiak Trail. Sharon and I were glad to have Terry Smith and John Jaskolka, two local Friends of the MST board members, on the backpack with us.
The Neusiak Trail is not the A.T. It’s flat, buggy, and swampy with poisonous snakes and ticks. On Terry’s advice, I wear long pants and long-sleeve shirt over a T-shirt and I’m hot. I thought the trail was going to be easy because of the terrain but it’s a jungle out here. Along the Neuse River, it looks like a South Pacific island. We see two ospreys flying around a huge osprey nest and a kingfisher. We pass a green anole, a tiny lizard, a box turtle, and wild turkeys. The only snake on the trail is a thin green snake. The trail uses wooden boardwalks and bridges, most built and maintained by the Carteret County Wildlife Club. John and Terry spend a lot of time maintaining these boardwalks.
Friends of the MST are working diligently to move the MST on the ultimate trail, as they call it, but it won’t be completed in my lifetime, so I decided to walk it now. The route changes often as more trail is built but there will always be some sections on the road.
At the end, we trudge up the dunes in Jockey’s Ridge with the wind whipping up the sand. The place looks like the Sahara Desert. Only 20 people have finished the MST before me. My route took me over 985 miles with 95,200 feet of ascent in 78 hiking days.
Danny Bernstein is a hiker and outdoor writer. She’s the author of “Hiking North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Heritage.”
