Sheltered Lands

H A T T E R A S  I S L A N D,  N C   I’m heading south from Nags Head, leaving its tourism gaudiness behind, cruising down the Outer Banks National Scenic Byway.  The ride is idyllic.  Sand, seagulls, and sunshine as far as you can see amid dunes covered in sea oats, salt-pruned live oak, and bright orange firewheel flowers.  The Pamlico Sound on one side, and the Atlantic Ocean on the other – sometimes just a few hundred feet apart.  Further down the island, this byway is twenty-six miles out to sea - the mainland no longer visible across the sound.   One of the best attributes of the Outer Banks comes via the U. S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in places like Cape Hatteras & Cape Lookout National Seashores and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. Once south of Nags Head, these lands encompass most of the islands.  Smaller, more-authentic beach towns are dotted in along the way like Rodanthe, Avon, Frisco, and where I’m heading –...

Portsmouth Island, North Carolina O B X,   N C In typical map symbolizations, areas shaded green represent protected open spaces such as national, state, or city parks, wildlife refuges, privately preserved lands, or hunting grounds.   They also represent the spots I most often venture toward while travelling.   In the early half of this decade, while vacationing along the northern outer banks of North Carolina, a few of those enticing green spots were calling.   One was the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge – a massive 152,000 acre area essentially covering an entire peninsula east of Manteo and Roanoke Island.   Heading south from Corolla in a Honda Pilot, I ventured into the refuge and stumbled upon Mashoes Road – one of the more secluded and picturesque drives I’d ever experienced.   A little further on a found a simple boat launch and spent about an hour photographing the early morning stillness.   The other was the Cur...

Shaken Creek Preserve, Maple Hill, North Carolina   M A P L E  H I L L,  N C The sun has not yet risen during a time of year when it rises pretty early.   My brother Skip, my son-in-law Justin and his cool dog Rylie are on a high bridge crossing the Intracoastal Waterway on our way to open a locked gate twenty two miles away.   I’m worried that we won’t find the access road, and that the key won’t work, and that we might get ambushed Deliverance-style.   Usually, I’m a solo visitor to places like where we’re headed and don’t worry as much about such complications.   But today I’m the leader responsible for my car-mates’ experiences.   I’ve arranged for this visit to see yet another of the world’s great places, but also hoping to wow my brother and son-in-law with the connectivity I have to The Nature Conservancy, the owner and manager of the property we’re about to see.   The 6,000 acre Shaken Creek Preserve in the center of No...

Green Swamp Preserve, Supply, North Carolina S U P P L Y,  N C An expansive web across the trail stops me in my tracks.   In its bulls-eye rests a rather colorful spider.   It’s huge and right at eye-level guardedly staring me down as I begin snapping macro-photos.   When done, I drop to hands and knees in the morning dew to crawl under the web’s splaying support strands so as not to tear down the masterpiece.   The spider’s night of spinning remains safe.   A few minutes later, I’m standing confused in the middle of a longleaf pine savanna.   I can’t find any trail markers on this path that was only sparsely marked to begin with.   I’ve definitely lost my way, but thanks to it being a moist morning, I retrace my steps back to the spider through the dew wake I’ve created.   Though the spider didn’t catch me in its web, it can at least count a small victory in its ability to throw me off course.   I’m at The Nature Conserv...

I’m please to find no parking lot on 10th Avenue.  I simply pull onto the sandy shoulder across from the small, faded sign for Run Hill Dune.   I dip under a wooden fence rail designed to keep ATV’s out and then begin my trudge up one of the east coast’s highest dunes.   I consider going barefoot, but my sandals work like snow shoes in the loose sand.  Neither barefoot nor sandals though are ideal on this unstable surface, so my progress is slow.  I enjoy the unhurried pace; it affords more time to absorb the beauty. About 5 miles south of Run Hill is Jockey’s Ridge - the more famous dune on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.  In between is a four mile stretch of maritime forest. Run Hill is shifting southward, encroaching one grain at a time upon this forest.  In this collision, there’s intrigue.  I seek to find the unique when I travel, and a sand dune swallowing up a forest is something I find quite intriguing. After fifteen minutes of trudgin...