Jacksonville MST Hike

Saturday, we woke up to a very cold morning.  Even Alex was curled up under a blanket.  We warmed up in the car and started making our way towards Jacksonville, so Alex could get another hike for #mst40hikes.

We parked at the Lejeune Memorial Gardens and walked around to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Then we got on the Jacksonville Greenway, which is also the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

The Lejeune Memorial Greenway followed along the perimeter of Camp Lejeune for about 2 miles until we reached the Rails-to-Trails Greenway.  The converted railroad had a bridge across the highway, but we turned right to stay on the MST.

The Rails-to-Trails Greenway continued along the perimeter of the base.

In another couple miles, we crossed Northeast Creek on a scenic boardwalk bridge.

Not long past here, we turned around and headed back.

We headed back to Oyster Point in Croatan National Forest so Alex could get in another #mst40hike - Neusiok Trail South.

There was a pretty view of Newport River from here.

Oyster Point is also the southern trailhead for Neusiok Trail, so we got on the trail heading north.

Hiking through the dense forest, there were some nice views of the salt marsh where Mill Creek flows into Newport River.

In about 1.7 miles, the trail crossed Mill Creek Road.  We turned left and then left again on FR-181 to hike the forest road back to the trailhead.

The forest road and trail made a figure-8 loop hike.

We were getting pretty hungry at this point and headed into Morehead City for dinner at Tight Lines.  They have nice outdoor seating and great food and beer.  The pork belly tacos were delicious.  After dinner, we headed back to camp and made another fire, though it wasn't nearly as cold as the night before.