Stones Creek Hike

On Black Friday, we took Alex for a camping trip out to the coast.  Our first stop was at Stones Creek Game Land at the parking along NC-210 near Sneads Ferry so Alex could get his next hike for #mst40hike.

We hiked down the un-gated Beaver Pond Road, which the Mountains-to-Sea Trail piggybacked on.

The trail turned to the right and the MST departed the road and followed a single track trail through an area where longleaf pine were being re-established.  In about 2 miles, we crossed a footbridge over Stones Creek.  There wasn't much water with the current drought.

There was some yaupon holly with berries along the trail.

After passing a gate, the trail followed Deer Lane through more pine savanna.

Near the end, we came to Dry Pond.  There were some otters in the pond but I couldn't get a picture. We turned right to follow Deer Lane out to US-17 and the turnaround point for our hike.  Right near here, a side road led out to Otter Pond so we took this out to hike around the scenic little pond. 

About half-way around, a sign pointed to Mad Bear Crossing with MST blazes.  I followed this maybe a quarter-mile to Bowstring Bridge over the crossing.

The trail petered out after the crossing.  I think this will be the future route of the MST.  There were also some pitcher plants along this new trail.

We finished up the hike around Otter Pond.

From here, we took the MST back to the start.

We had gotten hungry by this point, so headed to Lo-Re-Lei Pub in Sneads Ferry for a late lunch.  Then we drove to Oyster Point in Croatan National Forest to set up camp for the night.  I went down to the water to watch the sunset.

There was more yaupon down here.

Then we built a big fire to keep warm on a very chilly evening.