Sunday morning, I woke up before Sandy and Alex and went for a short hike in Carolina Beach State Park. Hiking along Snow's Cut, there was a beautiful view of sunrise.
At the end of the trail, I took the greenway back towards the park entrance and crossed the street to get on the Fitness Trail, a short one mile loop.
After completing, the loop, I headed back and we broke camp.
We got donuts for breakfast at Wake N Bake and drove through Wilmington to get on I-40. We drove a short ways and got off to park at the wildlife depot at Holly Shelter Game Land. The Mountains-to-Sea Trail follows old roads through the area.
We hiked about 3 miles down Lodge Road to New Road, where the MST turned and turned around here.
Although the area is home to alligators, it was a little cold and we didn't see any in the canals.
There were a number of little songbirds in the open areas.
We saw a number of robins and a little tufted titmouse.
We finished the hike up back at the parking area and drove the rest of the way home.
Saturday, we took Alex out to the beach to camp for the weekend. We left early and arrived at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area around 830 and there were only a few cars in the parking at this point. It was quite chilly but the winds were calm. We started hiking down the beach with the tide out.
As the tide went out, interesting patterns were left in the sand where the water drained. I thought they looked kind of like a tree. We also spotted a number of jellyfish washed up along the beach.
We went out a mile or so and find a nice place to sit down and enjoy the view.
Alex enjoyed going for a walk on the beach.
We headed back from here to the parking lot and then got on the Basin Trail. I really like this trail and always try to hike it when visiting the park, at least when the bugs are gone. We hiked through maritime forest and across the salt marsh. There were lots of yaupon holly berries along the trail.
We swung by the hermit bunker and went out to the overlook of Zeke's Island Reserve.
On the hike back, we spotted a number of birds. In the salt marsh, there was a number of white ibises pecking around in the muck. A few had brown plumage and were juveniles.
There was also a great egret in here.
A little further on there was a Cape May warbler.
And in the open area, we spotted a chestnut-sided warbler.
Lots of birds out on a nice winter day.
After our hike, we drove into Kure Beach and had lunch at Jack Mackerels Grill. After lunch, we walked down to the beach and enjoyed the waves for a bit.
Then we headed to Carolina Beach State Park and checked in at the marina before setting up camp. After setting up, we hiked to Good Hops for a drink before dark. We got back to camp just before sunset and I ran down to Snow's Cut for a view.
The sky turned brilliant shades of pink and orange and the clouds looked like cotton candy.
Back at camp, we built a nice fire as the temperature dropped quickly after the sun set.
Sunday morning, we woke up and broke camp. Before leaving Carolina Beach State Park, we went for one more hike. We parked at the Flytrap Trailhead and headed out to the marina, then Snows Cut Trail.
At the end, we followed the greenway and took Campground Trail back to the start.
We started making our way home, making a stop at Moores Creek National Battlefield in Pender County. This was hike 30 from #MST40hike, Alex's 13th from the challenge.
We started off on Tarheel trail passing an old tar kiln.
The trail and North Carolina's nickname come from the importance of naval stores to the state's economy in the 19th century.
At the end, we went left on History Trail and passed the Women's Monument.
Next was the Moore Monument.
The Loyalists Monument was dedicated to the Scottish Loyalists who were defeated in the battle.
Last was the Grady Monument.
There was an old cannon past here.
From here, we headed down to the very swampy Moore's Creek.
A reconstructed bridge allowed us to cross where the loyalists crossed and walked into a trap more than 200 years ago.
We looped back around and got on a boardwalk to cross back over the creek.
The boardwalk was pretty extensive and provided nice views of the swamp.
After the boardwalk, we came back out to the open and hiked back across the battlefield.
Finishing up our hike, we spotted some more Venus flytraps; one more carnivorous plant sighting for the weekend.
Saturday we woke up to a chilly morning and planned to find some carnivorous plants. Before leaving Carolina Beach State Park, we made a quick stop at the Fly Trap Trail. Sure enough, part way through the loop, we spotted some of the trail's namesake.
Near the end, there were some pitcher plants in a pocosin swamp.
Then we took off, stopping for breakfast on the way to Brunswick County.
We stopped at the parking area for Green Swamp Preserve. There was a small pond right next to the parking area.
The trail led through a scenic longleaf pine savanna.
The longleaf pine is dependent on periodic controlled burns to germinate the seeds and clear out the competition.
The trail through the preserve was blazed with red diamonds and was about 1.3 miles.
We saw some flowering pixiemoss along the trail.
There was a narrow boardwalk through a swamp area.
Soon, we came to a big patch of Venus flytraps.
It was a little early in the season and they were still very small. We saw some pitcher plants as well.
A pinewood daisy was starting to pop up.
It started to get really swampy. And we had to watch our step as there were a lot of little sundews popping up.
We turned around before the end because it was very swampy and we didn't want to trample the tiny carnivorous plants.
From here, we headed back towards Carolina Beach, got lunch and went to Fort Fisher State Recreation Area. It was pretty windy so we first hiked down the Basin Trail. The live oaks provided great protection from the wind.
Near the aquarium, a snowy egret was fishing in the pond.
The wind wasn't too bad along the trail.
There was some yaupon holly with bright orange berries along the trail.
The trail ended at the Basin Overlook peering into Zeke's Island Coastal Reserve.
Then we hiked back and took Alex for a short walk on the beach.
It was really windy so we didn't go too far.
Heading back to camp, it was much less windy away from the beach, so we went for one more hike. We took Campground Trail to Sugarloaf Trail and headed to the limesink ponds to look for more carnivorous plants. There were several sundews at Grass Pond.
Then we walked along the shore of Lily Pond. There were a lot of lily pads but we didn't find insectivores.
Continuing on, the last pond was Cypress Pond.
We found a couple of real nice patches of sundews again here.
We followed the trail to Sugarloaf Dune and took a break here to enjoy the view. There was a lot Spanish moss draped over the trees.
After a break, we finish the trail and headed back to camp.
We drove into camp for dinner and then stopped at Good Hops for drinks afterwards. Back at camp, we made a big fire to stay warm.
