What's Next?: Neusiok Trail Exploration

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Neusiok Trail Exploration

We set out at 6:40 am, driving across the NC countryside as the sun rose, its soft light hitting the seemingly endless fields, interspersed irregularly with groups of houses and a few small towns. After two hours of driving through the flat landscape, we reached our destination, a small parking lot on a road in the Croatan National Forest outside of Havelock. Somewhere in his internet wanderings, Ryan had stumbled across the Neusiok Trail, a 20-mile trail through the Croatan National Forest, and we thought it sounded like a fine adventure and a good place to get in a long trail run while we were down visiting my parents. If we had had more time and another car, it would have been cool to run the whole thing south to north, but as that wasn't going to happen, we chose to park a car at the northernmost road crossing, run the final stretch of trail, touted as the best section, return to the car and then run the final miles going in the other direction on the trail.

We got started around 8:45 am, headed out on the flat, soft trail into the longleaf pine forest.

Neusiok Trail

Trailhead

The start

We were happily surprised to find some undulation to the terrain, and some singletrack with some roots too, as it meandered through the pine trees and bogs. In fact, Ryan was obviously not expecting the roots, as he managed to catch his foot on one of them and go down - hard - within the first mile. Ouch. We stopped to clean off the sand, and make sure his shoulder was ok - still a bit stiff at the moment. not good - before continuing on. The trail crossed some boggy, wet sections, and we encountered our first of many bogbridges.

Right before the tumble

Wide pine forest

Bog bridge #1

I led the way, as although I was optimistic and determined to finish today's 20 miles, I was slightly unsure how I would hold up and I wanted to make sure I was running a pace that I thought I could hold for 3+ hours. I felt great at the TARC Spring Thaw two weeks ago and got in a good 21+ miles that day, but things took a sharp downhill right after that with Sam being sick and then me getting bronchitis. I wasn't sure how the lungs would be, and oh yes, not to mention I only ran 20 and then 11 miles the past two weeks. I'm happy to report it didn't seem to be an issue, although I felt slightly rusty the first 5 miles or so, but pretty strong after that.

Right before 3 miles, we stopped at the shelter along the trail, with a view of a grassy marsh section. Very pretty. All along the trail, we heard rustling in the leaves around us - little snakes skittering this way and that. There was also a lot of bird song, including some osprey calling overhead, plus the cackle of a Pileated Woodpecker as he flew over the trail. We were also serenaded by the roar of at least two dozen fighter jets as they soared out of the marine air base near Havelock. The noise was a bit incongruous with the quiet natural surroundings, and quite loud.

Cooperhead Lodge shelter (Luckily, we didn't run into any copperheads! ;-0)

Around the 5 mile mark, we reached the edge of the Neuse River, with white sandy shoreline and cypress trees. The trail meandered on and off the beach. It was very cool. We even ran right next to an osprey nest at the edge of the water - the mama was in the nest and not very happy to have us there. Lots of bird prints and some raccoon tracks in the sand.

Cypress swamp by the river

Running along the beach

Neuse River

Trail by the river edge

Snowman on a beach (see the osprey nest in the background?)

At 6.6 miles, we reached the terminus and turned around to repeat the trail back to the car. I felt strong and good and happy, but as we turned away from the river, things heated up. Ryan was feeling the heat by the time we got back to the car at 13.25 miles, but we still had a ways to go, so we stopped, refilled our water and he got ice for his hat and buff and we kept on chugging. Unfortunately, the stretch headed in the other direction was not as scenic, and much more exposed. It did, however, have about a dozen bogbridge sections to keep things interesting. Some of them even had names carved into them, like "Toad Wallow" or "Cottonmouth Spa." Someone out there had a sense of humor :-)

Nice terrain, but kinda hot out there!

Ha!

Saw a few green geckos along the way, and one little dwarf iris in a swampy area, but otherwise, it was kind of grim. We just tried to keep moving. I was in much better shape than Ryan but getting tired and feeling the heat too in the last few miles. Looking at the Strava data, those final miles were certainly slow in comparison, but oh well, what can you do? We got in the distance, and it was a fun way to explore a different part of NC and get in a long run on the trails with Ryan!

Many thanks to Neenie and Pippi for hanging out with Sam all day while we were out exploring, and for letting us drive their car all over kingdom come! Looks like Sam had some fun too :-)