Target: Neusiok/Flanners Beach Trails
Type: Rightpoint
State: North Carolina

I had a tough time settling on a goal for the Croatan. Like so many eastern forests, it is patchwork of public and private lands, and seems very scattered in function. Unlike a lot of coastal lowlands there is no real water route through the area. It touches on the Neuse river in spots, but that couldn’t be said to be a defining characteristic. The terrain is swampy and the vegetation is insanely think so off trail opportunities are severely limited. As near as I can tell, the primary purpose of the forest is to preserve hunting and fishing domains. Being lowlands it doesn’t make sense to try to highpoint, and being swamp it’s not feasible to lowpoint.

After some research I decided that no single target would give a good picture of the Forest and settled on two trails. First I would sample the Neusiok, picking up the southern third of this twenty mile trail. The northern portions are very populated, even passing through a town at one point, but the long tail is poorly maintained, lightly used, and provides access to some very representative terrain. Next I would walk the 5 mile Flanners Beach Trail which is normally popular, but has heavy hurricane damage and is largely abandoned pending repairs. There are several dirt roads traversing the forest so I also spent some time exploring that way.

Let it be said that swamps should never be visited in summer! The Neusiok was seriously overgrown and falling apart. Large swaths were underwater. Bugs were rampant (I spent the next week driven mad by chiggers). Add in 100% humidity and mid-90s temperatures and it’s almost tough to enjoy being outdoors. Almost. It’s still better than sitting at a desk.

There’s a forest service campground right at the beginning of the trail and not knowing what I would find up the trail I went ahead and grabbed a spot for five dollars. For my money I got two trees to stretch my hammock, a picnic table, and a lot of privacy.

On the bright side I saw no one at all out hiking. A few miles up the trail is a shelter and the logbook showed that some folks had been by at least a couple of months ago. If I had known about this I would have camped here! Instead I sat for a while in the shade of the overhang, dropped a short note, and carried on.

There were a couple of bridges installed on the trail at some point, probably part of the Mountains to Sea trail effort, but they had all but fallen in. A large tree lay over one, and the other was so topsy turvy I expected it to simply give up at any moment. The wood was in decent shape, so maybe more hurricane damage?

I eventually reached a long stretch that was underwater. I spent about a mile picking my way through it, keeping a sharp eye for snakes and getting torn to shreds by thorned vines while skirting some of the deeper parts. Eventually I was getting close to where the trail turns to town and it was still mostly underwater so I played around for a while and then called it.

Soaked to the knees from the water sections, and everywhere else from the humidity I reached camp shortly before dark and enjoyed a leisurely dinner. All in all this was the perfect experience for this Forest. The forest felt very alive, almost as if it were actively plotting to reclaim the trail. The underwater portions were perfect for the terrain, and the blood spilled to mozzies and thorns was just the price of admission to a very remote feeling place in the middle of much bustling activity.

Fortunately I remembered my bug net so I had a very comfortable night in the hammock.

The next morning I headed out early to drive around the Forest. There are many beautiful lakes scattered throughout and I would imagine that someone with a kayak and a fishing pole would be quite happy. I made my way to Catfish Lake and watched the sun rise through a thin mist winding through the trees. No one else was around yet so it was very peaceful.

Eventually I made my way to the Flanders Beach area. The parking area and facilities are closed and blocked off so I just found a convenient spot on the road and bushwhacked to the trail. The vegetation was thinner in this part so it was very doable. There are several ways to connect a loop on multiuse (bicycle, foot traffic) trails so I kind of made it up as I went along. I was the first one out I guess since I was covered in spider webs before long.

I made my way around to the actual Flanders Beach and again bushwhacked down to the water. The Neuse River looks more like the ocean here, brackish, wide, and tidal. The eponymous beach is soft sand with scattered driftwood. There’s little shade, but otherwise it’s a perfect place to pass the time watching seabirds and sailboats drifting in the breeze.

After a while I worked my way back up the trail and carried on. I soon came to the recreation area and everything was in great shape, but the 80 foot or so high cliffs that fronted the beach were collapsing along with the staircase that led down them. The views were incredible even without getting too close to the unstable edge.

The rest of the trail was mixed hardwoods, dropping off to tangled swamp in every low area. About noon I started to see some other trail users, although only a couple. One was a bicyclist who was apparently lost in the moment because he almost fell off his bike in startlement when he looked up and saw me. Given that the largest black bears in the world live around here it’s a pretty reasonable response to seeing a large creature only feet away from you.

What I thought would be five miles turned into about seven by the time I wound through the various trail connections. I reached my car again in early afternoon and headed home satisfied with the weekend.