January 13, 2008

Today's miles: 11.0
Avon to just east of Frisco on the dunes of Cape Hatteras Seashore

I woke up to gray skies, and the wind once again at my back. I had peanut butter and banana on a bagel for an alternative breakfast. I began by trying to find the alt-route on the other side of NC-12, the old trail listed in the guidebook that would supposedly allow me to take an old beach road parallel to Pamilco Sound. I hiked half-mile or so before dead ending in some thorny brush, so I elected to return to the Atlantic Beach. Kept thinking, “red sky in morning, sailors take warning,” all day, because of the reddish glow at sunrise. I arrived at the lighthouse site, with all of the keeper’s names in marble at its base. The old lighthouse was moved to its new site using rollers not long ago. It’s a black and white brick peppermint stick.

I talked to the woman working at the museum for a long while, about barrier island ecology and shipwrecks. There were weird weather fluctuations today.

Today I got to actually take a non-beach trail! It’s called North Pond Rd, and it is gated at either end to keep cars off of it. I knew there was a chance of rain all day, but it just kept flipping on and off, so I would shed layers when the sun came out and pile my clothes and “raincoat” back on when the clouds blew over the sun and the temperature dropped 15 degrees! Hiding under a rare large tree, I felt thankful to be so compact and to finally have some natural protection from the rain and wind. This side of the OBX is a lot calmer than the direct N-S Atlantic islands.

It was so exciting (and validating) to see trail markers along the path. There were real trail blazes, and a couple of signs with the MST logo! I ran into a dayhiker with her enthusiastic dog, but otherwise just a few chattery squirrels complaining about my intrusion on their ecosystem. The sand got deep and white, and landscape less forested, more dune-landscape and at a trail, I hopped back from the dunes to the beach. The beach on the south side was calm and the sand was good for walking. A man with headphones on passed by in his truck a couple of times. I wonder what he was listening to driving on the beach on this rainy January afternoon. All I could think of was last spring going through the carwash with Ellen, AJ et al. with Rage Against the Machine playing full blast on the stereo. I miss all of those friends, a lot. I walked until it began to rain. Maybe it was a combination of the rain and nostalgia that sent me spiraling into a maelstrom of doubt, but when I was tenting out the storm at 3:30 pm, I began to question whether I wanted to follow this trip through.