While traveling for the holidays, a friend and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to check out a backpacking trip in a new area: The Neusiok Trail in the Croatan National Forest in North Carolina. The Neusiok Trail is a 20.9 mile trail that traverses pine barrens and pocosins (the Native American word for the "upland bogs" that are frequently encountered throughout coastal pine barrens in NC) between the Nuese and Newport Rivers. The trail was constructed in the late 90's by the Carteret County Wildlife Club, and they continue to maintain the trail. It is obvious that they've put a substantial amount of effort into maintaining the trail. The Neusiok Trail is also part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, a 900 mile trail that traverses North Carolina and links Clingman's Dome with the Outer Banks.
There are 3 shelters for backcountry camping located along the trail. Copperhead Landing is located on the Cahoogue Creek about 3.5 miles from the northern terminus of the trail, Dogwood Camp is located fairly close to the center of the trail just south of the NC 101 road crossing, and Blackjack Lodge is located just north of the Mill Creek Road Crossing and about 3 miles from the southern terminus of the trail. The convenient and logical locations of the shelters give backpackers a lot of different options for how to split the trail up.
The shelters are advertised as accommodating 5 people each, but I think you'd have to be on real good terms with 4 of your closest friends to actually be able to squeeze 5 people into them. Realistically, they accommodate 2-3 people each. There are plenty of good tenting options at each shelter too, though. Each shelter has a shovel for digging catholes, and also a well with a hand pump for providing potable water. The pumps must be primed, but there are jugs of water at the shelter for this purpose (each hiker must be sure to remember to refill the jugs for the next hiker, though). There is also a Forest Service campground at the southern terminus of the trail, with first-come, first-serve sites and a self-service fee station (I think the fee was $8 per night).
We decided to do the trail over 2 days and camp at Dogwood Camp as it is located very close to the center of the trail. As we did the trail from north to south, we began at the Pine Cliff Recreation Area and ended at the Oyster Point Campground. We started around 10:30 am on day 1 and were in camp by about 3:30 pm. We got an early start at about 7:30 am on day 2, and were finished with the trail by 1:30. Generally, the flat and easily traversed nature of the trail made it easy to keep up a quick pace even with some lengthy breaks here and there.
Generally, the trail is fairly easy to follow and in good shape. The trail markers are a little bit confusing at first, as the trail is marked both with metal rectangles (the "official" trail marker of the Neusiok Trail), as well as both painted white circle blazes and metal white circle discs (the white circle is the "official" trail marker of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail). There is a network of horse trails in the vicinity of Pine Cliff Recreation Area that coincide with the Neusiok Trail, but we had little difficulty navigating through the junctions of this network.
Nature is in no shortage of abundance along the trail, and the trail does appear to receive only light to moderate use for hiking and backpacking. However, on much of the trail we could hear the sounds of civilization, particularly in the form of cars driving by on the highways (during the night, we heard a bunch of emergency vehicles with sirens blaring go by on NC-101). The National Forest land which the trail traverses is also not wilderness, and there is some evidence of timber harvesting along the trail. None of the above was significant enough to diminish my enjoyment of our trip in the least, but these are still good things to keep in mind so that one doesn't make the mistake of expecting an abundance of solitude and wildness.
Given that the trail was incredibly flat (elevation of the trail ranges from 0 to 20 feet above sea level), it did have the potential to become monotonous. I found, though, that the chance to hike through a new area with an ecosystem that is fairly unique among backpacking trails (coastal pine savannahs and barrens) prevented this. The trail also really isn't long enough for monotony to set in (not counting time spent in camp, it took us only 9 hours to hike the entire trail). One of the guidebooks for backpacking in North Carolina describes the trail as a good, easy destination to begin working of the pounds accumulated during the holidays. As we were doing the trail on New Years, it was exactly that for us. :)
Most guidebooks suggest hiking the trail in winter, as the weather on the coast is seasonable (highs in the 50's, lows around freezing), and there is less worry about bugs, ticks, and venomous snakes. Alligators are also apparently infrequently spotted along the trail. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any venomous snakes or alligators. We did see a dead corn snake that someone had killed by cutting its head off near the Pine Cliff Recreation, though. It saddens me that someone is probably out there patting themselves on the back for "ridding the world of vermin" when the snake that they killed wasn't even venomous.
We did encounter 3 singificant issues along the trail that others intending to hike the trail would be wise to consider in their plans:
- We encountered a number of hunters along the trail. This was something I really wasn't expecting (as the big game season in NY is over well before the end of December), and I should've checked on the season before our hike to be sure. We encountered enough hunters that I would certainly advise anyone hiking this trail during hunting season to wear blaze orange. Interestingly, NC has regulations that prohibit the discharge of firearms near an occupied hiking trail, but few of the hunters we encountered appeared to have any inclination towards leaving the trail.
- The stretch of trail between Forest Road 169 and Forest Road 124 ("Alligator Tran Road") was extremely wet, with numerous puddles 1-2 feet deep and no easy way through them without getting your feet wet. As much of the rest of the trail had copious bog bridging over other wet sections, and also given that we hiked the trail after a stretch of particularly wet weather, I suspect that this may not be as much of an issue normally. It did present an obstacle that slowed us up some, though.
- The water pump at the Blackjack Lodge Shelter was broken and unusable. I imagine that given the amount of work that the Carteret County Wildlife Club puts into the trail, the pump will be fixed before long. However, in the meantime, hikers would be wise to plan to not be able to obtain potable water at this shelter.
All in all, a good trip that was worth doing. It is always really nice to be able to get to see a new area via an overnight backpacking trip. :)
I know that this is a rather lengthy trip report for a trail that few, if any, ADKForum members are ever likely to hike, but I encountered limited information about the trail while trying to plan our hike myself. Hopefully this information proves useful to others who may stumble across this thread via a google search in the future. :)
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