Starting with 940.1 miles, 94,850 ft. ascent
Graham Church to Otway House Bed and Breakfast
15.5 miles, 100 ft.
It’s finally time to get back on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Sharon has long gone home and I need to get some trail help.
Sunday evening, I stay at Otway House Bed and Breakfast, run by Janice Mines. It is a lovely place right on US 70.
Janice breeds dogs – Labrador retrievers. She’s been doing this for 38 years. Her mother and sister are also professional breeders.
At first, I was concerned about staying in a place with all those dogs but I should have not have worried. The dogs are fenced in a large run.
They run but don’t bark all that much when I arrive. When I go back to unload my car, the dogs must have already figured out that I belonged there. She is a professional and the dogs are well-trained.
The next morning, Janice drives me down to the start of today’s hike, where I had left off almost two weeks ago just outside of Oyster Point. There John J. is waiting for me and we take off.
The trail takes us on Core Creek Bridge, part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The Intracoastal Waterway is a 3,000-mile waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. According to John, bridges on the Intracoastal have to be at least 65 feet high. So that’s where I get my altitude for the day. I walk with my two hiking poles raised high like flags so that cars can see me. John, who is quite tall, walks behind me.
We stop at a BP station and sit down for a midmorning break. I’m just in front of a bank of newspaper boxes and I see the headline “Bin Laden Killed” on the front page of the New Bern paper.
What!! With no TV and internet at the Otway B&B and no radio while Janice drove me down here, this is the first time I hear about it.
We go through the community of North River with many abandoned houses, some that look quite solid.
Other houses are stacked up on a tall foundation to prevent more flooding. This area has lots of small communities that seem to be separated by inlets.
Few stores other than minimarts. This area seems to depend on fishing and oystering but right now, the waters are closed to oystering. Not a good situation.
Cumulative after 76 days, 955.6 miles, 94,950 ft. ascent