Slick trip is part of trail work

Gene Huntsman, the trail master for the Neusiok nature and hiking trail, had instructed Carteret County Wildlife Club members to put aside their day of fishing, hunting or watching sports and work on a walkway deep in the Croatan National Forest instead.

The plan was for club volunteers, along with other groups, to spend a day upgrading a couple of low areas that needed spanning.

Earlier in the week, club members and the U.S. Forest Service had transported lumber to the bridging sites. It was up to us -- "volunteers" -- to do the engineering.

The day dawned gray, wet mists filling the lowlands. We were running late -- at the jumping off point we found a cluster of empty vehicles parked by the roadside. A sign with an arrow, where the trail crosses N.C. 101 between Havelock and Harlow, pointed the way.

I'd pulled on my mud-mucking, briar-stomping, snakeproof boots, loaded tools, walking stick and dog, along with backpack containing lunch, before heading into the pine savanna.

The well-used Neusiok Trail -- part of North Carolina's 900-mile Mountains to Sea Trail that starts in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and ends in Jockey's Ridge State Park at the ocean -- is about three or four feet wide, relatively clear and easy to follow. Except for an occasional fallen branch or tree, it's almost as easy to walk as a city sidewalk. It's marked well, with rectanglular strips or painted white dots about head high on almost every other tree.

We advanced through the woods, stomping through puddles, leaf beds and cane grasses. Visibility was excellent for the most part as we passed through open grounds with low sedge thickets and waist-high grasses beneath towering longleaf pines.

It was an easy half-hour walk before we arrived at a fork in the trail, one branch leading to a green-roofed emergency shelter. I could faintly hear the sounds of hammering in the distance.

The walkway, about 3 feet wide and about 100 feet long, extended over the swampy section. It was moss-covered, and the night's rain and falling mist had left it slick.

Some advice: Hard rubber boot soles can lead to problems. I found myself on my back, feet in the air, considering myself quite fortunate to land on a nice, slick walkway instead of the confusion of cypress in the icy water below.

By the day's end, the combined crews of 35 or 40 scouts, outdoor adventurers and wildlife club members had completed two sections, totaling about 400 feet, while I was rubbing new bruises.