Hammock Hills Nature Trail

Just across from the National Park Service’s Ocracoke Campground, the Hammock Hills Nature Trail is a 3/4-mile trail through the island’s maritime forest and salt marsh. We decided we would check this out before going to see the bank ponies and then the beach . The hike takes about 30 minutes. Unless you are in our geriatric world and it takes a bit longer.

We discovered along the trail a great collection of wonderful pine cones.



Judy could not stand not bringing some back to Gilmer County. She started collecting and kept replacing the smaller ones with larger specimens. She ended up being able to transport only six of the critters.

We did not see any animals on our walk.

This was the only evidence of our feathered friends.

WARNING!!

If you travel this path. Dip your body in copious quantities of insect repellent containing DEET. This helps with mosquitoes but did little to distract the yellow flies from our bodies. Many "yellow flies" were encountered on the trail and were persistent in obtaining a blood meal once they found their Appalachian hosts. These critters are related to our deer flies. OUCH! They hurt when they bit and fed on our blood. I thought it would have been appropriate for the National Park Service to provide an IV transfusion station at trails end to replenish the volume of blood we lost!

We were happy to end this trail experience and leave the yellow flies to feed on our awaiting tourists.



Tomorrow - The Bank Ponies.