This is currently a mostly road route connecting several of the Eastern North Carolina coastal game lands. During hunting season these game lands are closed to the public. The MST has acceptable bypass routes, however, these would be considered alternate routes to this which is considered the primary route.
** NOTE ** this segment also contains a short out and back section to Harmony Hall Plantation. Runners should be sure to touch the sign just outside the gate.
For additional information on the route see the description from the Mountain-to-Sea Trail webpage.
By Kate Dixon, Jim Grode and Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail
This 39-mile segment allows hikers to explore one of the most diverse and intriguing ecological areas in the nation as well as a Revolutionary War site and the resort community of White Lake.
The route traverses public lands that protect many “Carolina Bays,” elliptical depressions all aligned in a northwest to southeast direction. The bays provide habitat for many rare and endangered species, and theories abound about how they were originally formed. Some of the more famous bays along the trail route, including Jones, White, and Singletary, are large lakes. In other places, hikers should look for bays without standing water—still with the same shape and directional alignment. The bays are named for the bay tree which grows in many of them.
At Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest, hikers can also learn about the naval stores industry, which tapped longleaf pine for tar and turpentine until the Civil War, and about the role that public-land managers in Bladen County are playing today to revive the population of endangered Red-cockaded Woodpeckers.
This segment includes several stretches through game lands and state forests that may be closed to hikers because of hunting, timbering, or burning. See the “Special Considerations” sections and hiking directions for this segment for more information about possible closures and alternate routes.
Highlights Include
- Carolina Bays at Suggs Mill Pond Game Land, Jones Lake State Park, the town of White Lake, and Singletary Lake State Park
- Harmony Hall Plantation, one of the oldest residences in North Carolina, built before the Revolutionary War
- Jones Lake State Park with its beautiful bay-forest ecosystem
- Interpretive signs at Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest about the ecology and history of the area
- The town of White Lake, a resort community where hikers can take a break to swim and sun or play putt-putt and ride a Ferris wheel!
- Interpretive signs at Singletary Lake State Park exploring some of the theories of the origins of the Carolina Bays
https://mountainstoseatrail.org/segment/13/
