Contributed By Ben Jones, Coastal Crescent Project Manager, Friends-of-the-Mountains to the Sea Trail
Despite a drizzly day, volunteers pushed us closer to completion of a new trail at Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest in November. This section of trail is the first step to opening an additional seven miles of MST that will cross Turnbull Creek near the Town of White Lake.
The trail we are working on now connects the MST in Jones Lake State Park with Turnbull Creek ESF and its existing trail network. When finished, the linked trails will be 14 miles long, the second longest stretch of MST in the Coastal Crescent.
I continue to be amazed at how far people come to help build trail in this area. At our last workday we again had some people coming two or more hours to work with us, including from Carolina Shores, Greenville, and Raleigh. It was exciting to see new faces doing something together and building community on the trail.
As the rain picked up and become heavier, I had to force everyone to quit because they were set on forging ahead. Nan Snyder of Hope Mills said, “It’s like being a kid again, this is just like what I used to do in the woods by my house growing up in Southern Pines.” We are really looking forward to our next workdays on December 20th and December 28th as well as all of our continued work in Eastern NC.
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