Coquina Beach to ORV Ramp 4, Mountains to Sea Trail Segment 18, miles 68.1 to 70.9

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
12/21/2021	2.9 miles	1 hours 19 minutes	0'	2.2 mph	569.5

Parking: Coquina Beach, ORV Ramp 4

Maps:

• Google Maps and Gaia GPS app
• Mountains to Sea Trail Guide (really necessary as Gaia doesn't show all of the trail)

Directions:

• See MST guide for more specific directions. Start at Coquina Beach. Walk south on the beach to ORV Ramp 4.

The forecast was for afternoon rain. We started out doing a 2.9 mile section that takes you to the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge. The MST continues on the bridge. We chose not to do the bridge. At least not now. The bridge is 3 miles long. The speed limit on the bridge is 55, and cars go faster than that. The bridge has a shoulder, but there is no barrier separating cars from the shoulder. You'd have to walk along the bridge hoping that drivers are paying attention. Yeah, that just doesn't sound like fun. Especially with a dog. 

ORV Ramp 4 is just before the start of the bridge. South of the bridge is the Pea Island Preserve. The preserve goes a long ways, but from what I read, there is only a 0.5 mile section on the MST where dogs aren't allowed. We'll have to study the map more, and possibly go to the visitor section to ask questions before trying to walk this section. I don't know how practical it would be to walk around the 0.5 miles section. I don't want to walk on the shoulder of the highway. The highway is kind of interesting. Sand blows onto the highway, and we saw bulldozers pushing the sand away from the road. That just seems like a never-ending losing battle.

This section is completely a beach walk. One thing about walking on the beach we noticed. You can walk 2 miles on the beach, and look back, and your view hasn't really changed. It's very different than hiking. I've noticed that the air doesn't really smell salty here. Why is that? I've been to other beaches where you smell the sea before you see it. I've also noticed that the beaches don't have seaweed here. Is seaweed what gives beaches a salty smell? The highlight of the hike (for Glen) was that we came across a dead shark on the beach. It didn't smell too bad yet. It had a much longer tail than I would have expected - maybe as long as its body. We also saw horseshoe crabs. Krummholz got a little braver today. He runs away from the waves as they come in, but sometimes he'd run out and bite the foam. He thinks he's a bad ass.

After our beach walk, we drove south to do another section, and then the rain started. We changed plans and visited the Bodie Lighthouse. I sketched it and then we walked around. Then we went to the Wright Brothers memorial, which is run by the National Park Service. This is a small but still interesting park. Dogs are allowed, so we got to walk around with Krummholz. There are some life-sized sculptures of humans - he didn't like those at all. There is a small museum, which Glen went into, while I hung out in the car with Krummholz.