Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center to Cape Hatteras National Seashore Beach Access on NC 12 Just South of Oregon Inlet, Segment 18, miles 59.4 to 64.7

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
12/25/2021	4.6 miles	2 hours 8 minutes	0'	2.7 mph	596.7

Parking: Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, paved road between Pea Island Life Saving Station and bridge.

Maps:

• Google Maps and Gaia GPS app
• Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge map
• 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 Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. Cross street to reach beach by the ocean. Turn left on the beach and walk to the Pea Island Life Saving Station. See yesterday's description on how to hike this with a dog. We stayed on the east side of the highway, next to the ocean, where dogs are allowed.

A Christmas hiking day. Krummholz got a new ball on a rope for Christmas, which he was terribly pleased about. It's a replacement for an old one we inherited where the rope died.

We started out at the Pea Island Refuge Visitor Center again. We hiked northbound, heading towards the 3-mile bridge which we don't want to walk across. One of my friends did walk across the bridge and didn't recommend it. There were more people out today I assume because it was a Saturday. We had warmer but very windy weather, so I was still wearing a fleece. We walked past the Pea Island Life Saving Station and stopped there for lunch. I also tried to sketch it unsuccessfully. I'm a beginner, and it has a bunch of details. I was rushing because it was cold and windy sitting down. The beach right next to this area is closed off due to nesting birds. From there, we took a short path to the parking area. Note that the parking area is on a paved road. When we first turned off the highway towards the lifesaving station (immediately south of the bridge), the side road split - one way is a sandy road, and one way is a paved road. Luckily the main parking area is on the paved road. Normally you would continue north here, crossing the bridge, but we are skipping the bridge.

From there we drove south to hike another section.