Somehow Trail Marshall managed to trek the 1175 mile Mountain to Sea Trail in just a little more than five months. He showed up at Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head about 2:00 p.m. this afternoon.
On hand were his parents and helpmate, who he said were there with encouragement when it felt as though he could not keep going.
The trail begins at Clingman’s Dome, 6,643 feet above sea level high in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The trail winds its way to the Atlantic Ocean, before beginning its last leg in Ocracoke.
That last 82 miles may be on flat terrain, but most of it is sand, so it’s not necessarily the easiest segment of the 18 sections to the trail.
Along the way Trail Marshall has been chronicling his trip, calling attention to how kind and helpful people have been. When he got to Jockey’s Ridge he made a few remarks and one of the things he observed was that before he began his walk, he had a feeling as though hatred was everywhere. But somewhere as he kept walking and meeting people, he began to realms that there are a lot of good people everywhere—people who would offer him water, or food or sometimes simply encouragement, something he mentioned often meant a lot.
He does have one more scheduled stop on the Outer Banks—a morning visit to Kitty Hawk Park, where, if weather permits, he will be walking a little bit of the trail there through Kitty Hawk Woods.
We’ll have to talk to him to find out what’s next on his agenda, but given the length and some of the difficulties of the MST, the next adventure may be difficult to top.
The Outer Banks means so much to so many people. Please consider stopping by for a week or two in a Brindley Beach Vacations home and discover how special this sandbar by the sea truly is.