Trip Story
The objective of this trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina was to photograph the Feral Spanish Mustangs that roam the dunes of Carova Beach. Unfortunately, we only saw one to take a picture of, and it was from a distance. However, we did manage to get in a very adventurous paddle, launching into Currituck Sound following a 10-mile 4x4 trek from Corolla across a very soft sandy beach.

The newly-created park is difficult to get information about but it has a nice boat ramp, restrooms with hot water, picnic pavilion, and plenty of parking. From the park we headed north through the tall marshlands, and after getting lost a few times, made our way into Virginia and located a spot to land. We were looking for a point close to the established hiking trails that would take us back to the beach. The landing was difficult because of the thick brush and vines that had to be cut away.

Once on shore we improvised a kayak portage system by strapping one boat atop the other and then to the cart. The cart wheels didn't do very well in the soft sand, so after about a mile and a half of bug-biting slavery, we decided to unstrap everything and carry a boat at a time directly over the dunes, bypassing the rest of the trail. The last dune was about a twelve foot slide down to the beach.

Launching into the surf and crossing back into North Carolina we knew that we had to paddle hard against the current and wind to try and find the location on the beach closest to the original launch before dark. We thought we found the right location but it turned out that we were about a mile hike away from the put in.

Once we got back our trucks at dusk and relaxed a bit in the park, we drove out to retrieve the boats and return to camp in Kitty Hawk.