And my last trip proves to be a perfect close to a wonderful weekend. Jeff DeBlieu, whose wife, Jan, wrote Hatteras Journal and Wind, is the Nags Head Woods preserve director and our hike leader. He s also a talented storyteller who makes the natural history of the preserve come alive. For three hours, we follow winding trails uphill and down, marveling at the beauty of the woods and wetlands. Oaks, hickories and beeches push from the sandy soil, tangled with poison ivy and trumpet vine.
Swamps lie between ancient sand ridges, home to the stumps of long-dead trees.
We pay respects to the preserve s former residents, who lie in a hollow beneath crumbling gravestones and bleached white conch shells. And we search without success for the pileated woodpecker we can hear calling in the trees. The pileated is the largest woodpecker in North America. Huge size notwithstanding, we never spot the woodpecker - though we do see wood ducks and phoebes. In a stunning conclusion to our tour, DeBlieu guides us up the steep slope of Run Hill, a towering sand dune that has been moving slowly to the southwest for more than a century.