Homeless - phase 3.

We are now at the beach in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.  We are staying at our friend Beth's - she has a classic old Nags Head beach cottage that her grandfather built in the late 1940s.   It is a great place to relax and to prepare.

We arrived here on the 5th of March and will leave on the 25th.  We have been preparing our gear as well as hiking.  We go to Nags Head Woods - much of it is under water because all the snow we got  in Virginia was rain here in eastern Carolina.

However, we have found some trails that are high enough to be dry and we can hike all the way out to Albemarle Sound.  There are also side trails to be explored, and a road following the Sound to keep us from getting bored.

We are also hiking at Jockeys Ridge State Park.   It is where I learned to hand glide many years ago.  This trail also goes to the Sound and on the way back you can climb the dunes to build leg strength.

Some days we also hike the beach.  This works some different muscles.  We also plan to do some bicycling to mix it up.  Yesterday we hiked about 10 miles:  In the morning, we hiked from the house to Nags Head Woods, then about 3 mi. in the woods and then back to the house for a total of 7 mi.
In the evening, we hiked Pea Island Bird Sanctuary and then a brief trip out the jetty at Oregon Inlet for about 3 more miles, 10 mi. total.  On the AT, that will be very short day.  And of course, it was all flat and  we did not have packs.

Food and gear is coming along.  We have the food ordered and it should arrive any day.  We have ordered a mixture of freeze dried dinners from Mountain House and Mary Jane's Farm, plus additional fruits and veggies from justtomatoes.com.  We have to repackage it for the trail.  Also have ordered nutrition bars for snacks but we still need to buy more instant oatmeal for breakfast.  We have plenty of gear ready to go but we are not very organized yet.

If all goes well, we should be on the trail 3 weeks from today, at the latest!