Last summer, i spent 10 days sea kayaking near Cape Lookout National Seashore, just off the coast of North Carolina. Core Banks is a true Down East barrier island. Even thought all of it's permanent residents have long been gone, you can still feel them there. You can hear their voices in the wind as it whips the sand into a fury. You can see their hard work in the old, sea-worn houses, and in the abandoned duck decoys scattered around the shores.
It's a trip through time and space, into the heart of North Carolina's true Down East. It's a place fashioned by the sea and sand and wind, and the people who called it home. Here, history if a patchwork quilt of ancient whaling stories and round-stern work boats, crab pots and clam rakes, and waters where fishermen and hunters navigate their boats by the church steeples rising over the mainland. Ducks and decoys fashion a lens through which you can see, and understand, Core Sound's environment and natural history, her folk art and her unforgettable folks.
There is no other place like Core Sound.
I spent one afternoon wandering around the tiny Cape Lookout lighthouse, enjoying a brief respite from the hot sun. One panel caught my eye. It said "These islands are nature at it's wildest, best loved as a romantic flong - an escape, however brief, from the world these lands hold at bay."
In Core Sound, knowing where you are means knowing that there is no way to draw a line between who you are and the world of marsh and beach and tangled piney woods that you call home. It means hurricane, nor'easter, mullet blow, gale. Winds such as these have shaped this place, the trees, the shoreline, and the people of the Sound. You let the salty breeze of Down East fill the sails of your imagination. You hear breezes roaring through the dunes and rising in strength, driving a century's worth of settlers off the vulnerable barrier islands and into the nearest mainland shore. You'll feel the wind of a winter dawn burn your cheeks, the winds that bring the ducks - redheads and canvasbacks, and geese cackling like children at play - and the duck hunters and decoy makers out of the past and into your hands.
The winds of the past have calmed, but history and lore cling to this sliver of coastal North Carolina likes barnacles to a skiff bottom. Once you are here, you'll know why. Core Sound is not an east place to get to, but you will learn that it's an even harder place to leave.
It's a trip through time and space, into the heart of North Carolina's true Down East. It's a place fashioned by the sea and sand and wind, and the people who called it home. Here, history if a patchwork quilt of ancient whaling stories and round-stern work boats, crab pots and clam rakes, and waters where fishermen and hunters navigate their boats by the church steeples rising over the mainland. Ducks and decoys fashion a lens through which you can see, and understand, Core Sound's environment and natural history, her folk art and her unforgettable folks.
There is no other place like Core Sound.
I spent one afternoon wandering around the tiny Cape Lookout lighthouse, enjoying a brief respite from the hot sun. One panel caught my eye. It said "These islands are nature at it's wildest, best loved as a romantic flong - an escape, however brief, from the world these lands hold at bay."
In Core Sound, knowing where you are means knowing that there is no way to draw a line between who you are and the world of marsh and beach and tangled piney woods that you call home. It means hurricane, nor'easter, mullet blow, gale. Winds such as these have shaped this place, the trees, the shoreline, and the people of the Sound. You let the salty breeze of Down East fill the sails of your imagination. You hear breezes roaring through the dunes and rising in strength, driving a century's worth of settlers off the vulnerable barrier islands and into the nearest mainland shore. You'll feel the wind of a winter dawn burn your cheeks, the winds that bring the ducks - redheads and canvasbacks, and geese cackling like children at play - and the duck hunters and decoy makers out of the past and into your hands.
The winds of the past have calmed, but history and lore cling to this sliver of coastal North Carolina likes barnacles to a skiff bottom. Once you are here, you'll know why. Core Sound is not an east place to get to, but you will learn that it's an even harder place to leave.
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