Hiking the Green Swamp Preserve

 

• Date Hiked:  May 1, 2022
• Total miles Tracked: 2 miles
• Type of Trail: Hiking trail over flat ground
• Conveniences:  None
• Best Features:   Does rare natural vegetation count as a feature? 
• Worst Features:   Little worth mentioning. Bring bug spray and sunscreen.
• Wildlife spotted: none
• Vegetation: Venus flytraps, Pitcher plants, pine and shrubs
• Associated Website:   Green Swamp Preserve | The Nature Conservancy in NC 
• Primary Author:  James

The Green Swamp Preserve isn't terribly far from Wilmington or Myrtle Beach, but it's not really very close to anything. It's not really a tourist destination, nor is it a place to seek out if you're looking for a challenging hike. From a sandy parking lot, you'll be following a narrow track of bare sand through pine forest and low bushes for roughly a mile out, then a mile back on the same path. To the casual eye, it seems like a fairly boring walk. 

So what's the draw of this destination? 

Flytraps. Pitcher plants. Sundews. The barren soil creates the perfect climate for carnivorous plants, some of which are found almost nowhere else in the wild. A landscape that looks almost barren is instead a wonderland of rare species. 

If you plan to go, late May through early June is the best window for spotting the Venus flytraps since they send up flowers during this time, making them easy to spot. We hiked before they were sending up flowers, so we walked a good distance into the preserve without spotting any. We finally found a guy walking his dog who told us where to look for them. They are very low to the ground and very easy to overlook in the grass, but once you train your eyes to spot them you'll likely find dozens of them clustered together right along the trail. 

The picture above shows the challenge of locating the flytraps. They are tiny, no larger than a fingernail. The interior is pale pink, but the outer green blends easily into the numerous small leaves of the low shrubs covering most of the ground. We found that if we spotted moss beds we'd normally find flytraps mixed in. Once you do find one, you'll probably find others no more than a yard away. 

We were there a few weeks before the flytraps bloomed, but here's a stalk of one on the verge of blooming. They should be easy to find when they are flowering. 

The pitcher plants are hard to miss, since they are a few feet tall and fairly colorful. 

The sundews were probably the hardest to find. We only found a few of them at the furthest reaches of the trail where the ground was turning boggy. 

The ecology of this place feels very fragile. It's easy to see how, only a few decades past, development could (and likely did) wipe out whole species on land that the average person might have thought of as a boring patch of earth unworthy of protection. Walking through this landscape, stopping to take in all the rare plants, reminds you that even the most unlikely places can be full of beauty and wonder. 

What we did in 2022 - A Look Back

 James and I have realized that we did not publish that many posts this past year.  We've been planning some new adventures for 2023 and we have a few posts from 2022 to catch up on, but that doesn't mean we haven't been out exploring!  We had numerous opportunities to bike, hike and kayak this past year - many of our miles were on some of our close to home trails, and some others we traveled we've already reviewed on Bikes, Boots and Boats.  We also have explored some shorter trails that aren't enough to warrant a whole post.  So I thought I'd share some photos of where we did trek this past year.  

In January we started the year off doing some biking and some hiking along some game lands trails around Jordan Lake.  

This area should be full of herons when we return in the spring! (it was not)

Following an old railroad bed.  

We returned to the game lands in the spring and were wowed by the lushness of green and the wildflowers.

Follow the Yellow Wildflower Road!

We did a lot of walking on the Riverwalk here in town.  Some evenings we are surrounded by a herd of deer.  We get excited when the train rolls through during our walks too.

Rainy Riverwalk reflections

In the spring we met up with our friends Hope and Danny in Greenville, SC and rode the Swamp Rabbit trail on Saturday and the Thermal Belt Rail Trail in Spindale, NC on Sunday.  We always enjoy sharing the trails with them!

Swamp Rabbit Trail:  Heading towards Traveler's Rest   

Posing at the Gold Mine on the Thermal Belt

For contrast in weather, Hope and Danny came to town in July and we showed off our "home trail" of the American Tobacco Trail.  It was so hot that day!  But we had a great time riding together.

I really think we are about to melt in this picture!

Speaking of the American Tobacco Trail.  We ride there a lot!  Here are some random shots from the year:  

You know we weren't going to make a post without a snake!  Juvenile rat snake chilling on the trail

We'd been watching the construction of the beaver dam for a while.  We were so excited to see them!  Of course, we didn't have the camera with the zoom on it, so the phone camera did what it could.

Two beavers on the log!  Sadly, a couple of months later the Army Corps of Engineers destroyed the dam.

Many sunset (and some sunrise) rides to this part of the trail.  We've seen beavers and muskrats here too.

Our yearly photo of our reflection in an ornament from one of the festively decorated trees

We also spend a many a weekend riding on the Neuse River Greenway in Raleigh.

Summer flowers at Anderson Point Park

Stunning fall color on this damp ride

And beautiful cosmos planted along the trail.  Taken the same damp fall ride too...such a contrast in color.

Trying to get that perfect selfie

More biking with Hope and Danny!  We re-cycled the Spanish Moss Trail in Beaufort, SC when we were in the area for our yearly Pledge the Pink Breast Cancer walk.

The evening sun was shining perfectly through the windows of this abandoned cannery

On our way back from Nashville, we spent a whole day driving down the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I think we stopped at every single overlook.  We also spent time hiking too.

More biking!  We returned to High Bridge State Park in Farmville, VA for another ranger led sunset ride. We rolled into 2022 with the same ride on New Year's Eve and had a lot of fun.  On this later summer trip, we stopped and rode a small section of the Tobacco Heritage Trail in South Boston, VA.  Watch for a post about that ride soon.  

Sunset from the bridge

We took the ferry to Shackleford Banks off of Beaufort, NC and saw some wild horses.  There will be an upcoming post about kayaking with the horses.

It wasn't all wheels and feet!  We had some wonderful kayak outings.  Some paddles were just me and James, and for some other paddles we were joined by his sisters, brother-in-law and niece.    

The water was a bit shallow this summer at Falls Lake

And another chance to paddle on Lake Moultrie in South Carolina.  Such a beautiful spot!  

Reflections

Snack Break

We returned to the lake after dinner for a sunset paddle.  Such beauty.

Whew!  That doesn't include the places we went that we'll tell you about in some future posts.  So stay tuned for that post about the Tobacco Heritage Trail and the kayak with horses.  Oh, and there's a hike to the Green Swamp where we finally found some Venus fly traps, a non-flooded ride on the Danville, VA greenway, and a spectacular group paddle on the Black River in eastern NC to look forward to.  Until then, we'll leave you here with this heron contemplating lunch.