In a recent interview, Miller talked about hiking North Carolina's coast:
Coastal similarities and differences. "Coastal terrain is obviously flatter, but there are some surprising similarities with hiking in the mountains. Consider the Neusiok Trail - which is 22 miles in the Croatan National Forest, near Havelock. There are a couple stretches that have galax and holly and a fair amount of terrain change. At times, you'd almost think you were in the Appalachians.
"There's good hiking, but you need to be intrepid. Coastal hiking has a limited window for hiking: midfall to midspring. That's the hiking season. Between bugs and snakes, you probably don't want to be there at other times.
"That said, there are shorter coastal hikes I like to do in summer. On a one-week beach vacation, hiking is a great diversion when you tire of being in the water.
"There are a couple trails in the Croatan's Crystal Coast area to consider. Cedar Point - in southwest Carteret County, near Bogue Inlet - has a wonderful trail that's no longer than 1.5 miles, much of it on boardwalk, in a wetland just off the White Oak River. It's a great little hike anyone can do. It's handicapped accessible, very close to Swansboro, and is so close to the water that it picks up the coastal wind. And that keeps the bugs at bay."
Unexpected "wow" places. "Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve is a little difficult to locate; it was not marked from the road when I was there two years ago. It's a small area on the Outer Banks, but the woods themselves are good size, 1,100 acres, and the land butts up to Jockey's Ridge State Park. On one trail, you go over a hill and go from a dense forest to sandhills.
