GetHiking! on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail's Coastal Crescent: BW Wells/Penderlea

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We're celebrating Mountains-to-Sea Trail (http://ncmst.org) Month with a series of Saturday hikes celebrating the statewide trail's new path from Raleigh to the coast, the Coastal Crescent route.

Though the MST is flat through the preserve it's slow-going for most hikers, thanks to pace-slowing ecological diversity of this 117-acre wet pine savannah. In excess of 245 native grasses, shrubs, trees and wildflowers share this property, with more species added regularly. You'll find your coastal favorites — longleaf pine, sweet bat and loblolly bay — and the exotic, including two species of pitcher plant. Noted North Carolina naturalist Richard LeBlond will help us make sense of it all, as will Jesica Blake, Director of Stewardship for the NC Coastal Land Trust, which has preserved the property.

We'll spend an hour and a half or so at BW Wells, have lunch, then head to a nearby historical stop on the MST's Coastal Crescent route, the Penderlea Homestead Museum (http://www.penderleahomesteadmuseum.org/). There, Director Ann Cottle will give us a tour of this, the first of 152 homestead projects in the U.S. created under FDR (http://www.biography.com/people/franklin-d-roosevelt-9463381)'s New Deal (http://www.history.com/topics/new-deal) program.

More information on this hike can be found on the Great Outdoor Provision Co. web site. (http://greatoutdoorprovision.com/2016/05/exploring-mountains-sea-trails-coastal-crescent-route-bw-wells-pine-savannah-penderlea-homestead/)