Life on Paws and Wheels

Simba and I hiked the NMB Nature Trail in Little River, South Carolina , a surprisingly secluded woodland trail winding through the Peter Horry Wildlife Preserve just outside North Myrtle Beach. After spending so much time exploring beaches, marshes, waterfront boardwalks, and other coastal attractions throughout the Grand Strand, this hike offered something completely different. Instead of ocean views and salt marshes, we found ourselves walking for miles beneath tall pines through a quiet section of protected Lowcountry forest. The trail's location is part of what makes it so surprising. The North Myrtle Beach Park & Sports Complex and all of its recreational facilities are nearby, while the hotels, restaurants, beaches, shopping centers, and attractions of North Myrtle Beach are only a short drive away. Once Simba and I traveled farther into the woods, however, much of that surrounding development disappeared behind the trees. Long stretches of the hike felt far more remot...

Simba and I visited and hiked through Vereen Memorial Historical Gardens in Little River, South Carolina , a beautiful Lowcountry preserve where wooded trails and long wooden boardwalks wind through more than 115 acres of coastal forest, wetlands, salt marsh, and small islands along the Intracoastal Waterway. Despite being only a short distance from the busy attractions of the Grand Strand, the park feels surprisingly quiet and secluded. With approximately three miles of nature trails and boardwalks , Vereen Memorial Gardens turned out to be an ideal place for an easy hike with Simba. Much of our walk took us beneath a shady coastal forest before the trails transitioned onto boardwalks extending across the tidal marsh. Eventually, we reached the waterfront, where overlooks provide views across the Intracoastal Waterway and boats pass through the surrounding coastal landscape. The natural scenery alone would make Vereen worth visiting, but there is considerably more hidden throughout th...

Simba and I visited the Mary E. Morris Shipwreck on Oak Island, North Carolina , where massive weathered timbers preserve the story of a three-masted schooner driven ashore by a powerful hurricane more than 130 years ago. Today, the surviving pieces are displayed at Shipwreck Park, but these aren't timbers from a reconstruction or replica. They are remnants of the actual vessel that wrecked along this coastline in 1893. The story is especially fascinating because the Mary E. Morris essentially disappeared twice. After the hurricane drove the schooner onto the North Carolina coast and broke the vessel apart, shifting sand gradually buried much of the wreckage. For generations, the remains were largely hidden beneath Oak Island's beach until another hurricane arrived more than a century later and unexpectedly exposed substantial portions of the old wooden ship. What began as a maritime disaster in the 19th century therefore became an unusual archaeological discovery in the 20th. ...