Hammocks Beach State Park - Bear Island Trail

Want to hone your sea kayaking skills? Then go to Hammocks Beach State Park.  It's a great place to begin to learn about navigation, tides and currents as well as to enjoy some kayak camping.  I certainly learned a lot on my first overnight trip there.  My take:  Unless you are comfortable with your boat, you might not want to make this your first trip.  It isn't hard, but it does up the ante from reservoir and small lake paddling.

Vital Statistics:  Near Swansboro, Hammocks Beach SP offers two trails, one around Huggins Island and the other to Bear Island, where you can camp.  The trip to Bear Island, one way, is 2.6 miles round trip.

Most of the paddle is through marsh grass, but you do cross the Intracoastal Waterway.  When you do, watch for larger yachts.  If you're with others, cross together so that collectively you make a bigger splash of color and can be more easily seen.  Also, be ready to practice your roller-surfing skills!  The yachts often create some fun water to surf.  Other than that, you'll likely see only fishermen here and there.


Boat Ramp:  The state park service provides an awesome boat ramp for launching kayaks.  It's maybe 50 yards tops from the parking lot.


The Trail:  Look for white-over-orange markers to guide you through the sound water to Bear Island.  Most times you can spot them easily, but they are faded and, on occasion, not well placed.  (If you follow the yellow markers, you circle Huggins Island.)  As you near Bear Island, you'll paddle through a shallow lagoon to reach the landing area.


The Skills You'll Hone:  First, be mindful of the wind.  The day I crossed, the wind was gusting at maybe 20-30 mph (it was blowing hard enough to make conversation impossible) and the water was indeed choppy.  I found that I could mitigate the chop by paddling near the marsh grass on the side from which the wind was blowing.

Then there's the tide.  I hadn't thought, at all, about the tide and on the return trip enjoyed dragging my kayak across a few sand bars that the low tide revealed.  Lesson:  because the water is mostly shallow (except for the Intracoastal), cross on a high-ish tide.  If you don't, then get ready to practice your boat entry and exiting skills.

What do you see?  Oh my goodness, what a view of the Atlantic you'll have!   If you like an empty beach, you'll be in heaven! Just over this dune are all of the crashing waves you can soak in!  shore birds abound.   If you go over on a windy day, keep an eye out for sand sculptures.   Wind can do amazing things with sand!


Restrooms:  Yes, at the state park office near the launch and on the beach during the season, which I understand to be from mid-March to early November.  HOWEVER...it's quite a hike from the camping area (Half a mile?  Maybe a mile?  Hard to tell when you're walking against the sand) to the beach-side facilities.   You can also enjoy a shower there.


Snacks?  Only in vending machines at the park office.  You're on your own for everything once you leave the park office.  Food, water, sunscreen, bug repellant: everything.


Campsites?  The park provides 14 of them.  If you want to camp, make a reservation, because they are popular.

When you get to your site you can enjoy a picnic table which, if the wind is high, can double as windshield when time comes to prepare meals. (I wasn't joking about the wind.)  Beyond that amenity, you get a nice, long walk from the tip of the lagoon where you beach your boat to your campsite.  Unless you want to spend you visit hiking to and fro with your gear, up and down the dunes and across the sand, go light.


Rentals?  Not at the park office.   Just a few miles away in Swansboro you can find rental companies, but I don't know if they rent overnight.


Anything scary?  Well, yes, if you don't know what you're hearing.  And it's not the big yachts and the wakes they leave out in the Intercoastal Waterway.  It's the United States Marine Corps, which is located the next county over at Camp LeJeune.  The USMC specializes in taking any beach anywhere in the world, and the night I camped on Bear Island, the USMC was practicing something that involved something that sounded like bombs.  I kid you not.  All I can say -- after to listening to them train all night long -- is that there is "no quit" in the USMC.  They start training early and they go late.  Unless you camp during storm-prone weather, that thundering sound you here comes from the USMC.


Bug Quotient:  Could be bad, but it wasn't for me.  I think my luck was due to the high wind and the fact that my campsite was nearer the ocean than it was the lagoon.


Helpful Hint:  OK, time for full disclosure....don't make the dumb mistake I made.  If you go on a windy day, take your cockpit cover and use it when you beach your kayak.  I didn't do that and I paid for it the next morning when I discovered a kayak full of sand (yeppers, we're talking wind....).  Even though I had turned my kayak upside down to keep the sand out of the cockpit, I learned that the wind was smarter than I was and that sand goes everywhere.  Take the cockpit cover.   Use it.  You'll be glad you did.