Off the beaten trail with a dog

The one door into False Cape

North of the fence at the Virginia line is False Cape State Park: nearly six miles of oceanfront with no road into it. Virginia lets dogs in. The refuge to the north of it, Back Bay, does not — not on the trails, not on the beach, not in the car. So Virginia's own trail guide tells dog owners to come in from the south. The south is the sand you are standing on.

That makes this beach the only way to walk a dog into False Cape. Leave the truck at the line — north of it is foot traffic only — and go. Most days there is nobody. The old Wash Woods church steeple is a couple of miles up if you want somewhere to aim at; the walk is the point.

The stone where the line starts

Come back off the sand to the north end of Ocean Pearl Road. There is a trailhead there, and it is the one spot up here you can park without the beach pass, because it is not beach. A shaded trail runs west toward the sound for about three-quarters of a mile, and somewhere on the state line, against the fence, stands a stone obelisk about six feet tall. No sign, nothing pointing at it.

That is where North Carolina begins. In March 1728 surveyors from both colonies met right here, drove a cedar post into the sand, and walked west for some 240 miles to settle where one colony stopped and the other started. William Byrd II wrote the trip up afterward; his book is still in print, and still rude about North Carolina. Both of our hunts stop here.

The park with the flat water

Carova Beach Park sits on the sound side at 2011 Ocean Pearl Road, and it is the only county park in the whole 4x4 area. A 500-foot boardwalk out over the water, a boat ramp, picnic shelters with grills, and — the part that matters at three in the afternoon — the only restroom north of the pavement. The sound has no waves and no undertow and stays shallow a long way out, so after a morning of ocean he can stand in it and think. Eight in the morning to sunset.

Shade before the sand

Right where NC-12 quits, before the ramp, is the Currituck Banks Reserve. A third-of-a-mile boardwalk runs out to an overlook on the sound, and a three-quarter-mile trail leaves it north through maritime forest — real shade, on a coast that has almost none. He is welcome on a leash. Park in their lot for the walk, not for the beach; it is a two-hour lot and they mean it.

A whole other day: the ferry to Knotts Island

Nowhere near the rest of the Outer Banks, and most visitors never hear of it. From the mainland at Currituck a state ferry crosses the sound to Knotts Island in about thirty minutes, five runs a day each way, and he rides — in the truck or on a leash on deck. It is free this year.

The reason to ride it is Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge, a mile south of the Virginia line: a federal refuge that actually lets a dog walk its trails. The short Great Marsh loop is open all year; from mid-March to mid-October the long gravel loops open too, about five and a half miles round Live Oak Point with the marsh on both sides. Miss the 5:00 boat back and you are driving home through Virginia.

The island you paddle around

From the top of the lighthouse you can see it: Monkey Island, alone in the sound a mile and a half north of Corolla. A hunting club kept it for much of the last century. Now it belongs to the herons and the egrets, and to the wildlife refuge, so you do not land — you put a kayak in at the Whalehead ramp in Historic Corolla Park, paddle out, and circle it with the dog in the bow. It is theirs. You are visiting.

The lighthouse lawn

He is welcome on the grounds of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse on a leash, and the grass under the trees is the best shade in Corolla. The 220 steps are for the humans; one of you waits at the bottom with him and gets the better photograph. Open to climb March 21 through November 30.