MST Trek Day 74

We are now on Hatteras.  This morning, woke up and got an early start on Okracoke to finish that section.  It was overcast, which was nice.  We took out last ferry this morning to Hatteras and met up with Tim, the Information Officer from the NC Department of Transportation.  We gave an interview, then resumed hiking.  I dubbed today "Adventures in the Sand Part 2."  I developed a new strategy for walking on the beach.  Instead of walking the high tide line which Tennille and I cannot find, we opted to walk right at the water's edge.  We made good time and miles, but still had problems finding our turns.  We had heard that you could simply hike the beach all the way to Jockey's Ridge, so I tried that strategy.  It worked great, and we were really enjoying ourselves until we ran into the beach patrol, who informed us we could walk no further!  An endangered species of bird (don't know what kind) was nesting.  Hence, we had to turn around and back-hike 3 1/2 miles to get back to Highway 12.  After I had started hiking the beach, Jef ran into a woman and her child, a little girl who is both autistic and blind.  He told them all about me and ran down the beach to find me, but I had hiked out of earshot.  He talked with them for awhile, and the little girl even grabbed onto him and hugged him.  This was one of those times when I wish that I didn't hike so fast.  I will make a point to keep in touch with the woman, since she has already friended me on FaceBook and left me a message.  Once, again, it is encounters such as this that give me the motivation to keep doing what I'm doing.  We'll be getting to the Hatteras Lighthouse tomorrow, and are still on track for finishing on Saturday.