Well a lot of people didn't catch my little notice in a thread below on where I was going. Though I wonder if this sotry rivals Nathans camel one. Let me give abreif overview:

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night one
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fri 15:45: me an 2 freinds ready to leave on time

fri ~19:30: four other freinds show up ready, late. we start the trek to Ocracoke

fri 23:50: thanks to the late folks we barely make it in time for the 00:00 ferry ot ocracoke

sat 00:45: find campsite I reserved, turned out to be someones backyard with 18 pnumbered
picnick tables setup. We decide to look for hotels.

sat 01:05: hotels all closed(luckily!); we figure we got the gear, why not camp on the beach?!

sat 01:30: find a concealed spot between the sand dunes and set up (wish I had brought the AAA cammo netting I had back at home, the huge tent some of them had was still pretty visible)

one clarification, the reason we kinda hid the night before was because its not really allowed for folks to camp on the beach any other place than Portsmouth Island. . . although there was a guy sleeping under the stars, we think he was a local and the park rangers didn't really bother him (they were riding around).

The beach was amazing! Despite the new moon, things were remarkably visible without lights. you could see the waves crashing from a distance, you could see where grass was and wherer it wasn't, you could see jeeps off in the distance.

The sky was another story all together, the clearest sky I have every seen, for the first time in my life I was away from the lights enough and knew enough about the sky to enjoy it!

I could see leonids meteors falling in the car ride down. When I had gone outside it was great! About 1-6 I could catch every minute! I decides to sit out next to the shore in a collapsable recliner and watch it. That and I went walking around the beach a bit.

The sand was spectacularly phosphorescent! Right near the surf, when you stepped down the it would light up within 6 inches to a foot around your feet! (I understand this is from some form of algea that was deposited?)

all in all:
- the most spectacular beach I have ever seen (and large/distant beach, lot of sand to traverse to go to the coast from the dunes we were camped in)
- the most spectacular night sky I ever saw!
- the most shooting stars I have ever seen (I could count them on my hand before, had little luck with meteor showers in suburbia)

sat 04:30: I went to bed.

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night 2
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sat 08:00 woke up to a low sun, paked everyhingup, went to the visitors
center by the beach and airport (open walled building, nothing
there really) and cooked breakfast.

sat 09:30 left for town to round up a boat trip to portsmouth island/

Portsmouth island is an uninhabited island, though during today there are a few park rangers and a coast gaurd station, but at night they leave and go home.

sat 14:45 after rounding up a boat, we leave with all our 'essentials' (I still
think we packed too much)

sat 15:15 boat captain sets us off at the nearest dock to the side of the
island we were to camp on. we then hiked about 30-45 minutes
until we foudn a spot we wanted to camp at. We set up and
explored around the island. Until it got dark. . .

there is an amazing diversity there of land from tidal planes to dunes to grassland, forrest, marshland, beaches, scrubland, and all of it is so integral to navigation! (in Va I am only used one terrain type: trees)

heres a pic: <http://24.4.157.179/images/portsmouth_island.gif>;

sat 18:30 That night we settled down, and I just looked at the sky, one so
dark you could see they pillowyness in the Milkyway overhead,
then it got cold.

sat 20:00 I went to my tent and got some sleep.

sun 05:00 I got out, and set my sleeping bag up in the foldable
recliner and sat. The sky was the damnest thing I ever saw! I
could not look anywhere without seeing a meteor fly by within
seconds!!! two and three at a time would apear. One went off out
of my feild of vision so bright it lit up my sleeping bag and the
campsite around it! Some were pretty close in, and I could you
could see them weaving excitedly as they entere the
atmosphere, leaving this wavy trails behind, others were high up
they looked like fast moving satelights. Some I could swear fell
right into the ocean. then I notices this slighly light tint over the
dune by our campsite, so I picked everything up and moved it to
a good dip between two higher dunes that fell 6 feet directly to the
waves rolling across the sand.

There I sat the rest of the night, warm in a sleeping bag , reclining
on the sand, corona in had watching the tide roll in beneath
meand and meteors zip through the sky above me until the sun
poked above the ocean and drowned it all out.

sun 07:00 a friend came by and it was tiime to pack up, we had an hour and
a half - two hour trek with 55 lb packs through *everything* the
island had to offer including 300metrs of 6 inch water to wade
through to catch our arranged boat ride home.
sun 10:35 hike was over, was fun in fact. through the wind and cold and
sand in our food, and heavy packs, I would do it all again in a
second. It was definitly worth it.

-Justin Kelly