By Kate Dixon, Jim Grode and Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail

Explore an area rich in history—from the Revolutionary War to the New Deal and beyond—on this 66-mile route through Bladen and Pender Counties.

Segment 14 also includes an alternate route featuring a short section of the beautiful blackwater Northeast Cape Fear River. If you have access to a kayak, canoe, or SUP, you can paddle the river, but we are not aware of any local outfitters with boats for rent.

This segment is a great place to explore by bicycle as well as on foot as all but the river section and a one-mile loop trail in Moores Creek National Battlefield is on roads and multi-use trails.

• Singletary Lake State Park, which began its life as a park in 1936 when the National Park Service bought land for a federally financed work program and recreational demonstration project
• The Elwell Ferry, one of three remaining river ferries in North Carolina
• The Kelly Historical Museum, which shares the history of a community built when the Cape Fear River was the main transportation corridor in this area
• The Canetuck Community Center, which is housed in a two-room school built in 1921-22 with help from the Rosenwald Fund, which funded schools for African Americans throughout the southeast United States
• Moores Creek National Battlefield, the site of the first patriot victory in the American Revolution
• Burgaw, the Pender County seat, whose many historic buildings include the oldest train depot in North Carolina
• On the alternate route, the gently flowing water and abundant wildlife along a 4.6-mile stretch of the Northeast Cape Fear River