Pocosin Wilderness

Native Americans called it a pocosin, which in their language meant "swamp on a hill." Another assessment of this seemingly flat area that rises slightly in the center might be "raised bog." Over thousands of years organic matter — basically black muck — accumulated to form a pocosin, an area highly acidic and deficient in nutrients that produces a unique biological occurrence. The thickness of the muck varies from several inches at the edge to several feet at the center. Growth on the outer rim is typically pond pine with a dense understory of titi, the shrub Zenobia (unique to pocosins), and an impenetrable jungle of greenbrier vines. Toward the center of the waterlogged goo, trees thin and grow more stunted, and shrubs and vines diminish, their tangled roots providing the only footing. You'll find the trailless Pocosin Wilderness in Croatan National Forest near the coast of North Carolina. People come to see the flora — no other national forest boasts the insectivorous Venus flytrap — and the fauna, but there is no place to camp or even easily hike through the muck. Avian life abounds here on the Atlantic Flyway, with many water-related birds, hawks, owls, woodpeckers and flycatchers. Biting insects also thrive, along with alligators and poisonous snakes.