[gentle music] [gentle music continues] - Out of the blue, I thought of my grandfather.

This powerful image, it just kind of hit me.

Standing on the causeway at Lake Mattamuskeet with my grandfather when I was six years old, it was over 50 years ago, and there were so many waterfowl.

There were swans and geese and ducks.

That really left a mark.

I thought this would be a good time to come back and just really immerse myself in the history of Lake Mattamuskeet, the birds, and visit that land.

I remember coming out, standing on the causeway, holding his hand, and it was late fall, and as he pointed up, a flock of birds flew over to Lake Mattamuskeet, like they have for thousands of years, from as far away as Alaska.

[birds chirping] So the trick to staying warm in a covered wagon, the ends are open, the wind just howls through it.

You can't heat a covered wagon.

What you do is you heat yourself and eat.

You need to know, before I just munch down on this beautiful plate, you need to know that Polly's eaten first.

[gentle music] When traveling with any animal that you rely on to help you on your way, that animal eats before you do.

Oh, that's so good.

The last meal you eat before you go to bed in cold weather, it can really determine if you're gonna sleep warm and cozy that night, or if you're gonna freeze.

Well, it's time to go to bed.

I've got my wool hat on.

I'm gonna sleep in that.

Keep my head warm.

I'm gonna lay down in the bed roll and then throw my blankets, probably throw one on top, and go to sleep.

Goodnight, Mattamuskeet.

Goodnight, Polly.

[wildlife chirping] You know, night noises are probably a lot more mechanical in most cities, but out here on Lake Mattamuskeet in late January, boy, it's rich with ancient, ancient sounds.

[gentle music continues] Ah.

I'm cozyish.

Just laying in the wagon.

It's windy outside.

It's gonna be a gray, cold day.

At least start that way.

Ah, I'm not a morning person.

So it's 25 degrees, so you don't just whip up a cup of coffee, 'cause your water's frozen.

You don't just cook sausage, because your oil's frozen and your sausage is frozen.

Everything is frozen.

And your fingers are frozen.

But it's totally worth it.

[gentle music] Think three should be enough.

[gentle music continues] Ready to go, Polly?

Polly's really kind of the mule of my life.

I've owned her going on 20 years.

It's been, I guess, co-ownership.

She's taken part of my life, and I'm kind of taking care of her.

This is such a special mule.

This one really gets me.

[Polly huffs] Ah.

But she's just not any mule, she's probably one of the most traveled mules in the country.

So we've had some really big, big trips.

She doesn't need to go across America anymore.

So we're gonna take this short trip and see Lake Mattamuskeet.

Have you been in a wagon before?

Oh!

[laughs] Welcome, welcome.

You picked a dramatic day.

[gentle music] [gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] The first day out, Polly gets excited.

She wants to trot, and I have to ease her back.

She just wants to go.

So there's this energy of, like, "I'm finally on the road."

Our minds are connected, and so I'm excited.

You hear this truck coming up on her?

So these roads weren't designed for mules.

So, people don't expect to see 'em, so you've gotta really be careful.

And she's a phenomenal mule because you'll have big trucks coming towards us, just roaring, the tires roaring.

She holds the course.

It's first day out on our Mattamuskeet ramble.

It's a really emotional thing with me, and here we are now doing what I absolutely love, and that is driving up the road with Polly.

We're heading towards Fairfield.

It's the third week of January.

It's winter.

And folks have been telling me, "Oh, man, oh, man, it's gonna snow, it's gonna snow."

I assume it's like a salt or a brine solution put down preemptively, so when this snow falls, it won't stick as much.

I have no idea how this is gonna affect Polly's and my trip.

A nice, light snow, absolutely no problem to drive a wagon through.

What you wanna watch out for is ice.

This may seem foolish looking, you know, at it from the outside, but like, you're out here.

Like, listen to the clip-clop of the hooves.

Listen to her hooves on that pavement.

[hooves clip-clopping] It's beautiful.

You hit a couple bumps, and suddenly rattle a little bit.

This is an old field wagon.

It's called a buckboard, which is...

The reason they call it a buckboard is it's got no suspension, so when it hits a bump, the bed that I'm sitting on, it just rattles on the axles.

This is straight on the axle.

So it just, it'll rattle the crowns off your teeth.

[gentle music] There's a definite trajectory that's different traveling with a mule than a bike or a car or any mechanical means.

Because when you travel at three miles an hour, which is Polly's pace, you start seeing and tasting and hearing the world.

I felt like I was in Kansas, Oklahoma.

Like, any of the great big western plains.

Perfectly flat, massive fields, and rich, black dirt.

It's got a feel of the west.

Mattamuskeet is known for birding, the hunting, the fishing.

But there was a book by Lee Calhoun, and I'd read about this Mattamuskeet apple in there.

The way word of mouth goes, I've been here a couple days, you start talking with people.

And hang on, here comes a car.

Hey.

It's a very social way to travel.

Like, you wave at everybody.

And I heard that there's actually some of these Mattamuskeet trees are growing in the yard here outside of Fairfield, which is just pretty amazing to me.

I actually thought the apple was extinct.

I'd heard there was a lady named Betty that actually owned a couple of these apples.

It's good to meet you, Betty.

I've heard about you.

I've heard you have- - I've heard about you.

[both laughing] - But you're, like, apparently you have these, like, Mattamuskeet apple trees.

- I do, I do.

And these are some of the apples.

They're ugly.

They're hard.

- That's amazing.

- They're small, but they're delicious.

- [Bernie] I saw the trees, and I ended up meeting her friend, Walter, who, like, verified, like, these things exist.

- As it turns out, the Mattamuskeet apple does very well in the soil here.

This is not apple country.

You're in apple country.

- No, exactly.

- But the legend is that the Mattamuskeet Indians many years ago found an apple seed in a wild goose's gizzard.

And that's the legend.

[uplifting music] - [Bernie] There was a native American warrior who was out hunting.

So he was out hunting.

There was a goose flying overhead.

He pulls back his arrow.

He shoots the goose.

As he's going through the gizzard or the crop, cleaning the goose, he finds these seeds, these apple seeds.

He plants the seeds, and they spring up, and that is where the Mattamuskeet apple came from.

- But as you see, it's a little irregular.

Has lots of specks on it.

- Very speckled.

Really speckles.

So you're peeling it.

- Oh, oh, oh, the Mattamuskeet apple, it must be peeled.

The peel is bitter.

- It's an amazing color.

- You see, the flesh is a yellowish, greenish.

- Yeah.

- Sweetly tart.

- Wow.

That's beautiful.

Well, it's an amazing thing to actually see one, like, in the wild, actually from a sprout.

Like, the whole tree is Mattamuskeet.

It's not from a grass.

- That's right.

It's a local tree, and that's really what is important for local people, people away who have roots.

- Finally found one.

I thought it was literally extinct.

It's like I'm touching a ghost.

Like, literally, I really thought these were gone.

When I held that apple that Betty gave me, with all the white speckles that looked like stars on it.

There you go.

It was tied so tightly to a place.

Easy, hop, easy, hop.

Step up.

And not just in name only.

They are wonderful.

It truly felt like...

This is good.

It fell from the sky.

And in a way, it did.

Good girl.

It fell out of the sky inside a goose and grew here in Mattamuskeet.

[gentle music continues] Oh, Polly, oh, Polly.

So I'm making Polly just wait here a moment before we get out in the road.

All right, Polly, step up.

These wagons turn pretty wide.

G, G, G, G. Steady.

G. There we go.

Little bumpy.

[chuckles] [gentle music] [hooves clip-clopping] [gentle music continues] So right about the time Walter was wrapping up about these beautiful speckled Mattamuskeet apples, I was starting to see different speckles.

They were snowflakes.

[laughs] It was something else falling from the sky.

[gentle music continues] So kind of what's up now is it's probably an hour before dark.

It's starting to snow.

And what had originally been kind of a plan to tour Hyde County, Lake Mattamuskeet, we gotta adapt it a little bit because there's like five inches of snow called for.

We've got a semi coming here.

Let's hang on a second.

Listen to that thing coming up on us.

Steady, Polly, steady.

Steady.

Big grain truck.

That's a good mule.

Good girl, Polly.

It's getting late.

It's getting dark.

The snow's coming a lot harder than we thought.

We need to get outta the weather, get Polly safe and sound.

Every night, she needs to get off the road.

She needs food, water, and shelter.

She needs that.

We had a place to stay, but we had to get there.

[gentle music continues] These old lines, I just braided them out of a rope.

Very old.

I drove Polly across America on these lines.

[gentle music] A lot of times, when I set off with Polly, I don't know where I'm gonna stay.

I don't preplan my trips, I just go.

Which means I have to knock on a lot of doors.

I literally go up to somebody's house, like this home here, and knock on their doors, introduce myself, and say, "Hi, I'm Bernie.

This is my mule, Polly.

Could we camp in your field, or your yard, your pasture?"

We're getting close, Polly.

And I'm really lucky, 'cause tonight we have a place to stay.

The beautiful way that things are just hooked together, it's a daisy chain of people, events, places, is that Betty Carawan, who owned the tree, said, "You know, you could go stay at the Methodist church."

Keep snowing.

It's piling up.

I see the flashing light ahead, and then I feel it's like that lighthouse, somewhere around there is where I'm gonna anchor this mule for the night.

Oh, Polly, stop lights apply to mules too, whoa.

And sure enough, we get into Fairfield.

Step up.

Easy, G. Find the Methodist church.

I know I should say the Methodist church was more beautiful, but with the snow coming down, the wind howling, and Polly needed to get out of the weather, that tree had its own very powerful beauty.

We're blocked from the wind by the church in front of us, the tree behind us.

I took care of Polly, put all her blankets on her, fed her, watered her, and then it was time to stay warm.

[snow crackling] Listen to that.

Hear that?

That's actually snow falling into the wagon and landing in the skillet.

This olive oil, kinda like this thick green jam.

Got your lantern.

Little cup of hot tea there.

Like, my wallet, coffee, little flask of whiskey, fatwood.

There's the book on Lake Mattamuskeet, Hyde County.

Two jars of peanut butter.

That's Polly's brush.

[gentle music continues] The last thing I heard, it sounded like somebody was drizzling sugar on the canvas tops.

[gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] It was a whole different world.

It didn't look anything like North Carolina that I've seen, let alone Hyde County.

It was a completely different world.

It is, like, total white.

Everything is whited out.

[wind blowing] We've had our morning... Oh, man.

Just put my hand down and just reached into a snowbank.

It's pretty cold this morning.

[gentle music] I think it's about 24 degrees on the thermometer I carry in the wagon.

And the first thing I did once I got up was thought of Polly, and it was just beautiful.

Polly was just eating some grass, kind of plastered in snow.

Her neck, her ears, and her mane had a little frosting of snow on 'em.

And I could just tell she's warm because she's just got this really pleasant expression, and she's also double blanketed.

There is no agonizing whether are we gonna go or are we not gonna go?

We're not going.

Polly and this wagon are gonna hunker down.

Snowed in in Fairfield, on the shores of Lake Mattamuskeet.

I think the tundra swans probably feel very much at home.

Or maybe they're like, "Oh, man, no, we left all this snow.

Now we're in Hyde County and it's, like, snow again."

When that sun comes back out tomorrow, I don't know what it's gonna come back out, and when I finally feel those rays from that distant star, like, heating me up, I'll be thinking of this moment, and I'll think of that moment.

But I want to feel 24 degrees, and I wanna feel 100 degrees.

And right now [laughs], I'd kind like to feel 100 degrees.

[laughs] I think the rest of the day is gonna be about trying to warm up.

So it's gotten up to about 30 degrees out here.

So here's Polly, got her blankets on, munching away on her hay.

What I'm gonna do now is stick the thermometer under the blanket and see, measure how warm she is.

Ready for this experiment, Polly?

So, she's got on two blankets.

It's like a well insulated roof.

The best insulated roofs is the one that has the snow on it the longest.

And let's see how warm it is here under Polly's blanket.

It's like 45 degrees, yeah.

So that's a lot warmer than just being out here in the snow.

But in a very minor way, Polly and I are in a bit of a bind.

I had hoped, I had planned, to hook Polly up this morning and go down the causeway and see more of Lake Mattamuskeet.

Well, that didn't happen because we had a storm storm, for crying out loud!

And so, kind of stuck in place.

And yet sometimes when you're stuck in place and you're exposed and there's some things you could use, and you're traveling through a place where you're not from there, you're just, you're traveling through, and someone comes up to you and says, "Hey, hey, are you okay in there?

Is there anything you need?"

Thank you.

"Do you like fruitcake?"

[gentle music] I think he said he and his wife cooked like 100 something of these.

Oh, Ashton, it's good to meet you.

- [Ashton] Nice to meet you.

- Thank you for sending over the lovely food.

- [Ashton] You're welcome.

- [Bernie] Jar full of chili in Duke's Mayonnaise jar.

[laughs] - She saved all our empty jars for stuff like that.

- I never knew the folks of Hyde County and on Lake Mattamuskeet made fruitcake.

She loves butter bread.

It's got, like, the requisite red cherry, green something.

Oh, man.

And that fruitcake, oh, man.

Straight from the oven.

You've been incredibly generous.

Polly, we've gotta ration our butter bread.

That's incredibly good.

It's gonna get really cold tonight, so I'm just eating nonstop.

And when I'm not eating, I'm feeding Polly, who's outside.

That's so good, I'm gonna have another slice.

I met Willie Mack, who gave us 10 gallons of hot water, which was wonderful.

So I made Polly, like, this really nice, like a hot mash with her feed, steeped in this hot water.

And I even literally sprinkled a little sugar on top of her mash to make it, like, extra tasty.

Pascal, I think there's a little rum in your fruitcake.

[laughs] She's on her, like, third helping.

Ah.

If you move through a community, you'll never meet the people.

If you get stuck there in a wagon in a snowstorm, pretty soon, you're gonna meet everybody.

- Oh, you sweet girl.

[Bernie laughs] This kitty is not used to big- - [Bernie] That kitty's like, "What?"

- Nice kitty is like, "What is that?"

- [Bernie] And provide you with pretty much everything you need, from shelter to food, stories, to the history of a place, to companionship.

- Hey, yeah, I'm Walter.

[chuckles] - That's that magic of traveling slowly.

- I see crumbs on your lips.

[Bernie laughs] Hey.

Oh, does that feel good?

- I think so.

- [Bernie] Oh, he's catching the sunset.

- Oh, yeah, it's gorgeous.

[birds chirping] - Spent another really cold night in the wagon.

When I spoke with Betty when she was showing me the apple trees, she mentioned I could stay at the Methodist church, and I knew I had a day, and I was so getting Betty into that church.

- Well, my mama was a music teacher, and she taught all the kids.

She played in the church since she was nine years old, she told me.

I wanted to play just like mama, but I didn't wanna practice.

Pat was her star pupil.

He's our pianist now.

Yeah, Pat calls me before he can't be here.

- So if he can't make it, he says- - I pitch in, yeah.

But I need a little notice.

[gentle music] - Thank you so much for bringing me to the church.

I'll tell you the first thing that struck me.

I'm parked outside the church in the snow, under this beautiful big live oak tree.

- [Betty] Right.

- And when I walked into the church, the first thing that struck my eye, is it's like...

It's like you're under this huge snowy tree inside.

- Well, we kind of think it's like a ship upside down.

- [Bernie] Yeah.

Well, you're absolutely right.

- My parents came here, they got married here.

I got married here.

And some of the kids were baptized here.

We sprinkle to be baptized, but you can also go down to the lake and be immersed.

And the choir always sang from the balcony, they tell me.

Careful.

My great-grandfather worked on these stairs.

So, he was one of the carpenters.

- [Bernie] Back age, they put these beautiful curves in.

- [Betty] They say all of it was by hand.

- So tell me about these rods, two steel rods held together with, like, a turnbuckle.

- [Betty] Yeah, they were put in to stabilize it during the storms.

- [Bernie] Lake Mattamuskeet just seems to permeate through the community.

What stories do you remember from that time?

- I didn't ask very many questions when I was young.

Now I wished I had.

I was born in 1937.

The roads were not paved and no electricity.

The birds loved it.

They were just so plentiful.

We were called the duck hunting capital of the country.

[gentle music] Now, I grew up on the edge of the lake.

Now, they didn't farm it all the way across.

My father was a farmer, and he tried it.

- So this is your dad, like, farmed what is now Lake Mattamuskeet.

But there's a lake there.

- I would ask Mama, I said, "Mama, why did they want to farm the lake?"

And she says, "Well, honey, they saw all this cleared land."

So they didn't have to clear it, but they had to drain it.

And that's what the pumps were for.

- [Bernie] So they had these giant pumps.

- Giant pumps.

- Like, suck the water out.

- Yeah, and of course, it wasn't successful.

Well, I think it kept filling back up with water.

- [Bernie] Wow, but it's amazing that your dad did that.

- [Betty] Well, he was a successful farmer, but it was hard enough to farm the land.

Yeah, Pat calls me before he can't be here.

Sometimes it's two hours he lets me know, but I need a little notice.

[gentle piano music] - I was that moved by her playing.

Just the relief, being in a safe harbor with Polly.

That, to me, is true beauty.

[gentle piano music continues] [gentle music] [gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] Kudos to the Hyde County snow consultants.

They did a great job.

Those roads were open the next day.

Conditions were good enough to travel.

Have a good day!

Thank you, Fairfield!

[laughs] Love that music!

So Polly's really keyed up [laughs] and ready to go.

You give that gal one day off and she's ready to go the next day.

The cold air, the good feed.

And now the sun comes out.

You feel it on your skin.

Polly, just full of energy, as I am.

Going through this beautiful, snowy landscape, snow either side of me, it just looks so out of place here in North Carolina to have this really northern scene.

And so there's one way across Lake Mattamuskeet.

It's the causeway.

It's about six miles long.

We are heading out onto the causeway now.

Lake Mattamuskeet is a huge lake.

It's like 55,000 acres.

And yet as far as I can see, there's ice.

[gentle music continues] Wow.

Looks like a duck hunter going by.

People are driving by us.

They really slowed down.

Like, I'm able to make eye contact with every driver that's passing me.

Lots of people stopped, took a photo.

Because as I tell people, this is a hybrid vehicle.

Half horse, half donkey.

[laughs] Just having these random encounters with the people where you're traveling along.

How you doing?

Somebody pulls over, and you get to visit.

- [Bystander] Polly eat apples?

- Oh, only if they're Mattamuskeets.

[laughs] And she likes, she loves apples.

Apples, oranges, bananas.

- Bananas?

- She loves bananas.

- Howdy!

- Howdy, howdy!

- Howdy, howdy!

- How are you?

- How you doing?

- Hey, man, I'm Bernie.

- Thomas.

- Thomas.

It's awesome to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

- This is Polly.

- Polly.

- Polly, my mule.

We're just rambling.

And my granddaddy brought me here in 1974.

- Oh, really?

- I was six years old.

- What'd you come to fish, to hunt?

- Look at birds.

- Look at birds.

- And they were everywhere, and so it's just an amazing thing to come back and see Mattamuskeet.

He brought Polly and I some collards, some turnips.

And they had like ice and weeds and that rich dirt from Hyde County.

[gentle music] So how would you cook these?

How do you like cooking collards?

- I cut mine up, put 'em in a pot.

Pigtail, smoked turkey necks, smoked neck bones.

Couple of hours, they're delicious, yes.

- I got a piece of fatback.

- Fatback.

- In the wagon.

- Oh, that'll work.

- [Bernie] And how do you cook your turnips?

- Turnips, I usually cut mine up and boil 'em along with some neck bones.

[laughs] - Smoked turkey.

- Yeah, smoked turkey.

- Fatback.

- Yes, yes.

I had my neighbor, he was 90 some.

He's passed now.

But in those later years, he wouldn't eat anything.

And I cooked him some rutabagas in neck bones, and his folks said that was the first time he had eaten in a long time.

[laughs] - [Bernie] Wow, that's beautiful!

Well, this is the part where we start bartering.

You give me the collards and I'll give you the apple.

- You were a poker player in your previous life, right?

- It just doesn't seem right.

What I'd really like to do, Tom, is give you ride in the wagon.

- Really?

Are you kidding me?

- I kid you not.

So first of all, thank you so much.

- [Thomas] You're certainly welcome, thank you.

This is so cool.

- You'll probably have the only ride in this mule wagon on Lake Mattamuskeet.

And here's the thing, Thomas, this is the last trip that Polly's on.

- Oh, wow.

- Because she's 33.

And I will not cry here, I'm telling myself, but you'll be the last person that Polly ever pulls on a big trip.

- Wow, 33.

- Yep, she's pulled a wagon across America.

- Wow.

- [Bernie] She's done done a lot of trips, so you get the honor getting the last on the road trip.

- Wow.

So, is 33 years higher than what would be average?

- [Bernie] Yeah, it is.

She's in better shape than most.

- That means you've loved her well.

[laughs] - She's been loved a lot.

There you go, ease on in there.

Perfect.

- All right.

- All right.

All right, Thomas.

- [laughs] Oops, excuse me.

- That's all right, that's all right.

Whoa, Polly.

Let's go.

You nervous, Thomas?

- A little bit.

[both laughing] - Just don't jump.

I got to brake.

All right, Polly, step up.

Good girl.

There we go.

- So is that all you had to say, was, "All right, pull it"?

- Yep, that's all I have to do.

So I'll say her name, and then off we go, off we go.

And so she's like, she's got a lot of energy.

And so I loaded Thomas up and, you know, down the causeway we went.

Only by traveling slowly that these interactions are gonna happen.

Oh, I got a question for you.

- What's that?

- You like pone bread?

- Yes, that's one of our things around here!

- Look at this, Thomas.

- You don't even know what a pone bread is from the western part of the state.

- Well, I just happen to have one!

[both laughing] - Boy, I got an apple and a pone bread!

[laughs] - [Bernie] So, that's where all these magical interactions and food and stories and this richer tale of a place starts building.

- I've enjoyed it.

- That's wonderful.

- All right.

Thank you, Mr. Bernie.

- I'll be thinking of you when the collards are cooking up, bubbling up, that piece of fatback.

- Don't forget the fatback or the pigtail.

[both laughing] - Thank you so much, Tom.

We'll see you around.

- [Thomas] When I tell this story, they're not gonna believe it.

[laughs] - Whoa, whoa.

- Hang on.

Oh, thank you so much!

We're going to the Carawan Lodge, come visit!

Be there tonight!

I've been on the road three days, stopped one, and already I'm getting a sense of Lake Mattamuskeet and Hyde County.

I'm sinking into that fabric, right down with the dirt and the turnips.

[gentle music continues] We're in the kind of the middle of the causeway that crosses the lake.

Polly's catching her breath, she's had a good, little workout.

And we're standing where, around 1974, I came here with my granddad to look at birds.

[geese honking] [geese honking continues] Ah, it's just so beautiful.

All these geese are landing on the ice.

As I look around me, I think of my granddad coming here, you know, and I look out at it now, and it's like we're just surrounded, Polly and I, by this just big lake.

[gentle music] But the thing is, it wasn't always so.

Way back when, somebody decided this would be a good lake to drain and farm.

It was like, "We'll drain this lake.

We'll all get rich.

We'll improve the county.

We'll make it one of the richest in the state."

The land was, like, surveyed out, and they decided where these irrigation canals are gonna go.

They started digging these canals to drain the lake.

Pumps were drawn up.

They were designed, they were built.

They constructed the biggest pumping station in the world.

This is like hardcore big dreaming, big doing.

They used impellers, and they would suck the water from Lake Mattamuskeet, and they would lift it up, and they would pump it into a canal that ran like seven miles to the Pamlico Sound.

They'd pulled it off.

They had drained Lake Mattamuskeet.

It was now ready for the plow, ready for the combine.

This photo just, it's just haunting.

Are we in Oklahoma or Kansas?

But this is the bottom of Lake Mattamuskeet, where the literature's like, "Buy your plot one day and plant your seed the next."

Like, "There's not a rock or a stump in the ground to stop your plow."

And it did for a couple years, it worked, and they grew, apparently, some absolutely incredible crops.

But it's fascinating that they did it.

An incredible feat of engineering.

It's just seemed like this twist in logic or history or ambition.

But there was something kind of supernaturalist.

Like, these people were so tough, they could drain a lake to grow a crop of corn.

God, where have you been?

- [Passerby] Everywhere.

- [laughs] It's dirty there.

- [Passerby] Very.

[geese honking] - Good girl, good girl.

That's it.

Oh, what a champ.

Good girl.

I'd heard, again, this is this word of mouth, like Betty in the church... Good girl.

Beautiful.

That there was the Carrowan Lodge, that I'd be able to stay there.

We're here, sissy.

We made it.

- Hi.

- Hey!

[chuckles] I walk into the office, and she has her two kids there, Charlie and Carter.

Start with the ceiling.

What's up with the ceiling?

- It's very old.

- That's very cool.

- It was built in the early '40s, and it was my husband's grandfather and grandmother's little place, and it's been a little hotel.

- I no sooner get in the door, introduce myself.

Wow, so what do you got there?

That's for me?

And one of em comes up to me, "Here, here's your birds, here's your birds!"

So these are beautiful.

So how do you, like, cook or clean these?

And without hesitation... Where do I start cutting?

Breasted those ducks right there on the glass counter of the check-in.

- Like, on either side of the breastbone, yeah.

- Okay.

- What's in there?

Meat?

- Duck meat.

I gotta say, this is the first time I've ever breasted a duck at check-in.

- [laughs] Well, you know- - But I'm at Lake Mattamuskeet.

That's what you do.

- Apparently, yep.

[both laughing] It is an option.

- It was, like, just the directness that these kids and that Callie have with life and death and where their food comes from.

Like, you need a duck cleaned out?

Well, here we go, Let's just clean it out, and there it is.

You got me another surprise?

So I found my duck, and she also gave me half a dozen oysters.

- Oysters.

- Oysters?

So, I knew I was going to eat well that night.

[laughs] I just didn't think I'd have to clean my own duck.

- [Callie] So these are locally caught.

- To thank you guys for this, I think you guys should come out and see Polly the mule.

She may not drink this.

[pan sizzling] So the story goes that they planted that seed and it grew into this type of apple.

So that's the story behind it.

So we're gonna cut this now and we're gonna feed it to Polly, all right?

- Yeah.

Why so tiny?

- Why am I so tiny?

- No, that!

- Oh, the apples's so tiny.

Oh.

- 'cause that's the kind it is.

- It's just the way it is.

So this is supper, compliments of Callie, Hyde County, Lake Mattamuskeet.

You can't get fresher oysters on the half shell.

So do you guys know how to whistle?

[Bernie whistles] - I can't whistle.

- So we'll whistle, and then watch her come over, watch this.

[all whistling] Look at that, here she comes.

Another thing Mattamuskeet is really well known for is this Mattamuskeet Sweet, which is this onion.

So I was given this by a fellow named Tom.

He said when these are harvested, they sell out in two or three days.

So you want the same number of fingers after you feed her the apple, all right?

So keep your fingers flat.

You ready?

There you go, just hold that.

- [Callie] Put 'em down flat.

- Oh, that was great.

[laughs] - [Carter] That was good.

[chuckles] - I mean, this turnip is freezing my hands to hold.

It feels like a dirty snowball.

Aw.

- Feel her lips.

- You feel her lips?

- Yeah.

[pan sizzling] [gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] Some of the great things about wagon travel, you can wake up in your wagon, I'm still in bed, in my sleeping bag.

Look out through the tent flaps, wagon flap, and there's Polly.

[gate clatters] Probably maybe the only mule in history to get Mattamuskeet applesauce and butter bread.

Look, you want a piece?

That's good.

Mm.

This is Mattamuskeet applesauce.

You're not the applesauce.

[laughs] Polly's eating the applesauce.

[gentle music] [geese honking] The scenery completely changed from the day before.

It was a whole new scene.

I felt like I was tipping from the world of humans to the world of animals.

The life, it just came out of the ground.

[gentle music continues] Literally thousands of geese, tundra swans.

Like, so many ducks that...

I could recognize a mallard, but that was about it.

[hooves clip-clopping] I see a person standing on the side of the road.

I'm Bernie.

- Hey, Bernie, Kelly.

Nice to meet you.

- [Bernie] And it turns out her name was Kelly Davis.

- Hi, Polly.

- [Bernie] Who's this huge lover of birds.

- People out here all the time without binoculars, so I help them.

I have extra couple of pairs in the truck, but... - Perfect, I'm that person.

- You get the company binoculars.

[both laughing] Do you know how to focus binoculars?

Most people don't.

Just look through 'em.

We'll keep it basic.

- [Bernie] I hope I'm looking through the right end.

- [Kelly] You are, you are.

- [Bernie] And so we started looking at the birds.

So what's interesting to me is that they're all mixed together.

- Yeah.

- They just all seem to kind of get on.

- It's the Mattamuskeet mix.

- That's really a thing, a Mattamuskeet mix?

- It is to me.

It's really what Mattamuskeet Refuge is known for.

These are wintering waterfowl.

They're here eating the roots and the stems and the seeds of just native, mostly native aquatic plants that grow in this field that's impounded by dykes.

It's called a waterfowl impoundment.

And they're down here from, say, late October until the days get longer in February.

Then they head back to mate.

There are some ducks out there that look like mallards, and they are.

So they've flown here from probably maybe Saskatchewan or Ontario.

Right in there, mallards, shovelers, and gadwalls here.

- Yep, yep, yep, yep.

- Probably recognize the call of Canada geese, there's some flying, and the bigger dark birds out there.

Now, these Canada geese have seen Canada.

Have you heard something that goes [imitates bird squawking]?

- [Bernie] One of those birds.

- Those are coots, C-O-O-T. Aren't they coot?

[chuckles] They're migratory birds.

They're not waterfowl, they're sort of duck-like.

They don't have webbed feet, they have lobed toes, and right now they're just kind of pecking anything green they can find, probably picking up sprigs of grass.

And you're hearing 'em right now.

[imitates bird warbling] So those are the tundra swans, the big white birds that did a, you know, roughly 5,000 mile migration from the northern slope of Alaska down here to Mattamuskeet.

- They flew from Alaska?

- Yeah.

- To here?

- Yes.

In Hyde County, you know when the swans arrive because you wake up one morning and you hear them calling, and so you know a lot of them came in the night before.

[Kelly imitates bird warbling] Oh, there goes some pintails.

See those flying?

- [Bernie] Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

- You can also hear 'em.

[imitates bird chirping] - [Bernie] Long skinny tail, about that long.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- I think I had one for dinner last night.

- [laughs] Probably did, it's a favorite duck of waterfowl hunters, bird watchers.

All of us like pintails.

- Hyde County seems very much rooted into the land.

- In Hyde County, we're very used to going out and enjoying looking at and hunting birds or other wildlife, catching fish, and being able to enjoy, you know, native foods, and also understanding and naturally feeling compassionate about animals.

It's not unusual for the refuge, or even I get these sorts of calls.

You know, it's a hunter, and they found a bird with a broken wing, and they wanna know, "What do we do with it?"

And we're right here with all of it.

So, we don't hide from it, we are just part of it.

It's part of us.

- Thanks for sharing that.

- You're welcome.

It is a pleasure to share Hyde County with people, but I want my binoculars back!

[both laughing] - [Bernie] Okay.

Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- That was awesome.

Do you wanna pet Polly?

- Sure.

- When you stand on that icy shore in the snow and you see those giant swans, then it becomes real, because you are face to face with that life energy of an animal that has just flown 5,000 miles to get here, to get to Lake Mattamuskeet, to eat what they need to eat to get through the winter.

[gentle music] [hooves clip-clopping] Coming up a snowy road, and we come to a bridge where there's this... You just look right down through the grate.

And she gets there and just freezes.

She was really nervous about coming about, and I just stopped.

And so, like, her thinking was raised, my thinking was raised.

It was tense.

Back in my early days, I would've been more tempted to pop her with my lines and say, "Come on, Polly, step up.

Let's go, let's get across this bridge."

Good to go, step up, step up.

I rethought things, thought about things through her eyes, like, this is scary.

So I just unhooked her.

[Polly huffs] Good girl.

And I walked out onto the bridge And when she saw me on the bridge, it was like, "Oh, well, I trust Bernie.

Like, that's okay.

I'll follow you."

She just followed me across.

Aw, what a good girl, Polly.

Aw, you made it!

Aw.

And it's like this, "Aw", just huge relief.

And I just, I hugged her, and she leaned into me.

She will reach around.

That was pretty scary, wasn't it?

With the wagon.

And just put her head on my chest, and I just hold her just quietly.

I'll just close my eyes.

We're just one.

We're just one in that moment.

That was scary, yeah.

The only way to access that... [wood clatters] [gentle music] Is to travel alone with that animal.

[laughs] Yeah.

You can't treat train, you can't give, you know, your mule treats and hope you'll get that bond.

There's no, you know, psychological stuff to do that.

Ho, ho, Polly, step back.

Step back.

That has to be earned.

Ho, ho, ho.

The only way to get that mind fusion... Let's go.

Good girl, Polly.

Is to set off into the unknown.

Good girl.

With your mule, or your horse, or another animal.

You depend on them, and they depend on you.

Okay, Polly, step up.

[gentle music continues] I'm feeling really immersed, you know, in the wildlife, the birds.

And I come around a curve and I see this big white building.

Looks like a lighthouse.

And that is the Mattamuskeet Lodge.

This is what we were looking for.

This is where the heart of this whole effort to drain the lake took place.

[gentle music] So the lodge now is kind of entering a new phase, a new career.

It's rejigging with the times.

And so I was given a tour by Debbie and Natalie.

Wow, so this is the pump room.

- Starting the redoing the lodge, and they discovered these.

They thought they had taken all the pumps out.

- Oh, really?

- And they started digging out and they found these, and they decided to keep 'em.

So the tower actually was the smokestack for- - All of that.

- Yes.

A lot of people call it a lighthouse, but it was a smokestack.

- [Bernie] It took 30 tons of coal a week.

Coal was shipped in by rail to Belhaven, and then scows, tugs, steamboats, would've hauled from Belhaven, the Pamlico Sound, up the Outfall Canal.

And it all had to be shoveled by hand into the boilers.

- [Debbie] And then when it became a hunting lodge, they took a portion of it off, so it's not as tall as the smokestack originally was, and they converted it to an observation tower.

- [Bernie] It transitioned from farming to hunting.

- So when hunters would come, they would gather here.

To your right would be the rooms that the guests would stay in.

- The guides here that worked outta the lodge, you could get a room here, you could get a meal here.

There were dances here.

- Yes, and I actually had my prom here, too.

- Oh, wonderful.

- My junior year prom.

- [laughs] So, you looked like you were to dance to France.

So how did you dance?

[both laughing] So it really became a big part of the community.

Doesn't this take you back?

- Yes!

[Bernie laughs] Part of the local social fabric.

This is the prom that I missed.

- Mattamuskeet's little prom.

- They had memories of the past, but they also had a vision of where it's heading.

The lodge is being renovated.

The hope is to use it as an education center, a museum gift shop, to have this deep rooted continuity to Lake Mattamuskeet, Hyde County, the history and all the stories come together here.

Please step out, wherever you are, ideally, come to Lake Mattamuskeet.

We have got to keep these natural areas intact and we've got to get out in them.

I could have taken the same trip that I took, and Polly, in a very short time in a car.

What really pulls this trip together for me is needing other people and traveling slowly.

That's what I hope people take from this bumpy, cold, beautiful, amusing, sad, glorious voyage through Lake Mattamuskeet and the Hyde County area, and Polly's glorious swan song.

[gentle music continues] [gentle music] [birds chirping] [birds chirping continues] [birds chirping continues] [birds chirping continues] [birds chirping continues]