A road to take kayaks and canoes to Upper Broad Creek through a new eastern Craven County nature park may be a while coming but the wildlife is already there.

"There are a lot of bears in there," said Thomas Rose. He was speaking to about a dozen people attending a Monday night meeting in the Craven County Administration Building to talk about how to develop the new 133-acre Latham-Whitehurst Nature Park.

"I've been way too close, so close you could count the hairs on a female black bear's neck," said Rose. "A bear can smell seven times better than a dog," said Rose, "but if you'll stand still, make noise, and give them a chance to get off the trail, they will leave you alone."

Rose assists in managing the land of Samuel Latham Whitehurst. Members of the Whitehurst family had previously owned the land, near the Craven-Pamlico county line, since it came to them in a king's land grant in colonial America. It was bought in late August by the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust with North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund money.

The park has deer and birds and a vast assortment of wildlife and plants in mixed forests with varied terrain.

There is marshland and water frontage on the navigable creek, which runs as deep as 12 feet.

Joe Aveolis said the creek has "very good fishing...large trout." Aveolis' sons, Sam and Spencer, are Boy Scouts, and Sam hopes to do a project in the new park as part of his work to become an Eagle Scout.

The county can use the $1.148 million purchase price as matching money for a state Recreation and Parks Trust Fund grant to develop it naturally, said Jan Parker, Craven County recreation director. That could mean as much as $500,000 to work on trails, a boardwalk bordering Upper Broad Creek, parking, restrooms and gates to control access.

Mike Marks, chairman of the county recreation advisory board, said that "even if the future plan is to access water, it doesn't mean it can't be used for other things sooner. It appears to me that the first opportunity is a wonderful nature trail."

John Jaskolka, who kayaked with interested Recreation Department and commission members in October, said it would not be unusual for kayakers to launch somewhere like Lee's Landing upstream to reach the park, tie up there and go hiking.

George Sawyer, who was Craven County's first recreation director, said that "the challenge is going to be getting the kayak to the water."

"We can start with wildlife viewing areas and traffic will dictate whether we ever need a road or not," Parker said.

The application for the parks and recreation grant is due by Feb. 2, and Parker said she welcomes any added suggestions between now and then.