JACKSONVILLE -- A new segment of the Mountains to Sea Trail opened on the coast Monday. 

The Onslow Bight and Jacksonville segment of the 316-mile Coastal Crescent Trail runs from the Holly Shelter game lands in Pender County, to the White Oak River in Stella. 

In between the two, it stops at the historical Ocean City Beach on Topsail Island. 

"Ocean City was a community that was started in 1949, some 15 years before the Civil Rights Act, and as far as we know, it's the first African-American community that we could purchase land in North Carolina on the coast," said Carla Torrey, a homeowner on Ocean City. 

After a stop on Topsail Island, the trail runs through Sneads Ferry, up U.S. 17 and into Jacksonville, where it connects to the city's existing six-mile Rails to Trails bike path. 

"Which is one of the most special and beautiful trails, I think, in all of North Carolina," said Kate Dixon, executive director of the Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail nonprofit. 

From Jacksonville, the trail winds over to Stella, before the segment ends on the White Oak River, giving hikers a chance to see all that the Onslow-Pender portion of the North Carolina coast line has to offer. 

"We just hope people get out and use the trail as a way to see North Carolina," Dixon said. 

To get a downloadable guide of the Coastal Crescent trail with turn-by-turn directions, visit http://www.ncmst.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/15B-Onslow-Bight-and-Jacksonville-Printer-Friendly-3-16-2015.pdf.