The ride is over after just 3 1/2 days and 200 miles, thanks to Hurricane Matthew.
This year’s East Coast Greenway ride is over early, thanks to Hurricane Matthew.
We ended at the day’s lunch spot, a Revolutionary War battleground, about 20 miles shy of Wilmington, NC, our original plan. I’m now home after about 200 miles on the bike in what I am calling 3 1/2 days. All to be continued next October.
Thursday was a gray day, and it felt like we were just a smidgen away from mist. The wind was in our favor until almost the end. But rivers are swollen from a recent storm, so there’s no place for all this hurricane rain to go. Wilmington is still coping from that, which is what kept out from a full fourth day. At the battlefield, they’re expecting to be waist-deep in water, which seems to be what happened after Hurricane Floyd in 1999. I’m feeling for everyone along the coast.
f=”https://exploringbybike.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ecg-pine-needle-mulch.jpg”> Bales of pine-needle mulch, spotted from the road[/captAs for the route, this was another trail-free day. Flat, too. The roads were generally quiet and motorists respectful of cyclists, but North Carolina doesn’t seem to build wide shoulders. Perhaps it’s to save money. Perhaps we northeners like our shoulders as a place to dump snow in the winter, and they don’t have that concern. The lack of shoulders was felt more getting in and out of towns, as you’d expect. So while you might feel comfortable bringing a teenager on our route, you’d want to feel confident about an elementary school student’s ability to keep a fairly straight line, especially when there is traffic. I don’t know how runners feel about this. But given how rural this area is, it’s hard for me to see how any off-road route for the East Coast Greenway will be built.
Today was all about getting to the charming Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery in Elizabethtown for lunch. No trails today, just mostly quiet roads, though generally without a nice shoulder. Chris and I flew, averaging more than 15 miles an hour. Nice tailwind too. I don’t know if I’ve ever been this consistently fast.
But the group is already starting to scatter. Cheryl and her husband, Mike, who was driving the U-Haul with all our luggage, decided to head home to Florida and their home, a catamaran moored on a floating dock a few miles inland but still in the path of possible hurricane destruction. Kenny from Charleston was picked up by his wife — Charleston could get hit badly. Steve decided to take the most direct route to Myrtle Beach and get on a flight home to Connecticut tonight; he has a wedding to officiate on Saturday. After lunch, Kim hitched a ride back to Raleigh and will start his drive home to Vermont. And Chris, now reunited with his car, will head out tomorrow; he’ll wait out the storm from his brother’s home in Atlanta.
Here are those who have been with the East Coast Greenway’s Week-A-Year ride from the start:
Now with those who have made up the missing Maine gap:
One day I will have closed my remaining gaps.
The winery, on the southern outskirts of Elizabethtown, is pretty quirky. Celebrity art covers the walls, even in the bathrooms. I smiled at the Dr. Suess section.
This miniature pony learned as a baby how to duck under the fence; he still roams free.
Among the other animals are a (free-ranging) chicken and some miniature donkeys.
Among the other animals are a (free-ranging) chicken and some miniature donkeys.
This was our longest day. It’s also the day we found out that the ride will end early because of Hurricane Matthew.
This is about all I will see of Myrtle Beach on this trip.
Today was our longest day on the East Coast Greenway. But today was more than the bike. The forecast for Hurricane Matthew is turning grimmer, and we’ve been told that the ride will end after 3 1/2 days. So we’ll be back in Raleigh on Thursday night instead of Saturday night.
That’s fine for all of us who’ve come from the north. But Chris, who I met on the Maine ride, had left a car at our end point in Myrtle Beach. So he needed to get that car out — today. So he rented a car after we spent seven hours on the bike with no proper lunch break, and we drove two hours to Myrtle Beach, moved it to Elizabethtown, where we will be tomorrow night, and then got back to Fayetteville.
Today’s route was heavily on roads, but we still had a taste of trails. We started with a repeat of Monday’s trail in Smithfield, then enjoyed the Cape Fear River Trail before the unpleasant ride through Fayetteville. We did miscalculate at one point, getting off the trail at the rocky parking lot instead of continuing on to the nature center and beyond. We thought we would have to climb a hill to get back on track — or backtrack. Neither was that appealing. The maps on our phones gave conflicting information about the neighborhood streets — did they dead end, or could we find a path to the other side?
Fortunately, we found a way to squeeze through. Note the barbed wire protecting the no-cursing neighborhood we escaped! (Oops, I almost cursed going through it.)
Here are some of the day’s other sights:
The lower price is what farmers will be paid. The higher price is for dried kernels of corn (no longer on the cob) that can be fed to pigs and other animals. Even deer, if you’re crazy enough to do that.
Lesson learned about venturing into the fields: beware of fire ants. My ankles are still swollen. How did the slaves tolerate it? And yes, the cotton does feel as soft as a cotton ball.
Spotted along the East Coast Greenway: Chess pie and pig picking cake.
I know — bike rides are really all about the food (or for some, the beer).
And when we topped that hill into Clayton and reached Main Street, it was too early for lunch. But is it ever too early for something sweet?
I peered into the pie case at Nancy Jo’s Homemade and settled on a lemon chess pie. Chess pie is a southern classic; I discovered it in Occoquan two years ago. Amazingly, I couldn’t take more than a few bites. Into the rear bike bag it went, to be eaten further along the route and polished off once we got to the hotel.
But this is what really caught my attention. It’s not something we have in New Jersey:
Why the crazy name? The key ingredients seem to be a cake mix, canned mandarin oranges and canned pineapple. There’s no pig in it. But it does seem to be served at barbecues, and people there pick at the pig, I guess like we pick at the turkey leftovers after Thanksgiving.
There wasn’t exactly a stampede of riders with me into the bakery, so I couldn’t suggest that we share this half a cake. But you can bet I will be looking for a single-serving size further along the East Coast Greenway. Or riders to share something bigger.
I’m guessing I haven’t seen the last of boiled peanuts either.
Today’s offbeat stop on the East Coast Greenway: the Ava Gardner Museum.
This Hollywood star is Smithfield’s claim to fame. She actually was born a few miles away and this was the “big city” back then, reached on dirt roads. But she’s buried here and the town is claiming her. And there was no way I was missing the Ava Gardner Museum — just because where else would I find something like this? It’s the sort of thing I stop for on bike rides. Continue reading “What I learned about Ava Gardner at her museum in Smithfield, North Carolina”
I’m back in love with the trails in the Raleigh area.
Wow, what trails!
I can’t rave enough about the first 20 miles of our ride today. We were outside of downtown Raleigh within a matter of blocks and on a trail in just over a mile. And then we stayed on them for 20 or so meandering miles, at times along a river, at other times along fields (apparently full of sunflowers at the height of summer). Sometimes we saw neighborhoods with a connector to the trail. Lots of boardwalk (so lots of money spent), many short bridges and then some serious ones. It’s all part of the Capital Area Greenway Trail System. We rode parts of the Little Rock Trail, the Walnut Creek Trail and Neuse River Trail into the next county.
That may look like a harmless stream or creek but clearly it had recently flooded:
A view from a bridge:
The value of trails couldn’t have been made clearer than when we reached the Clayton River Walk’s trailhead at Covered Bridge Road and had to leave the trail. We had a long, steep-ish hill on a somewhat curvy road with the tiniest of shoulders. One motorist patiently held back behind a few riders slightly ahead of me, and traffic started backing up. The third in line became impatient at one point, pulled out and zipped past the two cars in front. Another thought about doing the same. I was equal with him at that point and the passenger window was open. I could see a car in the oncoming lane and quickly said there’s a car coming. So one mess averted. But I do wish there had been a trail to take us to downtown Clayton.
We hit another lovely (much shorter) trail toward the end of the day — the Buffalo Creek Greenway/Smithfield Neuse Riverwalk. Unfortunately, the local hotels are a few miles away at the other end of town, by the interstate.
Why is today’s distance longer than advertised? A bit of backtracking to reach that last trail — and more backtracking from the hotel to visit the Ava Gardner Museum that tacked on about four miles.
I’m ready for this 325-mile bike ride along the East Coast Greenway in the Carolinas.
I’m ready to start this six-day, 325-mile bike ride along the East Coast Greenway. It’s great to see so many familiar faces among the riders and to start catching up with people, some of whom I haven’t seen since we ended last year’s ride in Raleigh. Thank you, Sherri, for welcoming all of us on the beautiful terrace in your downtown building. And now we’re all well-fed after that dinner at the Greek restaurant next to the hotel! Lovely to be eating outdoors, especially after all the rain and fleece-like weather we’ve had at home.
Tomorrow’s ride will have a good chunk of trail. That’s a nice way to get out of Raleigh, letting us avoid traffic. We’re headed to Smithfield 42 miles away. It’s a county seat with a population of about 13,000. So I’m really hoping our dinner choices are better than Chipotle (one of the three suggested options). But I’m definitely checking out the Ava Gardner museum.
Got to be ready to go at 7 a.m. Someone’s coming to film us heading out for some documentary that’s in the works.
I’m getting ready for my second big bike ride of the year along the East Coast Greenway.
This is the second big East Coast Greenway ride of the year. It’s 325 miles — similar to the fall rides of the past two years — but crammed into six days instead of seven. That’s what happens when hotels dictate where you can stop.
So I’ve got three days over 50 miles and one that is just under that. On the flip side, it’s mostly flat, unlike Maine, the hilliest section of the 3,000-mile route. I figure it will be cooler too — yay. There are 40 of us riding (plus staff and support), and I’m looking forward to seeing many people I know from previous rides. It’s going to be fun! Just hope we don’t have any big storms.
Here’s the itinerary:
Sunday, Oct. 2: We gather in Raleigh, NC, where we ended last year’s ride.
Oct. 3: 44 miles to Smithfield, NC.
Oct. 4: 69 miles to Fayetteville, NC
Oct. 5: 40 miles to Elizabethtown, NC
Oct. 6: 58 miles to Wilmington, NC
Oct 7: 66 miles to Ocean Isle, NC — after an early-morning boat cruise on the Cape Fear River.
Oct. 8: 48 miles to Myrtle Beach, SC and a celebration to mark a trail opening. Then we get shuttled back to Raleigh.
Any suggestions for sights I should see out? Places to eat? If Maine was about lobster, this ride may be about barbecue…
After this, I can say I’ve ridden from Philadelphia (really just outside, in Conshocken) to Myrtle Beach — about 1,000 miles. Plus, of course, there’s the Maine ride earlier this year as well as training segments in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
I’ll be blogging every day of the ride, so check back for tales from the road.
Finally, this is a fundraising ride for the East Coast Greenway. If you’d like to support the cause, you can donate here. All the money goes to the cause; I’m paying for food and hotels.
With this ride, these six closed their personal gap from Calais to Raleigh.
Bob Spiegelman says set this to the tune of “McNamara’s Band” (if, unlike me, you know it). We groaned at first — but it was a lovely end to our final group dinner.
Down East’s East Coast Greenway is the place we love to ride.
We bust our butts on up the hills and down the hills we glide.
We biked on trail, we biked on roads, we sometimes biked on sand.
Our week in Maine helped us see the Greenway’s great grand plan.
Our fearless leader Molly always kept her smile.
Andy did his best to keep us riding single file.
Alan and Walt supported us so we could ride carefree.
And Silvia’s blog kept track of things so we made history.
Barb and Bev together were an inspirational pair.
Russo bought an extra tire so now he has a spare.
Ash explained the local scene as we were near his home.
And Bob spent his time taking notes so he could write this poem.
Helen enjoyed her tour, without her bike buddies.
Aaron and Emily spent the week with a dozen old fogies.
Kate signed up and took the challenge with bravery and class.
We welcomed her to her first tour-it will not be her last.
Tina drove from Florida excited by the challenge.
But when she hit adversity she found a work around.
Donna was as steady as anyone could be.
Now she’s looking forward to October in Raleigh.
Chris showed everybody how to tear off lobster parts.
Don was chasing Pokemon while Clive missed playing darts.
The tour held close together, we had a lot of fun.
No other way to say it than “our group was number one.”
Down East’s East Coast Greenway is the place we love to ride.
We bust our butts on up the hills and down the hills we glide.
We biked on trail, we biked on roads, we sometimes biked on sand.
Our week in Maine helped us see the Greenway’s great grand plan.
I just want to thank everyone who supported the East Coast Greenway through this ride. (It’s not too late to show your support — click here for Silvia and here for Clive.) And thank you for reading about our adventures over the week.
The Bike Maine ride happening next month has its own blend of coffee, and the photographer who took our photo in Machias for a local paper brought some for us (OK, he also works for Bold Coast Coffee):
Since I don’t drink coffee, I’ll have to rely on my fellow riders for reviews.
This year’s East Coast Greenway ride is over early, thanks to Hurricane Matthew.
Exploring by bicycle 
