Tag: Myrtle Beach SC

Day 3 — A 36-mile bike ride in South Carolina from Myrtle Beach to Georgetown

I’m learning a lot about the rain and humidity in South Carolina’s Low Country.

IMG_1166I’m learning a few things about the weather here.

You know how during a northern winter, your glasses fog up when you go inside? Here they fog up when you head outside in the humidity from an air-conditioned room.

And the rain!

The light showers are actually nice because it cools you off given the crazy humidity. And the rain is warm.

But when it comes down hard, it quickly floods. We’re at sea level so there is no place for the water to go. The drainage system can’t cope. Continue reading “Day 3 — A 36-mile bike ride in South Carolina from Myrtle Beach to Georgetown”

An East Coast Greenway ribbon-cutting in Myrtle Beach

A big deal in Myrtle Beach.

IMG_1144So we’re only a year late.

Last year’s Week-a-Year ride on the East Coast Greenway was supposed to end with a ribbon-cutting for a new section of trail and a trailhead at the southern end of Myrtle Beach. Hurricane Matthew spoiled those plans, so city officials waited until we came back to hold this ceremony.

This is bigger than just another piece of trail in the East Coast Greenway jigsaw; Myrtle Beach is the first city (not to be confused with town or other form of government) to finish its section of the route.

That’s particularly impressive for a state that has completed a mere 14% of the Greenway.

Unfortunately, right after we pass this kiosk, we’re outside city limits and back on an ugly road. So there is still much to do.

Hats off to Myrtle Beach for a big turnout for this ribbon-cutting — maybe 100 or so people. Some arrived by bike. Here are some of the riders before they took off from Warbird Park. Props to those who can identify the plane in the background.

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We’re 2,000 miles down the East Coast Greenway

Myrtle Beach is at the 2,000 mile marker.

IMG_1141This East Coast Greenway mile marker is at the kiosk on the southern end of Myrtle Beach.

And Barb and Bev are among a handful of riders in our group who have biked all 2,000 miles from Calais, Maine, taking it one week a year.

Me? I’ve ridden south from Newark, NJ, plus 350 miles from Calais to Portland, Maine, and some of the Connecticut trails and the New York City route. Got a bit of catching up to do!

Day 2 — 40ish miles from Ocean Isle Beach to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina

A crazy amount of rain, plus an alligator sighting.

IMG_1132Wow did we get drenched today. Even though we tried to wait out the worst of it. And the flooding on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach … at one point I swear I biked through water halfway up my wheel. At least my chain got “washed.” And, yes, my shoes are soaked. I’m on the hunt for newspaper to help dry them out.

Thankfully the ride through heavy rain was only for 4 miles, with rear light flashing for visibility and almost no traffic to cope with. And it wasn’t a cold October rain like it would have been up north.

Still, when you show up at a hotel soaking wet, you are grateful for a hot-out-of-the-dryer towel and a warm chocolate-y cookie before you even check in. 300-and-some-odd calories be damned. Thank you, Lillie.

(Oh, and when you say that county name in the photo at the state line, it’s a silent H. Otherwise it sounds illicit.)

IMG_1135Photo of the day: an alligator in a neighborhood pond just off the road. How it got there… and why it can stay there … is beyond me. Last night, a kid at the general store’s fish counter explained to us how to hunt alligator (bait is bits of chicken dangling from a string, followed by a bullet to the head). He was selling a block of frozen Georgia gator meat for $17.99 a pound, but who knew North Carolina meat was so close? (Why you will pay that much for gator and then essentially turn it into chicken-like nuggets when chicken breasts are regularly on sale for $1.99 a pound is something someone still needs to explain to me.)

You never want to call a gator friendly, so let’s say this one was … curious. He kept drifting closer to where we were standing, as if wanting to check us out as much as we wanted to check out him.

And why do I say 40ish miles? It was supposed to be a 46-miler but at one point in North Myrtle Beach, some riders started following East Coast Greenway signs instead of our cue sheets. The signs date back to an interim on-road route with bike lanes that follows Ocean Boulevard rather than the new trail route further inland. Just another opportunity to debate the route! I ended up with the road group. Think the long side of the triangle. Maybe I lopped off 6 miles? But I missed the only real trail segment of the day.

We were just 4 miles from our Myrtle Beach hotel when some other riders called out from a meh beachside grill restaurant. Most of what was left of our group stopped to eat, figuring we could still find the trail afterwards — and then came the deluge. At least we could hide out and watch a bit of baseball; others were on the trail with no place to hide for quite a while.

Does getting soaked count as doing laundry?

Read what my fellow blogger has to say about the day.

 

Carolinas, here I come

I’m getting ready for my second big bike ride of the year along the East Coast Greenway.

East-Coast-Greenway-logoThis 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.

carolinas-routeAny 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.