Wild horses, giant sand dunes and of course bicycling.
We jammed a lot into two full days on the Outer Banks: two 30+-mile bike rides, the site of the first flight (Wright Brothers National Memorial, part of the National Park Service), a walk on a giant sand dune, a 4-wheel-drive trip to see wild horses on the beach, even a last-minute dash for ice cream.
Continue reading “2 jam-packed days of biking and other adventures on the Outer Banks”This photo sums up why we need the East Coast Greenway.
This photo, taken by another rider today, sums up why we need greenways — off-road trails like the East Coast Greenway that serve cyclists, runners, walkers and others of all ages and ability.
Look at that intersection. Wide roads, no bike lanes. How many would cross it on a bike? And with children?
And once we got past intersections like that, we were on roads that sometimes had tiny shoulders.
If people speeding by in their cars thought all these cyclists were nuts, would you blame them?
One rider in our group is a distributor for a major bike brand and says he’s not surprised by the poor bicycle infrastructure around here. Even in beach towns, there’s not a culture of bicycling to the beach, unlike, say. the Jersey Shore. And he doesn’t have a bike store between Wilmington and Savannah selling his brand aside from one in Charleston.
What did look familiar? People trying to slow down traffic in front of their homes. Beyond those commercially available red “Drive like your kids live here” signs, these two homemade signs in front of one house caught my eye (but probably not those speeding):
And today’s ride? All roads. The plan had been to ride East Coast Greenway trails in Wilmington, then follow the beach south to Fort Fisher, catch a ferry for a few miles to Southport and then make a big loop inland to cross a river before heading to the beach again.
Many of us were looking forward to the ferry ride. Only the state transportation department, which runs the ferry, decided that today and tomorrow (Columbus Day) was a perfect time for maintenance. And we couldn’t come up with a replacement service. So no ferry ride. (Shades of my first WAY tour in 2014 when the boats didn’t show then either!) Instead we were shuttled across a bicycle-unfriendly bridge and started riding a few miles outside Wilmington.
The flip side is that today was a 62-mile day instead of the 70 miles that had been billed. It was hot and humid, so a bit less is good as those of us from up north adjust to Carolina weather. Got to keep remembering to reapply sunscreen, including under the edge of my bike shorts (shorts ride up when you sit and that’s where the rash from too much sun shows up).
My roommate on this ride is blogging too. Here’s how she summed up the day.
This is what I call breakfast plus lunch!
When all you had for breakfast is a Clif bar and you spot barbecue being sold under a simple white poop-up tent on the side of the road… of course you stop.
Good thing too, since the scenic route back from Moores Creek to Wilmington ended up on a different route, missing the planned lunch spot and stopping instead at a “famous” hot dog place after 45 or so miles, which most certainly wouldn’t have been what I was looking for.
This signed lured us in.
And this is what I got for $10. More than enough for breakfast plus lunch! Sorry, vegetarians, even the rice and okra had meat in it. No idea about the collard greens. Awesome ribs, with meat falling off the bone.
We were told the sale was to help one of the workers get his own place. Just a mobile home, nothing fancy. Hope it works out.
The day’s ride was to close the gap from the end of last year’s abridged ride at Moores Creek from Elizabethtown and the start of this year’s in Wilmington. But with our detour, it was more than I bargained for — probably 60 miles all in, including my ride to and from the start.
Looks like there will be competition for a one-star rating.
The East Coast Greenway’s big fundraising ride starts in a couple of weeks, and I’m one of 40 cyclists on it.
After a briefing about the route from Wilmington, N.C., to Savannah, I’m rethinking that one-star rating I just gave the Trenton-to-Philadelphia stretch. Should I raise it to two? At least busy roads there had shoulders or bike lanes. Not so along similar parts of this year’s Week-A-Year route, it appears. That may make it more deserving of the bottom rating.
No shoulders on major roads surprises me. I get no snow means not needing a place to push it to, but surely cars break down there too and need to be moved to the side of the road. We’ll be cycling in the “Low Country,” so plenty of water and marshes means few road options for us. Not many options for the route. We clearly will be riding in groups for extra visibility and taking shuttles as needed. We’ve had bad roads before. At least it will be flat. And yes, there are some trails. Just not enough. (Note to my mother: I promise I’ll be safe.)
The good news is this isn’t the final word. Much of the route is considered interim as the East Coast Greenway works to create an off-road route safe for all, and hopefully South Carolina in particular will make big improvements. For the record, South Carolina ranks 44th in bike friendliness, according to the League of American Bicyclists. Note that Adventure Cycling’s route along the Atlantic Coast goes much further inland at this point, bypassing Charleston (though there is a spur route) and Savannah.
But what tourist wants to miss those cities? Exactly.
The East Coast Greenway is all about connecting cities. As I’ve said many times, that is much tougher than sticking to rural America. It’s also where more people live and need choice in how they get around. The work done by this group combined with local and state advocates is vital!
If you want to support the East Coast Greenway, here’s the link to my fundraising page — and thank you for your support.
A last look at our hurricane-shortened bike ride along the East Coast Greenway.
This is (most of) the group as we gathered in Raleigh. No sign of the hurricane yet:
And where many of us went to dinner in Elizabethtown three days later:
Which set of wheels?
Dennis showing off his yoga skills on a bouncing “bonding board” at Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery in Elizabethtown:
Chris’s bike matches the East Coast Greenway colors! (OK, also, Holiday Inn’s)
For another perspective on our hurricane-shortened adventure on the East Coast Greenway, read this blog. The wind and rain is fierce in North Carolina today — we all know the ride had to end when it did. Here’s to sunshine next October as we head from the Wilmington area to … Savannah?
Once again, thank you to everyone who supported the East Coast Greenway through my fundraising efforts. I hope you’ll go enjoy your own bike adventure.
The battle at Moores Creek probably doesn’t get much attention beyond fourth-grade North Carolina history class. But it’s the colonists’ first victory.
Our ride ended prematurely, as I mentioned earlier, at Moores Creek National Battlefield about 20 miles outside of Wilmington, NC. It bills itself as the first victory by the American colonists, in February 1776, and came more than four months before the Declaration of Independence. Depending on who you believe, the fighting lasted as little as three minutes (an early account) or 20 to 30 minutes (the volunteer at the visitors center).
This is a battle that I am guessing doesn’t get much attention beyond fourth-grade North Carolina history class. Basically, a group of Scottish loyalists needed to get to Wilmington to link up with the British. In their way were a few groups of patriots who came together at Moores Creek. The loyalist commander sent an emissary the night before saying give up and all will be forgiven … or else. And reported back that it was just a small group of fighters. The main group was actually across the bridge, and the small group moved there under the cover of night. So when the loyalists attacked just before dawn (with just broadswords, not guns!), well, it didn’t go well. It’s a really swampy area (this is the view from the boardwalk, not the bridge), so no one knows how many drowned as they fled.
Beyond the immediate victory, this battle undermined hopes that the South would side with Britain. Instead, North Carolina was one of the first to instruct its delegates to vote for independence a few months later.
Stopping at sites like this is part of what I enjoy about touring by bicycle. This is not the sort of National Parks Service site that draws lots and lots of visitors. How many will detour off Interstate 40 for this? But it’s on the East Coast Greenway. And I would have stopped even if it wasn’t the end of the ride.
Another factoid: in the aftermath, the patriots captured more than 15,000 pounds, which is nearly $14 million today (maybe I should say $13 million given the pounding sterling has just taken!).
The bridge itself has been replaced many times since the battle, most recently after Hurricane Floyd demolished it in 1999. Here’s hoping Hurricane Matthew doesn’t do the same.
My North Carolina food discoveries: a (fried) collard sandwich, a fried croissant and that pig picking cake.
This East Coast Greenway trip was surprisingly light on barbecue. Based on a sample size of one barbecue restaurant, the eastern Carolina style of vinegar sauce may not be my thing anyway. I did discover collard sandwiches, which apparently is what fieldhands brought for lunch. I’m hoping it’s usually better than what I tried.
The collards just felt really overcooked and a soupy mess. One of the riders from the Triangle area says you should want to eat that collard liquid, so if you didn’t, the collards probably came from a can. They were sandwiched between two pieces of cornbread — deep-fried, crispy cornbread. I could have seen pan-fried to help keep it together, but this…
On the side were two strips of fatback, basically pg fat. I think they were fried too.
So vegetables, yes. Healthy? Doubtful.
This is what the barbecue plate looked like — lot of meat (half a pound?), hush puppies (think cornmeal mixed with a few other ingredients and deep fried — yes, more fried food) and my two sides, in this case collard greens and baked beans. Chris had the candied yams and, no surprise, they were incredibly sweet.
And then there’s that pig picking cake that I have wanted to try ever since that bakery stop on the first day. I found it at Burney’s Sweets and More, whose reputation goes beyond Elizabethtown. I’m not sure it had mandarin oranges, but crushed pineapple was definitely in that frosting (not a buttercream frosting, so I am going with another rider’s guess — what he calls grease frosting.) The recipes I have found call for a box of yellow cake mix. I don’t know if this was a mix or made from scratch, but it was certainly yellow.
Interestingly, not all of the Carolinians on the ride had heard of it.
Was it great? No. (Of course, it lacked that key ingredient of deep dark chocolate.) Did we demolish it? Yes.
Here’s something else I found at Burney’s: I think it’s their fried croissant. I’m telling myself it was healthier than the doughnuts offered in that bare-bones Knights Inn breakfast. At least there was chocolate. And I only had one.
I don’t know when I last ate so much fried food. Should I be surprised that 30.1% of North Carolinians are obese, ranking the state 22nd in the nation?
Here are some impressions of North Carolina — the generosity, the sense of community … and the poverty.
We saw this yard sign a lot in a wide radius around Elizabethtown.
He’s a kid who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2013 and seems to be doing OK now. I also saw a sign praying for someone else, and the local newspaper office had an announcement about an event to benefit a sick seven-month-old.
That sense of community is one of the impressions that North Carolina made on me.
Another part of that North Carolina generosity is the hospitality shown by the owner of the historic and oh-so-elegant Elizabethtown Inn, a new B&B. Our group was split into three places — the vineyard’s cabins, the B&B and the Knights Inn in town. Most of us met for dinner downtown, which was walkable for those of us from the Knights Inn. Chris packed his Honda Fit and made a couple of trips. And of course it could be biked, with lights. But the inn’s owner, Chris Adams, graciously offered the use of his Cadillac to those staying there. And we are talking a new car, not some old beater.
As for the inn, it dates back to before the Civil War. During the war, southern officers recovered from their wounds on the second floor. The first floor was for the horses. And today, bicycles were allowed in:
This, by the way, is what one of the rooms looks like. My room at the Knights Inn didn’t compare.
Another impression of North Carolina is less positive — the poverty as seen through some of the houses. You’d see nice, modest homes next to run-down or even abandoned places. This is one of three in a row. I’d be wanting them torn down if they were next to me … but paid for by whom?
You definitely had a sense that parts of North Carolina have been left behind. The state’s poverty rate is 17.2%, well above the national rate, and in Bladen County, home to Elizabethtown, it’s 25.5%. So probably no surprise that I saw far more signs on Thursday for Donald Trump than for Hillary Clinton.
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.
Today was a fast ride to Elizabethtown.
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.
Exploring by bicycle 
