Manteo Trip Is A Success

 

 

We started receiving calls, emails and Facebook messages pertaining to the weather forecast toward the end of the week.  I’ll have to give Skip Waters his due, after his Friday evening forecast I was fairly confident our Saturday ride would turn out OK.   I actually felt more secure when I checked the radar early Saturday morning.

As planned we met at just before 8:00 in Bridgeton, grabbed some gas and quick cup of coffee as we discussed the weather situation.  Upper 60’s with overcast conditions and a slight hint of drizzle.  A quick check of radar and we were off with seven bikes headed to Manteo, NC.

The State is building a four lane project for Highway 17 between Vanceboro and Washington and there are plastic barrels separating traffic lanes.  After seeing wind blow one in the path of a Corvette on Highway 264 a few weeks ago, I was understandably a bit anxious.

As we roll in to Washington, and this is the Original Washington, we ride across the bridge with the metal grating that causes that front wheel shimmy.  Debbie really hates that.

We actually roll through Washington and never stop at a light.  That’s the first time I have ever had that happen especially with seven bikes.  So it’s on to Highway 264 with a stop in Belhaven, NC.  We decided to bypass Pantego by turning on Seed Tick Neck Road and hitting highway 99.  I have included a map shot as proof that the name is legitimate.

Arriving in Belhaven via the bridge is  much more impressive than by 264.

About 9:15 we roll in to Belhaven to make a stop at Hardees.  A coffee break and for some a late breakfast. There were a few minutes of rain drops and with a quick look at the NOAA radar via Verizon we decided to move on.

As you travel between Belhaven and Engelhard you will ride over the Intracoastal Waterway on the high rise bridge.  You also pass near the Swan Quarter ferry terminal.

Between Rose Bay and Engelhard there is an area of road that has a natural tunnel of trees for a few miles.  I have always been impressed by this display.

Water level is never far from your mind when you live in this corner of our state.

We arrive in Engelhard around 10:30 and we only briefly ran through a small shower.  Leather jackets still felt good since the temperature had not risen due to the overcast conditions.

The bridge at Engelhard, NC. Looks like we just missed the festival! http://www.engelhardseafoodfestival.com/

Farming is a BIG industry in this part of our state as this satellite photo indicates.

Now for the uninitiated,  the ride from Engelhard to Stumpy Point may cause some concern. Several long straight stretches and no houses, no people and rarely do you encounter a car or truck.  “No phone, no lights no motor cars, Not a single luxury, Like Robinson Crusoe, As primitive as can be. “

And don’t think you can hop American Express to the Hyde County Airport.

True rural coastal Carolina with boats and crab pots roadside in Stumpy Point.

About 10 miles north of Stumpy Point, near Manns Harbor, we hit the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge.  Manteo is just beyond!

Pam and TJ ride up to take a live shot. I start talking to TJ and miss my turn at the next light.

We finally arrive at Darrell’s Seafood in Manteo around 12:00. http://www.darrellsseafood.com/ I quite enjoyed my meal and the clam chowder.

We bid farewell to Manteo’s tree lined drive as we leave via the Manns Harbor bridge.

While we never made it to Hatteras there is a reasonable facsimile on the mainland side of the bridge.

A view from the bridge near Columbia. Due to the newer Highway 64 in the Columbia area not being quite accurate on my GPS I went by my planned stop and ended up taking the Roper exit…….

Debbie made sure to take a picture for posterity and as a reminder of the error of my ways.  Oh well, a stop and fuel for some worked out OK.  We were only 10 miles or so from our scheduled stop at the gun shop and the peanut/gift shop.

http://mackeyslanding.com/ The Worlds largest gun shop.

Mackey’s Ferry Peanuts http://shop.mfpnuts.com/index.php My favorite? Blister fried. They had something very unusual and quite delicious, a muscadine grape flavored slushy.  The muscadine is a NC native grape and most of us that grew up here are very familiar with it.

We were at the peanut shop for a while and the sky became very dark and threatening.  We had earlier passed through a couple of brief showers that had not even caused a slow down in speed.  Through Plymouth the bikes were kicking up rooster tails in narrow wispy lines. We decided to head back to miss what appeared to be a storm closing in.  Once again we narrowly missed the major rain and passed through the extreme fringe.  The jackets came off in Manteo and stayed off the remainder of our journey.  We came back on the new Washington/Chocowinity bypass and that saved a good 10-15 minutes of travel. Our final stop was at the rest area on 17 just south of Vanceboro just to say our goodbyes to fellow riders. Considering the earlier threat of weather this ride turned out exceptionally well.  Even with brief showers the only thing wet was my glasses and face and they dried in a couple of minutes.  We had the welcome experience of meeting some new riders and adding them to our ride list and TJ had a thrill of a lifetime…stopping at  Hardees twice in one day. As soon as I collect the pictures the other riders captured I’ll post the best of the lot.  Backseat photography is definitely catching on.

Manteo Trip Update

Day Trip to Manteo


Weather permitting we are still on for Saturday May 29th.

I have attempted to break the ride into the requested lengths for rest stops.

At the present time there will be between 5 and 10 bikes.


My suggested meeting place is the Fuel Market in Bridgeton across the highway from Hardees. 400 D Street, take Hwy. 17 North out of New Bern across the high rise bridge, after you go under the first overpass it’s the first gas station on your right.


Meet at 8:00 AM on Saturday
• First stop Belhaven, 60 miles, 1.1 hour travel.
• Second stop Engelhard, 48 miles, 55 minutes travel.
• Third stop Manteo, 48 miles, 55 minutes travel.

http://www.darrellsseafood.com/

Darrells Seafood has been recommended by a friend of mine for our lunch stop. If anyone familiar with the area has a better recommendation please send it out to us.

Return Trip
• Manteo to Columbia/Creswell area, 45 miles around, 45 minutes travel
• Columbia to Mackeys Ferry Peanuts and Mackeys Ferry Gunshop, 40 miles, 45 minutes travel.
• Mackeys Ferry to Bridgeton, 60 miles, 1hour 10 minutes travel. We can make a stop in Washington if desired.


If anyone has an idea to improve the trip I’m open for suggestions.
And don’t forget to invite your riding friends!!

Day Ride To Manteo, NC

Debbie and I want to plan a bike trip to Manteo in the next few weeks. Leave New Bern at 8:00 and travel through Washington to Hwy 264, Pantego, Englehard, Stumpy Point and Manns Harbor. With a stop along the way, or two if needed, we can be in Manteo between 12:00 and 1:00, have lunch and head back on Hwy 64. There is the NC Aquarium in Manteo and of course the gun shop at Mackey’s Ferry if that can be added to the itinerary. Looks like about 3 hours down(155 miles) and 2.5 hours back(135 miles) I’ve made the trip many times in years past by car and the ride up is through some really back country with interesting views. Just to get started, how does Saturday, May 29th work? Please leave comment below.

Geocaching

What brought this on you ask?  Debbie mentioned this some time back and after using the small handheld GPS on our kayak trip we decided to give it a try. from www.wikipedia.com  : Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container (usually a tupperware or ammo box) containing a logbook. Larger containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching is most often described as a, "game of high-tech hide and seek," sharing many aspects with orienteering, treasure-hunting, and waymarking. www.geocaching.com We set up a free account at the above site and downloaded five waypoints to our GPS. There are hundreds of cache sites in our area.  We located the five sites we transferred to the GPS in an hour and a half.  The one at Union Point eluded our efforts on the first try so we returned once we sharpened our skills. Each location included a list of when the cache was first hidden and each subsequent find.  It was really interesting to see who found the site previously. Sorry for the picture quality but all we had available was Debbie’s cell phone camera.  At least we had that!

Map of our overall trip.

Close up of the cache area.

When you’re in eastern NC NASCAR is bound to show up.

This is actually more difficult than we first imagined.  Some of these folks are are quite creative in their hiding methods.  Hint: not everything is at ground level and some things are hidden in plain sight. All of these were in the easy range both for location and terrain.  We’re ready to go one level up. Next time maybe we can combine the Harley in the outing.

A Kayak Trip?

Debbie and I have been talking about a kayak for weeks.  Every since we moved in October we have access to the lake near our house.  Being the way I am I spent quite a lot of time stalking message boards, manufacturer web sites, local outfitter shops and the like to determine what type of kayak suited us best.  We settled on a Wilderness Systems Pamlico 135T.  And as luck would have it Pirate Queen Paddling in Beaufort and Atlantic Beach rented the very one we are interested in. http://www.piratequeenpaddling.com/

Tom met us at 10:00 in Beaufort with the kayak, PFD’s and paddles. He furnished a map of the area and gave us a run down on the kayak, gear and assisted with the proper adjustment of the PFD’s. It was a bit cool and windy but Tom said the wind would be slowing and it would warm to the mid 60’s.

We have a hand held GPS and carried it along to track our speed and location.

With our small pocket camera, GPS and drybag we were in good shape.  A few bottles of water and some cereal bars would ward off hunger at least until we could get to El’s Drive Inn!

We leave the launch site and head under the Gallants Channel bridge on the way to the Beaufort water front and on to Carrot Island.

Nearing one of the many shallow creeks on Carrot Island

You can get really close to wildlife from a kayak.

We were within a 25 feet of feeding bottle nosed dolphin in the channel.  You could clearly hear them breathe.

I really need some sun on these legs.

A high point on Carrot Island

Peaceful and a view as well.

After a couple of stops along Carrot Island we decided to stretch our legs on the Beaufort water front.

A convenient access point near the post office allows you to walk the water front.

I was concerned about a rudder for the kayak, seems to me to track quite well without it.  I also discovered that the 13.5 foot length will work well in the bed of our Dodge Ram.  The kayak easily converts to a single and handles very well.  At least as far as this beginner is concerned.

We made it back to the launch point by 1:15 in order to have the kayak picked up at 2:00.  There were some muscles worked out that the gym didn’t know about and we were a bit tired.  We traveled just over four miles and thoroughly enjoyed every minute.  Enough so that after we had lunch at El’s we went the the Atlantic Station (just west of Atlantic Beach) store and ordered a bright yellow kayak.

Parting Shots