April 24, 2015
Holden Beach to Wilmington
The day started out chilly.
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My Garmin tells me it was 53.6°F. I've biked in rain at that temperature wearing less, but still, we are clearly headed to slightly cooler temperatures, outpacing the sun as we head north. But then, my friends back in Washington told me it was 39°F this morning, so maybe this is just an unusual cold front.
With wind, by the way. Did I mention the wind? It blew all night. Not violently, but enough to remind you it was there. And it was enough to dry everything left outside. And stupid me brought into my tent my wet stuff . . . except my socks. They are dry!
So off we went, looking for breakfast. There was nothing in Holden Beach, so we stocked up at the local Food Lion after dinner last night with bananas, oranges, and an apple. This was more than enough to get us started. In fact, we each only had a banana before heading off for Supply (odd name for a town but real), where we knew we would find at least a McDonald's (although we were dying to try Burger King). It was only 7-1/2 miles; we would survive.
Unfortunately, we didn't pay as close attention to our routing as we should have, and we bypassed Supply by several miles before realizing it. The billboard advertising a McDonald's in 9 miles was my first clue! That's OK. I remained silent and pushed on, half expecting a comment from Happy, but none came. We finally saw "something" at mile 20 and dropped in.
We opted for the coffee. And the nice lady running the shop let us hang out for a bit. My legs were feeling rubbery and needed a rest. The good news was the wind was mostly behind us or to the side, so our progress was not bad. But it was windy, and this stretch of road was relentlessly straight. But at least NC-211 is a designated Bike Route (No. 5) and has wide shoulders AND NO RUMBLE STRIPS!
We also realized at this stop that we were taking a ferry today. Our third for the trip. Bad on us for not reviewing our route more closely, but a quick call to the 800 number confirmed it was running on 45-minute headways, so no worries there. We pushed on to Southport and the Southport-Fort Fisher Ferry service.
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Fisher Island has a fort! Or at least the remains of one. So we visited for a bit and observed the surf before pushing on to Wilmington, now only 24 miles away.
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Leaving Ft Fisher, we passed through Kure Beach and Carolina Beach before crossing Snow's Cut, bike lanes all the way.
After crossing Snow's Cut (also a part of the Intracoastal Waterway), we looped around to River Road, which also had bike lanes the whole way PLUS great views of the Cape Fear River estuary.
This route, as pretty as it was, unfortunately drops you into an industrial area with truck traffic and many, many railroad crossings. Seven, by my count. All heavily skewed at sharp angles to the roadway. No falls here, but to cross them properly requires using the full lane sometimes, so be observant of traffic.
Eventually, however, you end up on Front Street, which is lined with many older Victorian-era homes. Very beautiful; however, there is still a double yellow down the middle of the street! And the bike lane drops off in favor of sharrows, which work given the lower speeds and volumes.
Front Street leads to the Historic District which is passable as a fun place for one night. Maybe two if you're not biking up the East Coast. So we celebrated over a beer or two and turned in early.
Today's ride: 55 miles (89 km)
Total: 1,353 miles (2,177 km)
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