Day 16: To Morehead City, NC

May 1, 2017

Up at 7:30, on the road at 8:45. Today is an easy day. Getting out of Jacksonville was fairly easy. Maybe it helped to get on the road after rush hour. The northeast side of town has nicer neighborhoods than what I saw yesterday.

Once out of Jacksonville the route is low traffic country roads until connecting to busy NC 24 a few miles west of Swansboro. That section of NC 24 is a 4 lane rural highway with curbs, no shoulder.

Swansboro is a quaint historic coastal village at the mouth of a wide river, but protected from the ocean by barrier islands. Calm water.

Park in Swansboro at the mouth of the White Oak river.

I stopped to rest at the waterfront park that has almost no shade. I cowered in the one corner that had a tiny bit of shade. It was only 80F but I don't want to sit in the sun.

I sat on the deck in the only bit of the park that had shade.

From Swansboro I cross a long but not very tall bridge over the mouth of the White Oak river.

Looking back at Swansboro while crossing the White Oak river on NC 24.

Then a couple miles later I turned right onto NC 58 which crosses a taller bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway. Both bridges have a decent shoulder for safe cycling.

NC 58 crossing a higher bridge to a barrier island called Bogue Banks.

Now I'm on a barrier island known as Bogue Banks. I'll stay on the island for 20 miles to the next connection to the mainland.

There are nearly continuous beach towns on Bogue Banks. The towns of Emerald Isle and Indian Beach are mostly single family vacation homes, not really touristy. The next town, Pine Knoll Shores has multi story condos, still not very touristy. Few motels and restaurants. No beach shop.

Beach on Bogue Banks. Nobody is on the beach because a storm is threatening.

There are "regional beach access points", but only every 2 or 3 miles. Not very convenient for people with non-beachfront property to walk to the beach. The morning was sunny but the afternoon was cloudy and threatening to rain. People were on the beach in the morning, but not now.

The town of Pine Knoll Shores is a planner's nightmare-high rise condos next to a trailer park. Both are unattractive.

Pine Knoll Shores has a park with a boardwalk that crosses wide dunes to the beach. I'm starting to take for granted that I can walk on a beach every day.

Initial ocean view as the boardwalk climbs the dunes.

Descent to the beach. The dunes are about 30 feet tall here.

The beach was deserted because it was so windy and a shower came through at 2 PM. During the 10 minute shower the temperature dropped from 80F to 74F. That was refreshing but it recovered quickly afterwards. Thanks to the cloudy afternoon the high was only 80F. Still extremely humid with brisk south wind.

The final town on the barrier island is Atlantic Beach, which is touristy.

I took this photo to show the typical beach shop. Much later I noticed that it's named after the *wrong* ocean.

In Atlantic Beach NC 58 turns left and crosses a tall bridge to return to the mainland in Morehead City. In Morehead City I had to go south 2 miles to get lodging at Quality Inn. $121. This is a resort town. Maybe the price went up on May 1. I arrived at 4:15 PM and had a nap before dinner at a Mexican restaurant a block from the motel.

Crossing the Intracoastal Waterway to return to the mainland in Morehead City. I've never seen flags on light poles before.

I've traveled 6 consecutive days and planned to take a rest day tomorrow to ride a ferry to Cape Lookout. Unfortunately the weather is very windy and tomorrow's sailings are cancelled. So I won't have a rest day and won't see Cape Lookout. Instead I will exploit the strong southwest wind and pedal northeast to the Outer Banks.

Rain is forecast tonight from 4-6 AM. A big storm is forecast to hit 3 days later, so that will likely be my next rest day. Fortunately the terrain is flat and fatigue is not really a concern.

Today I traveled east all day. My destination is slightly south of where I started. The south wind was a crosswind that kept me cool but slowed me down slightly.

Morehead City is a quaint and somewhat historic low-key fishing/tourist/vacation home town. I didn't explore the town much today but I like what I saw. It's the southern gateway to my next major destination, the Outer Banks.

Distance: 56.1 mi. (89.8 km)
Climbing: 762 ft. (231 m)
Average Speed: 10.3 mph (16.5 km/h)

Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 724 miles (1,165 km)

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