Biking in Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina

 

• Date Biked: Sunday, September 13, 2020
• Total miles Tracked: 10.15
• Type of Trail: Paved road, beach
• Conveniences: Restrooms, picnic tables, park store, shelters
• Best Features: Well designed boardwalks that show off the tidal marsh ecosystem
• Worst Features: A bit crowded
• Wildlife spotted:  Gators, wood-storks, spoonbills, herons
• Vegetation: Marsh grasses, sea-oats, live oaks, pines
• Associated Website: https://southcarolinaparks.com/huntington-beach
• Primary Author: James

Before Cheryl and I ever met, both of our families had picked Myrtle Beach as their top vacation destination. But, neither of us was particularly in love with the area. On the surface, the whole area is mainly an experience in wall to wall traffic, overpriced restaurants, unending miles of strip malls, and crowded beaches. Our opinions shifted radically after we started biking and kayaking, however. Murrells Inlet is a great place to kayak, and just south of the town there's a paved section of the East Coast Greenway that covers a little over ten miles. The first three miles run through Huntington Beach State Park, and are thickly forested, though the forest isn't quite thick enough to cover the road noise from Highway 17 which is never more than a few dozen yards away. Still, Cheryl and I have probably biked this greenway segment at least a dozen time, and we've kayaked in the marshes right up to the causeway that leads into Huntington Beach State Park, but we've never actually gone into the park itself to bike until this September. The park is only three miles long. Just how much biking could we really do in it? 

Nature's perfect biking surface.

Quite a bit, it turns out, and we didn't even ride the section of the East Coast Greenway on this trip. We parked in the first parking lot across the causeway. Our first destination was to walk up onto a boardwalk overlooking the pond there to see if we could spot alligators. Mission accomplished! We spotted three gators right off the bat. By the end of the day, we pretty much stopped counting. 

The other thing we stopped counting was birds. When we kayak through the marshes, we catch glimpses of a lot of birds, but mainly we're down low among walls of marsh grass, so unless the birds are in the channel right in front of us, we don't always get a great view. But, the park features boardwalks along the causeway and another out into the marsh that give you great views of numerous birds. Everywhere we looked there were storks, herons, egrets, and spoonbills. There are covered shelters along the walkways where you can sit and watch the wildlife in comfort. It's well worth the price of admission into the park. 

Apparently, even birds can have bad hair days. 

Of course, we didn't go in primarily for the wildlife. We were there to ride bikes. Were there enough bikeable miles inside the park to make for a good experience. Yep! While there's only a few miles of paved road in the park, the beach itself is an excellent riding surface. The section of beach nearest the visitor center had too many visitors for us to ride on comfortably, but the northern section of beach was mostly wide open, broad and firmly packed. It ends at a paved jetty that you can ride on, though it's narrow and has some ugly potholes. Still, there's something cool about riding with waves on both sides and the open ocean as your vanishing point. 

All in all, we biked 10 miles, and if we'd ridden out and back on the greenway sections at the entrance we could easily have gotten 16 miles. We're excited about returning here the next time we're in the area. It seems like an especially promising place to bike in the winter, when the beach is probably even less crowded. 

Biking Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve

 

• Date Biked: September 11 and 12, 2020
• Total miles Tracked: 8.75 and 9.78
• Type of Trail: Dirt roads (and we'll define the word "road" loosely here)
• Conveniences: There's a sign at the entrance. What more do you want?  
• Best Features: Unique ecosystems, isolation
• Worst Features: Bugs and bogs
• Wildlife spotted:  A frog. But we did see lots of tracks! 
• Vegetation:  Pines and pitcher plants (theoretically Venus Flytraps) 
• Associated Website:https://www2.dnr.sc.gov/ManagedLands/ManagedLand/ManagedLand/104
• Primary Author: James 

This is a bit different from most of our biking posts, which focus on greenways and rail trails. This time, we're biking on dirt roads open to motor vehicles as well. To find places to bike, I spend a lot of time on Google Earth. The last time we went to South Carolina, I was looking for someplace new to bike, and I noticed a big swath of empty green space just north of Myrtle Beach. One one side of the Carolina Bays Parkway, housing and businesses are densely packed all the way down to the ocean. On the other side of the parkway, there's open land full of big oval depressions that look like shallow impact craters. These are the eponymous "Carolina Bays." The bays house delicate ecosystems. You find a lot of carnivorous plants in them, and the preserve is the last place in South Carolina where you can still find Venus flytraps growing wild. Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve was created to protect this unique landscape. 

The preserve is open to the public, but it's interesting how many people we've talked to in Myrtle Beach who seemed unaware it exists. In fairness, there's not much to do here. There are no picnic tables or restrooms, and the landscape is flat, monotonous pine forest for as far as the eye can see. The preserve is theoretically home to black bears, racoons, eagles, and other wildlife, but the main wildlife you're guaranteed to encounter will be biting flies. We did find quite a few footprints in the sand, however. 

Frogs count as wildlife!

Spiders too!

So, if  you go there looking for a fun in the sun beach-like experience, you'll likely be disappointed. But, if you go with an open mind and a sharp eye, you'll find the visit rewarding. While we never located any Venus flytraps, we didn't have to look too hard to find carnivorous pitcher plants. Since we were searching for flytraps, we were paying close attention to even tiny changes in the forest floor. If you were moving along the dirt roads in a car, the landscape would probably all look the same. But on a bike, you see how the slightest changes in the soil produces a variety of ecosystems where different plants dominate only yards from each other. We found a great variety of wildflowers, and imagine that a springtime visit would bring an even greater bounty. 

We visited two days and rode roughly 9 miles each day. We could easily have logged more miles without much effort if we hadn't been stopping every half mile for photos. The preserve map doesn't list distances, but I'm guessing there's easily 25 miles or so of roads and trails that could be biked. While the roads are level and smooth, you'll need a bike with fat tires to handle the patches of soft sand and mud. Despite my earlier crack about biting flies, this wasn't the worst landscape we've ever ridden through in terms of bugs. Honestly, 90% of our ride was bug free, but when you did hit patches of insects in some of the swampier areas, they were pretty aggressive. And, speaking of swampier areas, we went down a road called Flytrap Lane thinking it would be a short cut back to the parking lot, only to find ourselves knee deep in muck. We kept looking at Google maps and thinking, "If we make it through this, the paved road has to be just around the corner." After the fifth bog we waded through, that turned out to be correct! Alas, we didn't see any flytraps on Flytrap lane, probably because we were too busy groping around in the muck trying to find Cheryl's lost shoe. Adventure! 

Adventure!

As for the bays themselves, from the ground it's hard to tell when you're passing through one or riding right beside one. Some of them have sandy outer rims that are easy to spot, and riding along the rim of another the vegetation was so thick and dense along the rim you'd need a machete to see what was behind it. 

The outer rim of a Carolina Bay

Aside from the amazing ecosystems, the best reason to come ride here is the isolation you'll experience. Once you get a mile or two from the entry gate on International Drive, the silence is profound. While we did encounter a few cars driving through the preserve, most of the time we were biking we were utterly alone. We'll happily leave the crowded beaches and bustling shopping centers in Myrtle Beach to others to explore even more of this wild space. 

Biking the Virginia Creeper Trail

 

• Date Biked: September 6, 2020 (with one pic from a previous ride)
• Total miles Tracked: 36.58
• Type of Trail: Rail trail, gravel
• Conveniences: pit toilets and picnic tables at most trail heads. Lots of private businesses also support the trail, with bike rental and shuttles and numerous restaurants. 
• Best Features: Breathtaking scenery. Long downhill grade from White Top means even novice bikers can enjoy a long ride. 
• Worst Features: Crowds! 
• Wildlife spotted: Deer
• Vegetation: Mountain laurels, hardwood forests, wildflowers. 
• Associated Website: https://www.vacreepertrail.org/
• Primary Author: James

The day after we rode the New River Trail end to end, we drove an hour west to ride the Virginia Creeper Trail, a 34 mile route that goes from White Top Mountain, through Damascus, and on to Abingdon. The Creeper trail is one of the most popular rail trails in Virginia. There are numerous outfitters in Damascus where visitors can rent bikes and get shuttled to the trail head on White Top Mountain. From there, it's 17 miles of continuous downhill back to Damascus. Even novice bikers can tackle this without working up a sweat. 

Mile after mile, the scenery is delightful. You roll through dense, shaded tunnels of mountain laurels which suddenly open up to reveal rolling hills covered with Christmas tree farms, or grassy fields where cattle graze. Dozens of trestle bridges cross rocky creeks with crystal clear water. Anywhere light makes it through the canopies of trees, you'll find wildflowers, and where the sun can't reach, mushrooms. 

Cheryl and I bike a lot of different rail trails and greenways, and have yet to run into one where private businesses support the local trail so thoroughly. There are at least a half dozen bike outfitters and shuttle services in Damascus, and numerous restaurants catering to riders. Unlike some localities we visit where the locals seem either oblivious or annoyed that there's a rail trail running through their town, Damascus, Abingdon, and Taylor's Valley understand the treasure they have with this trail and go out of their way to be welcoming. 

Which, alas, leads to the paradoxical downside of riding the Creeper. If you go there on a weekend in good weather, it's going to be crowded. And, since the 17 miles of coasting downhill is something even novice riders can handle, you wind up with a trail full of bikers who don't show the best trail etiquette. But, in addition to novice bikers, you also encounter aggressive bikers who have the strength to bike up the mountain, then race back down at lightning speed. We were there over Labor Day weekend and the ride from White Top to Damascus was stressful before we even got out of our car because of the crowds. If you have the option of going during a weekday, you'll probably have a better experience. We've also gone out of season, being all alone on a shuttle up the mountain and starting our ride in 20 degree weather, wearing two sets of gloves, but enjoying the freedom of having the trail to ourselves. 

That said, there are two segments that usually aren't crowded no matter when you ride. The first is the short, one mile ride from White Top to the North Carolina border. Especially if you've ridden up on a shuttle, riding up to the border gives the crowds a chance to disperse. The mile is rough and can be muddy. The signage isn't exactly clear either. After you follow the railbed through the woods, you reach a gravel road. Follow that road until it starts heading uphill into a private driveway. Stick to the right along the creek and you'll find the sign for the border only a few dozen yards away. 

The other segment that isn't as crowded is the entire length from Damascus to Abingdon. This is a modest uphill grade, and a lot of the tourists who come to be shuttled up to White Top stop in Damascus and never explore the rest of the trail. This is their loss, since the scenery through here is just as nice and a little easier to pause and appreciate without worrying that you're turning yourself into an obstacle for other bikers. Also, coming down from White Top, the trail is so steep that often you're so busy looking at the path directly ahead of you that you kind of miss the scenery you're passing through. The more leisurely pace you can adopt on the second half of the ride allows you more time to appreciate your surroundings. This section of the trail also has several gates you have to stop and open, which seems to keep the bikers who are hungry for speed off this part of the trail. 

Since we'd taken up two vehicles, we parked one in Abingdon then drove to White Top to ride the full length in one day, stopping for a leisurely lunch in Damascus. The next time we go, probably next spring, we're planning to tackle the uphill bike climb from Damascus to White Top. We'll report on that, assuming we survive it! For now, we'll close out with more shots of great sights along the trail, though this is only a fraction of the experiences you'll have on this ride. If you haven't tried it out yet, what are you waiting for?