Biking Fripp Island and Hunting Island State Park, SC

 

• Dates Biked: October 15 and 18, 2020
• Total miles tracked:  Hunting Island:  14 miles (includes from our rental on Fripp and back), Fripp Island:  11.2 miles.  Beach ride on Fripp:  10 miles.  
• Best Features: Biking with friends and beach rides! 
• Worst Features:  Mosquitoes  
• Wildlife spotted: Egrets, herons
• Vegetation: Maritime forests, marshes
• Associated Websites:  pledgethepink.com; https://southcarolinaparks.com/hunting-island; https://frippislandresort.com
• Primary Author: Cheryl

For the last several years, I have been participating in a 3-day walk for Breast Cancer called Pledge the Pink, held in the low country of South Carolina.  This year, it was going to be located with Fripp Island as the home base, with walks on Hunting Island State Park and the Habersham community in Beaufort County.  Alas - Covid.  The walk itself became a virtual event this year, but James and I and our friends Hope and Danny decided to keep our reservations at our house on Fripp Island.  We participated in the virtual event, but chose to get our daily miles on our bikes instead.  We have two other posts for our biking on the Spanish Moss Trail in Beaufort and Pinckney Island Wildlife Refuge in Hilton Head, but we had other great biking on Fripp Island, including their wide beaches and the neighboring Hunting Island State Park, so we felt we needed to share the rides with our readers.  

Hunting Island State Park is just magical.  In addition to the miles of beach that are part of the park, there are 3 main trails that run parallel through the park, and some shorter loop and connector trails, along with the paved roads that wind through the park. Most trails are sandy, so if you're biking, you'll need some wider tires.  There are also roots, fallen limbs and pine cones.

The Lagoon Trail

Leaving the Nature Center parking lot

And did I mention the mosquitoes?  Oh my!  We were there in October and they were the size of pterodactyls!  We had bug spay, but they were biting trough our shirts.  We quickly detoured over to their boneyard beach.  We left out bikes near the footbridge that crosses the lagoon and wandered among the driftwood.   

If you've never experienced a boneyard beach, Hunting Island State Park provides the easiest opportunity to do so.  It's not even a mile from the parking lot at the nature center.  Other such boneyards require ferry rides or several miles of trekking to get there.  And just what is a boneyard beach?  It's where a maritime forest is being reclaimed by the ocean.  

Footbridge to the boneyard as seen from the beach

After wandering around this section of the beach for a while, we hopped back on our bikes and rode up to the lighthouse.  The four of us had climbed the 167 steps of the lighthouse 2 years prior.  With Covid, they were limiting the people climbing the day we here here this year.  If you get a chance to do it, the view is spectacular.  

Hunting Island Lighthouse

We left the main grounds of the state park and headed back down the stretch of HWY 21 back to Fripp Island.  We took a quick detour on the Marsh boardwalk trail.  We were hoping to see some birds, but just saw a bunch of crabs instead.  

We rode our bikes the next two days on the Spanish Moss Trail in Beaufort and Pinckney Island Wildlife Preserve in Hilton Head.  The link will take you to our Spanish Moss review, and Pinkney is coming up soon!

Our last full day at Fripp for Pledge the Pink, we decided to just ride our bikes around the island.  It was high tide and many of the roads on the island were covered in overwash.  That didn't stop us from having some fun.  

SPLASH!

If you can still see the tops of grass, it's shallow enough to ride through!

After lunch, James and I took our bikes over to the beach and rode the entire length of Fripp Island and back.  We love riding on the beach, and the wide stretches of sand during the low tide did not disappoint.  

The pics might make it look like we had the beach all to ourselves. Not true! There were also a crazy number of birds. Here's a video of us riding through one of the flocks:

Next year, our Pledge the Pink walk will be based in Hilton Head.  We look forward to gathering together and walking our 10 miles a day for Breast Cancer.  You can bet we'll be hauling our bikes down and looking for more beaches to pedal.

Survivors sporting some FANCY socks!