# OBX - an odd place to ride?



## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Hi Folks

"OBX" is on an international-style bumper sticker a lot around DC and it stands for "Outer Banks"

In, the wet edge of North Carolina, mostly between the interestingly named "Duck" at the north end, past Kill Devil Hill, where the Wrights first lumbered into the air on the way to paying lawyers about as much as they earned from aviation, and down to Cape Hatteras lighthouse. 

When you pass Cape Hatteras, you can go a fair ways south, but highway 12 has a Big Wet Spot to deal with, where you get on a freeby ferry and go over to a 20 miles long sandspit with a lump on the southern end.

That lump is home to 750 or so year-rounders, a lot of people who've built big, and mostly ugly, vacation homes - and about 20 bazillion fishers of fish, who flock there, in their bazillions mostly.

Ocracoke - the town - has been there so long, it's kind of hard to figure exactly when it was founded, and why. It was possibly found about the time some early West-bound ship's captain said something like "[email protected]@&y [email protected]!!, what did we just run in to?", in whatever language he spoke. It has a real hard core of residents, who've been there a long while in family terms and the above legions of visitors.

Being of sound mind and body, when Sue decided we needed to go away for a weekend with 'the kids' (28 and 33), Ocracoke came readily to mind - the eldest one had just presented Sue with a new grand-daughter and she figured she'd just kidnap the lot and easily isolate the VSP (Very Short Person) from her parents, to do whatever new grannies do with VSP's.

Believe me - if Ocracoke means anything, it's probably an old word for "somewhere that's only got peace and quiet to commend it". No movie theatres, few taxy cabs, the town is a scant three miles across, max and there is nothing to do, period.

Unless you fish, of course. Me? I reckon that grocery stores have plenty of fish, why complicate my life by hunting for the things 

Warning - Ocracoke has regular TV reception and my wife's 'Blackberry' worked fine - this place is not perfect!

The island has one road besides the town roads. It's mostly straight and flat, so mindful of the bumpy nature of the rest of the place, we took the MTBs. Admittedly with road-going tyres. Next time, I pull a MB1 and take the Pista! This place makes Florida look like somewhere the Spanish are looking for to supplement the Vuelta's mountain stages!

Whether you come from Hattera way, or across from NC, you come by ferry! Major difference is, the NC ferry costs, but has good coffee  It's also a three hour crossing, and always gets lumpy in the middle  From Hatteras, it's a 35 min or so flat calm ride, mostly within sight of land - of sorts.


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

The first shot is your last view of land at Hatteras ferry port - those aren't hotels, they are houses!

I mean, one should always have a discreet little cottage at the beach, go commune with nature, that sort of thing.

The other shot is the Ocracoke end of that slight gap in NC 12


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Never mind the bike riding - where's the coffee shop?

And on Ocracoke, we mean THE coffee shop  

It's called, imaginatively enough "Ocracoke Coffee" and has about enough trade to hopefully ensure that You-know-who-Bucks will never get a toe-hold on this sandbar. THe coffee is as good as them-who-shall-not-be-named, and the atmosphere is distinctly olde-worlde and very unique. The coffee is as good as you'll find anywhere else too.

The bikes seen around are all of a heavy-duty nature, though I couldn't find out about that odd looking device that was always there. It might have belonged to an odd looking local who was always there, but I never got to ask!


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

The fancy red MTB above is mine - it's a Gunnar Rockhound, a rare dog indeed, with its Reynolds 853 tubing - they use some other stuff nowadays. Grossly under-utilised, it's a good, solid bike that can cover most territory.

The island's various souvenir stores - regrettably moving more into "Chinese made c#@p" than when we came here last, five years ago - do a lot of bike rental.

These are all beach cruiser types - heavy, single speed, mostly rusty (sea air is marvellous on machinery  ). I saw singles, tandems, trikes and the odd kiddy trailer too. Riding them must be fun - oil is probably not a large business expense amongst Island bike rentals. The cost - if you're going for a couple of days, take your own bike!

Which, BTW, fit fine on roofracks and the ferries ...


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Downtown measures about fifty feet long - okay, I exagerate! Maybe two hundred yards...

The real downtown roads are all dirt roads and point to an era of different priorities. Now, folk still live on them, but one of the biggest houses is a sort of clearing shop for the local 'real' artists and it even has a parking lot - the sort that can nearly be filled by a couple of the ubiquitious monster SUV favoured by OBX visitors


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

On one side of the main street, folk lived in simple, one level houses. Way back not-too-when, many of these were built from the remains of ships either badly navigated or badly out of luck ...

On the other side of the main street are several family cemeteries. Life, it seems, was hard enough without dragging dead relatives to a final resting place a long ways away! They seem to have quit this unusual pastime in favour of a communal one, just outside of town.

A strange topic for the thread, but a fine illustration of how 'real' Ocracoke Islanders coped with the oddities of their unusual lifestyle


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

And so to ride!

One fine morning, Sue and I set off for about the only thing besides sand, some more sand, the sea and some scrub-brush - the Ocracoke ponies.

These are, it seems, related to some Spanish stock that was dropped off here a l-o-n-g while ago - or maybe they were on a ship that was in deep poo and got the standard treatment afforded to panicking livestock aboard a ship about to experience a very nasty nautical equivalent of a crash landing - they got booted over the side and left to sink or swim.

These hardy ponies thrived and roamed freely, bothered only by packs of roving Boy Scouts in the mid 20th century. Those hardy lads broke many to being ridden bare-back - a good way of getting around prior to the invention of the four wheel drive vehicle.

Regretably, when Highway 12 was built loosely down the middle of the island, these free spirited nags started to inconvenience the Almighty Tourist. Fortunately, a compromise resulted not in wholesale slaughter, but in a few of them being kept in a pen where tourists can gawk at them without having to actually slow their cars down to avoid them ...  

So Sue and I ambled up the road from Ocracoke - it's about 8 miles from town to the ponies' enclosure. Viewing the ponies is so exciting that it's unlikely to be replicated at WallyWorld any time soon, but you make the best with what you have  

This stretch of the road is so utterly flat, the mind starts reading a slope into it! As the sandbar is not much above sea-level, there's no way to have a slope out on NC-12 anyway!

PS - the other shot is me, trying to do an MB1 and greatly exceeding the usual capabilities of an aging former road-racer by trying to ride and photo simultaneously.  I was using Sue's microscopic 4megapixel Canon compact digital, not a real camera


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Leaving DC's finest non-profit fundraiser (over 3/4's of a billion bux for the 2005 Red Cross Hurricane season was down to efforts my lass put in leading her team on E street) to gurgle incoherently at her weeks old grand-daughter, I headed out to Ride To The End of The Island - about 18 miles away from our rental pad!

As you can see, most of the scenery is comprised of road - though sometimes it can be a road with a car on it!

Yes, it is the kind of flat that has tri-atheletes salivating for a 55 x 11 and reaching for their longest aerobars!


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Okay, these are out of sequence - but at what you're paying to watch, I'm sure you can use your imagination to move these back some.

Sorry you can't see the ponies - I didn't have a real telephoto lens with me. They look like small-ish horses, leg at each corner, big swishy tail at the back and a look at the front that suggests they'd never win the audition to play the remake of "Mr Ed" - these are mean, not-cuddly wild ponies, do not pet, they are one off carniverous!


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## chuckice (Aug 25, 2004)

Ocracoke and all along Hwy 12 is absolutely gorgeous to ride. I've been on Ocracoke in the middle of tropical storms and it'll put the fear in you.

The sunset on the sound at OBX is like no place else...


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

But there is a beach!
This bit's about halfway along the island, on the Atlantic side - the other side looks much the same, but you can sometimes see bits of North Carolina as the wet spot is much narrower than the Atlantic.

There's wooden bridges across the hallowed ground of sand and the scrub that's holding it, property values, NC-12 and the Atlantic in proper order - ride along them, or even walk, and you can get down onto the beach. 

Where you can picnic - or even fish, for a change.


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Here's a glimpse of the dominant lifeform on Ocracoke - "Touristus Typicalis"

Note the finish of an off-road vehicle that spends arduous hours slogging around suburbs. Observe the weekend attachment on the rear end of this numerous creature, with its load of fishing poles. This creature can sometimes be seen as far offroad as the rear car park of the big pub on the shoulder of NC-12 and will usually be restored to its pristine condition as soon as it encounters a car wash after its arduous weekend activities of burning massive amounts of gas in search of nature to commune with.

In its tame state, it more often hauls the young of a lesser race to their schools and other activities around crowded suburbs - on Ocracoke, it is most likely to be seen running wild and free, often attaining speeds of 70MPH or more when it gets onto NC-12 and smells the smell of a bait shop!


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Every so often, there are little sideroads leading off NC-12 in a beachwards direction.

My eager little Rockhound got a sniff of its destiny passing one - offroad we go!

AAARRRGGGHHH! My front Continental "Town and Country" hit what looked like dirt, discovered it was fine sand, sank in it past the rim and my offroad exploit juddered to a halt. 

Further experimentation proved that I had (A) no traction on the back and (B) No ability to steer with the front, even if I could have gotten any traction at the back.

With this last one, I shall retire.

Tomorrow's episode - suburbia, isolated island style and other oddities

Regards

Dereck


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## KWL (Jan 31, 2005)

*Nice pics......*

....entertaining narative too. We last visited Ocracoke BK (Before Kids) and ours are almost as old as yours. Now you've got me interested in heading back.....with the Steamroller. Thanks. Looking forward to the promised next episode.


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

*Ahhhhhhhh, the warped words of a true Brit on full display.*

I can't remember enjoying a ride report more.

Dereck, you crack me up. Maybe internet humor does work afterall (only in the hands of a master though).


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## ttug (May 14, 2004)

*its a great place*



Dereck said:


> Every so often, there are little sideroads leading off NC-12 in a beachwards direction.
> 
> My eager little Rockhound got a sniff of its destiny passing one - offroad we go!
> 
> ...


Head towards Hatteras, then turn back and suiffer. Its a great place for the unending steady state interval ride that would not die but its near the beach and its OK ride.

As to the local folks,well, most of what you see did not appear until the late 70's. Duck and further out used to be very very remote and virtually undeveloped. Salvo, etc etc used to be my favorite places. You could also check out Island Bikes on the way to Hatteras. Local cemeteries kind of work in that situation as well, if you live there, odds are, you bury your people in the same place. I do not recall a mail order service for dead people in remote areas. I am sure it would be a stunning success.......  

OTHERWISE, great seafood, great people, lots of beer and rum and do not drink Outer Banks Rum whatever you do.


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## frank_grupt (Jun 28, 2004)

*Nice*

If you're looking for other places to vacation in the general neighborhood, try Bald Head Island. Though there aren't a lot of roads (I'm guessing 12 miles total), there aren't any cars either (save the local services and construction vans), just golf carts and bikes. Much the same theme -- very little to do except sit on the beach, boogyboard, chat, eat, drink, and ride endless loops around the island.


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Hi Folks
Back for a flying visit (Groan. Didn't mean that like that, honest!)

I forgot - there is another way into/onto Ocracoke other than paddling across the wet bit around it.

Sue and I took a diversion off the main road - one of few you can take without four wheel drive or tracks - to Ocracoke International Airport (well, they have an airline and they fly to the US  )

This father and son duo had popped over from Raleigh, NC, for a coffee!

For those thinking "That's a long way in a Cub" - this is a Christen Husky - flaps, instruments, a whole bunch more hosses than the beloved J3 and, whereas a Cub might make 70MPH on a long downhill, this baby cruises up around 120 or so! 

We watched them take-off, that baby had barely got the wheels rolling, the tailwheel was up and she was flying.

Very sweet, but I couldn't see how you'd fit a bike rack on it  

Thank you all for the kind comments, and there's more to come. As you might have guessed, this "land that Disney forgot" is rapidly heading from 'endangered' to 'extinct' - suggest if you care to sample a little really laid back life, you go soon...

Admin point - on this trip, we booked a house through "Ocracoke Harbour Inn" Can't remember the cost, but it seemed reasonable to the finance dept (wifey!) and took us two, the eldest, wife and VSP, and singly son too, with space to spare, plus the service was good. Last time we went, we rented a house through "Ocracoke Reality". The latter is a descendant of Bluebeard and should be forced to fly a skull and crossbones flag.outside their office ... Not a happy experience at all.

Other points - go out of holiday season. We went two weeks before TurkeyDay (known in English Circles as "Thank Goodness They Left" day  ) and life all round was tolerable. On a holiday or high day, the place is gonna be kneck deep in fishermen and fishing tackle buyers  Take as much foodstuff as you can if going for even just a couple of days - there is no Island Wallymart, just a convenience store. 

The latter is especially true if you fancy fish for dinner - you get two choices, based on our experience. Go catch it, or haul it over from the main-land - there was none in the store!

If you have any out of the ordinary dietary needs, make sure you haul them in with you!

Back later

Regards

Dereck


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## darbo (Dec 9, 2002)

*wonderful report*

the brother of a good friend of mine owns and operates a shop on Ocracoke, the "Barefoot Bohemian," a purveyor of 100% legal tobacco smoking accessories. i've never had the pleasure to visit, but your pics show much of what i've heard described, particularly the seasonal migration/infestation of the OBX-tagged SUV.


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Hi Darbo
Yes, we saw that one - and upped the RPM to get out of a downwind pocket! Wifey is a reformed smoker and I tried one once, decided I could think of better ways to give money to big business, feel sick and wreck my lungs ...

Do you know that man, the supposedly superior creature on the third rock, is the only animal on said rockball to dry weeds, set light to them and inhale the fumes?

I mean, cows are blindingly stupid, but you never see a bunch of them hanging around a pile of burning straw sniffing the smoke ...

In the meantime, while dinner's cooking, here's a couple more shots.

One's about the best Ocracoke can do for a traffic jam out of season and off the roads to the fishing spots - this family had one of about every rentable set of bike wheels apart from a trike and were having a ball in the original "downtown"

The other - I nearly fell off my bike when I saw this gassniffer. For the less automobiley versed, it's a Morris Minor station wagon (or estate car in proper English  ). These were built pretty much un-changed from the mid-50's into the mid-70s and this one would be worth a lot in the right circles. That woodwork only appeared on the "Traveller" model and actually did something useful in helping hold the back end together. The engine is an even older concept than the car - the "A" series was designed before WW2 and powered this and the Mini (the real one, not BMW's mobile, overweight cartoon) from the 50s to the 90's

Four people, three doors - and 40+ to the gallon of two star petrol (regular, but definitely leaded prefered)!

My first car was a four door saloon (sedan) the same colour as this. On its 948cc one carb four banger with four speed manual, it wasn't greased lightning, but it took me a considerable distance in the year before it fell apart around me from rust. No multiple genital/nasal/wallet/facial airbags, no radio, the only 'air' it had was much the same as the air outside. The tricky part was remembering to fill the carb dashpot damper with 3 in 1 oil every few weeks, lest the idle go to pot!

I couldn't find out how this fabulous slice of English motoring got to Ocracoke Island of all places, wish I could have talked to the owner about that little treasure.

Back later


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## crumjack (Sep 11, 2005)

*Love OBX!*

We stay in South Nags Head. Its great because you're forced to sit back, relax, and enjoy your vacation.


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Here's an interesting little book that son #2 picked up in a local bookselling section somewhere on the sprawling metropolis. The book is a pretty good and readable history of the Island, by a guy who published several similar books about Southern cities.

What makes it so special is that it was written in the 1950's

The really poignant part was reading about the local kids. Their favourite 'vice' was a fountain soda from the local store. Kids didn't damage anything, mostly because there was no-where to hide, all the adults talked to each other and the culprits of vandalism would soon have been tracked down and locally dealt with.

Later that day, I read the local news-sheet in the coffee shop, about the hurricanes that visit this neck of the woods (well, neck of the sand-dunes  ) all too often. 

Seems more damage is done by teenagers breaking into boarded-up homes to steal beer than by much else.

I guess that's progress.

If you get thataways, buy a copy of that book, reading it is a rare treat in a cynical world.

Regards
Dereck


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

I really should stop dwelling on the morbid, but this little patch of land is well-known on Ocracoke.

It dates back to WW2. In 1942, many British merchant ships plied the eastern seaboard.

One night, HMS Bedford, a British armed trawler - barely a warship - set out from Ocracoke to look for the U-boats the German Navy operated close in to the US shore. 

Unfortunately, one U-boat proved better at looking for trouble than did the British ship. Only a few of the sailors off the British ship were found, when their bodies were washed up on shore.

This cemetry, with its four graves, is maintained in pristine condition as a memorial to that lost ship.


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Did I mention you better like making your entertainment on Ocracoke (and your own meals, if you go out of the tourist season!) ?

There is no movie theatre - what a surprise - but their is a small live theatre!

This is the (Summer) home to a local bluegrass group and I think there's a live mike sort of night. If it's open, go early - it's cheerfully described as a 'screen porch' sort of size.

Not sure why my bike got into the photo, other than this being a biking forum . The "no entry" sign is more popular than I recollect from just five-odd years back though. Not a good sign...

D


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Here's another sign or so of progress.

If you swing off right-ish as you enter the town from Rt-12 (the only way really, apart from the NC mainland ferry or the airport  ) - you end up in suburbia!

S'right. All of a sudden, you go from weather-beaten, small and 'quaint' to big, ugly and ostentatious. There's two types of streets here - one sort's paved, the other is sort of - wet.

An increasing number of them have regular US Anytown street name signs - with little yellow "PT" - for Private - in the corners. The number of small, Ocracoke sized houses around this end of the town - it faces the sound and NC, not the Atlantic - has dropped, while the number of McMansions (if that baffles you, ask me or MB1, the term probably started near us) has steadily increased.

Another reason to either go see the place, or send the Little Man down to Ocracoke Reality to see about buying one's seaside cottage while there's still space.


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

One shot is of an average slice of "Suburbia".

The other, after due consideration, I figure has to be the biggest, ugliest, tackiest and most ostentatious 'Seaside weekend cottage" on poor little Ocracoke Island. 

I wonder which one of those reasons they built it for?

Like the rest of the 'burbs, it's on the sound side. Which is good, because you can't see it from the nice side of town. It's standard new build for the island - 'ground floor' is atop stilts, high enough to slot the Cadillac "Subdivision" under with ease, then four floors above that, with a rooftop deck to sit and ponder the sunset / sunrise from.

The road sign - well, I couldn't resist it. At the entrance to what looks like a street of big ugly houses that run straight to a dead end at the water, if you think about it too long, a helicopter begins to sound like the only way in or out.


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

Hi Jack
Can't comment on the rest of the OBX, but you sure have to be good at self-entertainment on Ocracoke!

You can go to the next island south, but you'll be lonely - the residents all baled out some 30-odd years ago! All the buildings, including the Post Office, are still there and, apparently occupyable.

I've deferred on going - advice to visitors on the daily boat trip over are to take your own water, food, insect repellent and toilet paper  Not my idea of a fun day ...

Must toss in this regretably less than flattering shot of a Japanese gentleman we encountered on the ferry ride off the island on our way home. Describing himself as 'not really a cyclist, more a traveller", he'd been riding his bike and trailer around Canada and the US for ten months.

The sort of guy who makes MB1 sound like a track sprinter  

He said he was soon going to have to head home for Toyko - some minor problem with funding for further travel. I guess he had a yen for home  

Sorry, I couldn't resist that one ...

And on that one, I shall sidle off to bed, lest the jokes get really bad!

Regards

Dereck


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

*That is one ugly structure for a hurricane prone islet.*

I'm thinking that is not a McMansion, it is a Frakenhouse.


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## Dereck (Jan 31, 2005)

One idle last bout on cycling on what has to be one of the most limited destinations in the US for picturesque cycling!

The dominant thought is that if you have a fixed wheel bike, Ocracoke is the ideal place to take it to!

Another is to go out of season. I realised that I'd forgotten above to mention the 'rush hour" - or rush half hour! Every time that ferry docks at the north end of Oracoke, anywhere up to maybe 30 vehicles, mostly fishing tackle bedecked SUVs are going to come boiling off it and howl down NC-12 towards Ocracoke town. Seeing as its a near straight road, there's no DC style speed tracks and any moron can drive an SUV flat out on a flat road, I'd suggest you let them loose before you set off back to town on your bike  

And one last one to smile over. This week, I got the "Ocracoke Reality Company" holiday listing - to save you looking it up, I'd rather go camp on an icefloe in the Arctic than give any trade to that bunch of sharks.

But one thing in their catalogue did make me smile. All their rentals have very 'twee' holiday names - for example, I'd almost bet that "Recovery Room" has to be owned by a doctor in the ER line of work.

But this was topped by "Shangri-La" - which they described in flowery language that failed completely to evade that the 'house' in question was a single-wide trailer !

And they'll charge you $40 a day to rent a clunky beach-cruiser! Take that old beater instead folks!

Thanks for reading - the next project, if wifey lets me out of the corporate office long enough this summer - is a view of noodling around the Maryland that MB1 never seems to photograph ...

Regards
Dereck


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