Greg & Camille Go Bike

It was pretty chilly in the morning and we had a bit of trouble getting on the road. We biked about 10 miles down Cape Fear hoping for breakfast along the beach just before Fort Fisher state park. Unfortunately, most of the breakfast spots were closed. We found a small coffee shop, but their breakfast options were limited so we mostly ate from our dry sacks.

Continuing on, the scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed a short stretch through the park on off-road trails. We spotted a kite surfer pushing in towards the shore. It was pretty exciting to watch and definitely seemed like something we'd want to try down the road. We lazily rode the rest of the way to the ferry, exploring a bit as we had some free time before the 11:30 am ferry to South Port.

On the ferry, one of the workers was interested in our trip. He told us that they get about 1 group of bike tourists per week throughout the year. This is right on route for both ACA's Atlantic Coast route and the East Coast Greenway, so it's a pretty good indicator about combined number of people making the journey. It's likely that a good percentage of those people aren't doing the whole coast though. That's definitely a lower number than we expected.

Southport was really cute and the neighborhoods definitely had a bit of a Cape Cod vibe. We stopped off at Local's Family Diner for lunch-ish. There was a bit of a wait for seating, so we got take out and ate on the bench outside. We each got an omelettes (with grits) and split a helping of french toast.

The ride to Shallotte was apparently pretty uninteresting, as neither of us remember a lot of detail. A lot of side roads, but with little shoulder and a moderate amount of traffic. In Shallote, we stopped off at Hill's grocery to resupply and checked into a hotel with sunlight to spare.