Greg & Camille Go Bike

We were camped only a couple minutes from the water and could hear the waves crashing all night. We woke up while it was still fully dark and walked to the beach, enjoying the sight of a slender crescent moon hanging over the water. With sunrise approaching, we both returned to the beach. There were a couple other campers setting up in folding chairs, so we strolled down the beach walking towards the lighthouse. We enjoyed the sight of the lighthouse towering over the forest in the distance and were enamored by the plovers scurrying around the waters edge. When the sun finally started to crest the horizon, we sat in the sand and took in the view.

Back at the campsite, we were prepared for breakfast, but discovered the dry sack containing our snacks ripped open on the ground. There was a protein bar missing, teeth marks in several other snacks and the bag appeared to be completely soaked (possibly with slobber or urine). Reflecting on this incident, we'd definitely been getting a bit lazy securing our food and we were past due for this type of incident.

We packed up camp, hopped on the bikes and rode a couple miles to the light house. The website said the light house was open at 6 am, but apparently it's actually 10am. We decided to wait for the hosts to show up and thankfully it was only another 15 minutes (9:30am). Dick and Lori (a married couple) were the hosts. Dick was really excited about our adventure and kind of talked our ear off, but he was very sweet. He and Lori were fellow bikers but had recently turned in their road bikes for e-bikes.

Finally heading out, we were a bit worried to be getting on the road so late. Even worse, we were biking against headwinds leaving Hunting Island and moving slower than expected. We wondered if maybe we were more tired from the previous day than expected. Just outside Beaufort, we stopped for brunch/coffee at Low Country Cider & Superior Coffee. Food was tasty, but we were hungry and portions weren't very generous. We felt a bit silly going back in 3 times...

Back on the road around 11:30, we passed through Beaufort and picked up right where we'd left off the previous day on the Spanish Moss Trail. We rode the trail another half dozen miles to its end.

The rest of the day was mostly on roads and after the first stretch some of it was pretty unfriendly. We were on SC 170 for a very long time, which started out alright but as we progressed the shoulders continued to narrow until we barely fit. Later, they disappeared entirely, replaced with an annoying rumble strip.

We passed through the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge as we approached the Georgia state line. There were definitely things we liked about South Carolina, in particular the state parks, but we're very glad to be done with the roads. Its reputation as the worst cycling along the East Coast Greenway is well deserved. The wildlife refuge was somewhat scenic, but with lots of traffic passing through (especially commercial), it didn't actually feel like much of a refuge. We reached Savannah just as it was getting dark and checked into our hotel, another Best Western. After a long day, we didn't have much energy to explore and turned in early.