Bike Rides in Carolina Beach, North Carolina- Pokemon, Seafood and the Ocean!

We've had this timeshare forever at North Pier Ocean Villas, but haven't been going there for years.  We decided to go this year and take our bikes and kayaks. It was a wonderful week and we were active every day!  Ethan came and joined us for the latter part of the week.

 

Evening Ride on 7/23
3.9 miles, 37 minutes moving time, 48 minutes elapsed time, 6.2 avg mph
Haha, we were joined on our bike ride by Pokemon creatures!

Evening Ride on 7/24
5.32 miles, 58 minutes moving time, 1:47 minutes elapsed time, 5.5 avg mph

Morning Walk on 7/27
2 miles, 47 minutes moving time

Evening Ride to Fish Market on 7/27
3.6 miles, 26 minutes moving time, 32 minutes elapsed time, 8.2 avg mph
Look at our meal.  It was totally worth the ride!

Evening Ride on 7/28
1.7 miles, 12:46 moving time, 27 minutes elapsed time, 8.1 avg mph
We rode downtown and had dinner/drinks at the Sea Witch Cafe & Tiki Bar.
We walked around some.  Every Thursday night, Carolina Beach has music on the 
boardwalk and fireworks on the beach.  Love this town!

Evening Ride for Ice Cream on 7/29
5.4 miles, 55 minutes moving time, 1:22 elapsed time, 5.9 avg mph
A trip to Carolina Beach is not complete unless we go to
Squigley's Ice Cream Shoppe.  We then rode around the 
Carolina Beach Lake Park.

We've discovered a great beach spot when we're staying at the North Pier Ocean Villas.

We set our chairs near the pier so that we can hang a hammock under the pier, and if

anybody wants to sit in the sun, it's easy enough to move a bit out into the sun.

Kayaking- Shark Tooth Island, North Carolina

 Kayaking - Shark Tooth Island                                    1.7 total miles

35 moving time, 2:09 elapsed time, 2.8 mph avg, 4.5 mph max speed

Me, Scotty, Ethan

Ethan flew in to spend a few days with us.  He should have known we'd go kayaking!  The only problem was that it was we had to battle some wind to get out to the island and this kind of paddling is just not as enjoyable as river paddling.  It was fun to walk around the small, uninhabited islands - all except nature, that is.

Paddling out to the island.

Lots of action on the island with the sand crabs.

This one posed for a close-up shot.

I like this shot because it captures the imagination.
The kayaks are just inviting you to get in and have a day of exploration.

Sand crabs have one large claw used to attract females, threaten males

and as a weapon for fighting.

Sand crabs are constantly digging.  They want to
be in the sand for protection.

Kayaking - Ft Fisher, North Carolina - Windy Windy Windy

Ft Fisher.                                                            3 miles                  892.6 total
1:42 total paddling time, 1.8 avg speed, 3.8 max speed, 90 degrees

We left out of Fort Fisher and returned here.  The boating ramp/area is very nice and obviously well used.  We saw several other kayakers, fishermen and an educational class filled with lots of kids.  They were learning to paddle SUPs and how to fish with a net.  As I walked our boats out into the water, I was quite surprised to find that my one foot quickly, and I mean quickly sank down into the sand or muck!  I was afraid that I was going to lose my shoe - it was that hard to pull it out.  Another boater nearby top u to walk out a little more to the right. Apparently he had just done the same thing and was I merged up to his thigh.  The black muck on the bottom was relentless.  If we put our paddle down into it, they came up coated with the stuff.  It wasn't asphalt splashed off, rather we had to wipe I off with our hands.

We battled the wind and paddled out to the island directly in front of the ramp, staying parallel to the wall separating the estuary from the river.  The water got shallow in many places which didn't make the paddling any easier.  As we neared the island, the water got even more shallow so we paddled close to the wall. Here was a windbreak and it was.calmer paddling.  Along the way, we passed Pelicans standing on the surrounding sandbars.  The island is an area with dense mars grass providing  many hidden nests for the shore birds.  We paddled in front of the island and could see some lighthouse out further.  We turned back passing even more sandbars and had to get out and walk our boats.  Scotty went betwee two grassy islands.  I headed towards ft fisher, feeling frustrated with th slow going.  As we headed back in, it looked as if it may be low field.  We could see an expanse of sand between us and the dock. We maneuvered our boats to paddle through some of the deeper water- maybe 1 foot.  We arrived back at the ramp after a good arm workout from battling the wind.