Author Archives: Daisy

Honeymoon Trip – Days 0 and 1.

Route for Day 1

After the wedding, we limped through a busy week at work trying to wrap up a few projects and prepare for our honeymoon. The plan was to drive down to Virginia beach (a 7 hour drive), park the car at Jason’s grandparents’ house, and start riding south towards the outer banks. The route was to be a 7-day loop planned through a combination of Adventure Cycling maps and Google Maps. Using Google got us into a little bit of trouble at times… more on that later. First, an account of the trip’s beginnings.

Day 0 / 1: Drive to Virginia Beach, Day 1: Virginia Beach to False Cape State Park.

We put both beds in the motel room to good use.

We left State College at 5:00 on Friday, and after an uneventful 4-hour drive we stayed in a motel in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Daisy’s bike got to sleep on it’s own bed.

The next day we were out early and were setting off on bikes before noon. It was a bit chilly, but nothing that good headwear and gloves couldn’t handle.

And we’re off! The trip begins.

We rode south on busy, giant divided roads through Virginia Beach. This place was designed for motor vehicles, not bicycles, which is a shame because it’s a fantastically flat locale and has perfect potential to be a bicycle commuter’s dream. Oh well.

The traffic continued until we were well out of town and reached the seaside. We started to see houses on stilts and sand. As we headed down the dead-end road towards a wildlife refuge traffic was almost non-existent.

Empty road en route to Back Bay Wildlife Refuge.

The plan was to ride through Back Bay Wildlife Refuge to get to False Cape State Park – a park that is only accessible on foot or bicycle. During this time of the year, it is only possible to reach the park by riding along the sand for 3 miles during low tide. We were very concerned that it would not support our fully-loaded bicycles, but it did! It was incredible to ride away from tourist-congested beaches to untouched seashore.

We rode along the sand towards a hidden, untouched jewel of a park.

We were so very pleased to learn we could ride and wouldn’t have to push the bikes for miles!

There was about 4 miles of beach riding before we found the entrance to the State park through the dunes. We saw sandpipers, seagulls, and pelicans as we rode.

The campsite was just off the beach, in a protected grove of live oak trees. We had to push the bikes through some loose sand to get there, but we made it.

We took a stroll around the park after we set up camp, and found the ranger station. The ranger was very friendly, and when we told her of our plan to ride the beach south into North Carolina she warned us that there were 10.5 more miles of beach before we would find pavement. Google had shown us a neighborhood right at the border only a few miles away! We decided to worry about it the next day, and headed off to watch the sunset.

Sunset over Back Bay

We made dinner in the dark, and were ready for bed by 6:00. In fact, the campsite was so spectacularly isolated that we saw the Milky Way at 6:15! We crawled into our warm sleeping bags for a bit of reading, and were asleep by 8:00. A great first day on our Honeymoon!

First S24HO on the new bikes

S24HO is bike slang for Sub-24-Hour-Overnight. It’s like a mini-vacation on your bike that makes the weekend seem about twice as long. This weekend was our fist overnight with the new bicycles, and they did not disappoint!

We left the house at nearly 4:00 in the afternoon, bundled up against the cold. Part of the goal for this mini-trip was to see how prepared we were for cold conditions.

Leaving the apartment for our first overnight on the new bicycles

Within moments of leaving the parking lot we realized we had forgotten the bicycle pump and had to return for it. We were laughing at the ridiculousness of it, but there was no way we would venture into the Pennsylvania forest without it!

The ride out was pleasant, and we soon were on dirt and gravel roads in the nearby state forest. We climbed over a ridge very slowly, enjoying the low gears on our bikes. At the top we met another cyclist as we pulled all our gear back on for the descent. He warned us of a porcupine in the middle of the road ahead, but by the time we got there it had gone. Awaiting us was an even better surprise: a fantastic sunset framed by the valley ahead.

A beautiful sunset was our reward for the climb.

In the waning light we hurried to our designated campsite – a picnic table and firepit in a small field. There are lots of hidden (and free!) sites like this in the State Forests. Technically, you should call ahead and get a permit, but no one is crazy enough to use them in November, so we didn’t bother to. We quickly got a fire going and started cooking our dinner. The fire was slow to light, but surprised us with its vigor once we got it going! It was certainly worth it to have hauled the firewood all the way in…

The fire roared to life, surprising us with its ferocity.

I only lit the picnic table on fire for a brief moment as I prepped the stove for dinner. Oops!

Jason, the bikes, and the tent in the early morning.

We were in the tent early, and our 20 degree down bags were more than adequate. Plus, we

All our tent items packed up and ready for the bikes.

were both wearing two pairs of pants, hats, and multiple shirts. The morning seemed almost warm despite being in the low forties. We rode out of the valley and through the lovely late autumn woods before climbing back out of the ridge and then descending quickly into State College. It turns out that our 30 mile S24HO had 2,350 feet of elevation gain! Not too shabby for the first time on our loaded bikes. We are already looking forward to our next excursion.