THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 24, 1994 TAG: 9407210219
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MARGARET TALEV, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 278 lines
PEOPLE TEND to remember their first real bicycle ride as magical.
Footloose on that narrow frame with petals, they're gravity defiant as they zip over that first bump in the road at warp speed.
It's doesn't seem possible, but two skinny rubber tires are their only contact with pavement.
And whether the bike has back brakes and a banana seat, dirt tread tires and neon paint, or 18 gears, curved bars and hand brakes, the rider loves the machine, trusts the machine. Soon the biker is hopping curbs, screaming, ``Look ma, no hands!'' and riding standing up.
But for many, the bicycle is a childhood relic, cast aside for the automobile.
Flat, long, smooth and scenic, Outer Banks roads are an ideal place to rekindle that romance with the two-wheeler. From Manteo to Corolla to Ocracoke, where there's a road, there's a ride. And probably other riders, pursuing the same dream.
WEAVING THROUGH GNARLY live oaks and blossoming crepe myrtles, the six-mile path through Manteo completed this spring is a pleasure to ride and a safe place to start.
The winding route begins just past Pirate's Cove and ends by the William B. Umpstead Bridge over Croatan Sound.
Constructed of smooth, black asphalt and connected by patches of sidewalk, the path runs along the north side of Route 64, separated by a few feet of grass. Intermittent wooden bridges with handrails carry riders over ditches and creeks.
The shaded path takes bicyclists and walkers past the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, the Elizabethan Gardens, businesses and homes on Roanoke Island. It allows children to ride safely to swimming pools.
An incoming freshman at Manteo High School, 14-year-old Phil White was one of many bicyclists along the path on a recent Saturday. ``I live in Nags Head and there's nowhere to bike. You have to bike on the street there.''
Phil said the path enables him to shop at many of the Manteo stores he likes without risking street riding.
He was accompanied by his mother, Lyne Sanderson, and her 2-year-old son Gabriel, who rode in a child seat on the back of her bicycle. Sanderson said she never bicycles the Manteo streets in the summertime because motorists are always trying to figure out where to turn.
``This is fabulous,'' Sanderson said. ``I sort of watched them building it. The fact that it's gone through - that's wonderful.''
``If you can spend your taxes on something like this, it's money well spent.''
The path's existence is due largely to the efforts of the president pro tem of the state Senate, Marc Basnight, a Democrat from Dare County, who used his clout to push funding and construction.
Although the state has a bicycle program fund of about $2 million annually, money for the Manteo path came from state highway funds.
Manteo's path is the most expensive in the state. The trail cost $1 million to build at $166,666 per mile.
But according to Bill Jones of the Department of Transportation, most bike paths cost about $150,000 per mile to build. That's without bridges.
Compared with constructing a two-lane state highway with a shoulder section - about $1 million per mile - building a bicycle trail is relatively inexpensive, Jones said.
He said bicycle paths ``don't have to carry near the weight that a highway does, but you still have to figure out how much asphalt has to be used.''
THE ASPHALT TRAIL is the road to work as well as relaxation for some.
Tina Frantz of Washington, D.C., who plays Agona in ``The Lost Colony'' this summer, uses the path to rollerblade to a second job on the Manteo waterfront. ``It's cool 'cause there's not a lot of hills or anything,'' she said.
On a recent day off, however, Frantz had skated to the north end of the path, where a thin strip of sand sets it off from Croatan Sound. Franz had stopped at the small beach to admire the view and cool her feet.
Several locals had gathered along that beach - still unknown to most tourists - for a picnic, conversation, a tan or a dip in the warm, gentle waters of the sound.
Bikers, rollerbladers and joggers can leave their shoes and equipment at the cul de sac where the path ends, walk 20 paces to their left, and sit under the bridge. From that vantage point, they can hear and feel the cars go by, take refuge from the sun and still enjoy the sound and smell of the water.
While the Manteo route is cool and scenic, bicycling advocate and activist Bill Brobst, who started the Wheels of Dare bicycling club in 1982, said it is not a good path for serious bicyclists.
``If you want to go on a bike path with your kids, it's great. It's a great jogging path. But you don't want to ride 20 miles per hour on a footpath. It's too narrow. If two bicyclists come toward each other, there's barely enough room to pass. Plus there are so many driveways.''
BRAVER BICYCLISTS WHO want a longer, faster ride can take the main highways through Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk, south toward Hatteras and Ocracoke or north to Southern Shores, Duck and Corolla. The beach road is a slower alternative, with a 35 mph speed limit and paved shoulders.
Wheels of Dare is currently run by and from Beach Bikes and Blades in Kitty Hawk. Membership is open to anyone interested, and the club plans weekly half-hour rides along the major roads on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings.
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, Wheels of Dare also organizes 6 a.m. rides that meet at the Exxon at Colington Road and the beach road, said Beach Bikes and Blades manager Chip Cowan.
The club plans a metric century - 62 miles - for the fall, ``when it's not so hot and the traffic's nicer,'' Cowan said. The route starts in Kill Devil Hills and continues north past the Corolla lighthouse.
Cowan said Wheels of Dare also puts out a bi-monthly, 400 circulation newsletter that covers cycling events, new products and maintenance and repair tips, such as how to change a flat tire. Cowan said he encourages cyclists to send him advice, anecdotes, and columns.
One of Cowan's favorite trips for a short ride is the Dogwood Trail, off the bypass in Southern Shores.
Brobst recommended Kitty Hawk Village and Nags Head Woods as safe areas for families with young children to bicycle.
VACATIONERS WHO WANT to educate their children in bicycle safety can request information about a program called ``Basics of Bicycling.'' Dare County schools use this seven-lesson curriculum - two in-class and five on-bicycle - to educate 4th and 5th grade students. The sheriff's department and the Kitty Hawk Police Department also use the curriculum to teach children.
And the free ``Around Pamlico Sound: Bicycling North Carolina's Outer Banks Region'' map is available through the state Office of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation in Raleigh. It is free for cyclists of all ages who may be looking for route options.
The map details a loop ride from Whalebone Junction to Ocracoke, where cyclists can take the ferry to Swan's Quarter - a 150-mile loop - or Cedar Island - 250 miles.
WITH ITS QUAINT shops, waters, beaches, history, charm and ferry docks, the island and village of Ocracoke may be the most popular place to bike on Outer Banks.
But the ride from Nags Head to the Ocracoke ferry can be treacherous.
``I've been crowded off the road several times by an RV (recreational vehicle),'' Brobst said. ``The aerodynamic effect of that square front, the air movement around the front of that R.V., will literally push the cyclist off the road.
``There's always the guys in pickup trucks throwing beer cans out the windows,'' he added.
Crossing the Bonner Bridge - along with most of the other bridges in the Outer Banks - can also be treacherous. Area bridges provide narrow shoulders for bicyclists if any at all.
BUT WHETHER THE bikes are ridden, placed on racks atop the car or rented upon arrival, Ocracoke is a destination for most who cycle the Outer Banks.
``For me, the nicest area to bicycle is the Ocracoke section,'' said Mary Meletiou, who manages safety, education and touring of the Office of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation.
``The village is very charming and then you've got the national seashore which hasn't been touched. And you've got the dunes and the wild ponies.''
Meletiou said on Ocracoke, Route 12 has a four-foot paved shoulder on each side of the road from the first beach access area to the ferry landing.
And for vacationers staying on Ocracoke, Meletiou recommended a bicycling day trip to Hatteras. ``It's 14 miles from Ocracoke (village) to the ferry and another 12 or 14 from Hatteras to the lighthouse. There's a paved shoulder all the way from the village of Hatteras to the road that leads to the lighthouse. You can do a really nice day trip from Ocracoke out to the lighthouse and back with a nice ferry trip in between.''
Route 12 between the ferry and the village is dark at night, and automobile drivers often cannot see bicyclists until they're almost on top of them.
Also, the village of Ocracoke gets congested during summer months. With winding back roads, Meletiou recommended caution.
BUT EVEN IN the worst of traffic jams, Ocracoke is no metropolis.
Last weekend, Frank Sproviero of Bricktown, N.J., sat on the front porch of an ice cream shop in Ocracoke with his wife, Ann Michele, and their 8-year-old son Evan. The Sprovieros have spent two weeks on Ocracoke each summer for the past six years.
``You can always tell New Jersey bicycles by the double chains on the bike locks,'' he said.
Below the porch, the Sproviero's three bicycles were lined up - but not chained to anything - on the gravel drive.
Ann Michele Sproviero said Evan and another son, 12-year-old Glen, ``have always pretty much been able to go out on their own,'' something she doesn't allow them to do in New Jersey.
Evan said he likes to ride his bicycle to a dock in the village each morning to buy tackle and go fishing.
The freedom and adventure of bicycling on the Outer Banks lures locals and tourists alike.
Charlotte Woodruff and Tom Strasser of Wilmington bike at home, but Strasser said he likes to ride up to Ocracoke for a ``change of pace'' and a walk on the beach.
``How many senses are blocked out in an automobile?'' said Strasser. ``On a bicycle, you smell the odors coming off the seaweed and the water. You smell the honeysuckles when they're out.''
Woodruff grinned. ``You feel the bumps in the road.'' [The following appeared as a side bar to this article:] IT'S A MILLION-DOLLAR FEELING REMEMBERING HOW TO RIDE
IT HAD BEEN about 10 years since I'd ridden a bicycle, so I was a little frightened when my editor suggested casually, ``Hey, Maggie, why don't you bike down that million-dollar trail in Manteo on Saturday and tell readers what it's like.''
Gulp. I wasn't sure I still knew how to do it. And it's a six-mile ride. But I need this job.
So I borrowed a bicycle from a friend - a rusty, royal-blue, three-speed Schwinn with one of those personalized license plates that you can get through the mail by sending in coupons from 20 boxes of your favorite cereal.
The tires were flat and rotted but the inner tubes were intact. A couple minutes with a bicycle pump, some 409 spray and paper towels, and I was just as proud and as I had been back in elementary school when I brought home my shiny new 10-speed and showed it off to all the neighbors.
I thought that 10-speed was pretty hot stuff until I started high school. In fifth grade if you didn't have a bike you weren't cool. But by tenth or eleventh grade, if you still used a bike rather than relying on friends who drove, you were a total loser.
It wasn't until two years into my schooling at the University of Maryland, where getting a parking space is near impossible and parking tickets are prohibitively expensive, that I longed for the 10-speed I had abandoned.
By that time, my mother had given my bicycle to some Russian immigrants who couldn't afford to purchase a new one for their son.
But now I had a bike again, and as I mounted the Schwinn, I was touched by the loan from my friend, as perhaps the Russian boy had been by my mother's gift to him.
I knew if I lived to see the end of the path, the trip would bring back buried memories. Already, many were surfacing: learning to ride, being chased by neighborhood boys on dirt bikes, hopping curbs, racing to the swimming pool.
Back then, my bicycle had meant power, liberation from parents, getting to the dentist, the mall or a friend's house by myself. For adults, biking is something different - getting exercise, preserving the environment, enjoying nature.
I was ready to ride again. Precariously, I wove up Queen Elizabeth Street toward the path, aiming to capture the spirit of Outer Banks bicyclists, young and old.
Minutes after my departure, I broke a sweat. The seat was bruising, and my legs strained pathetically as I swayed dangerously around the path's gentle curves: my comeuppance for years of brushing off the bike.
``Whoa,'' I found myself muttering as bicyclists approached from the opposite direction. Then, trying to smile and wave simultaneously, I'd lurch and then regain my stability.
Halfway through the journey, I found the long-lost rhythm, and began to enjoy myself. I'd speed up to catch a breeze, screeching to a halt to pull over startled riders for an interview.
I was slick with sweat and it felt great.
As I finished the trail and glided back down Queen Elizabeth Street two hours later, I felt like a million bucks. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by DREW C. WILSON
Color on the Cover: Robin York, 37, of Mashoes, and her nephew,
Cameron Swain, 7, of Wanchese, wind along the new bike path on
Roanoke Island.
Bicyclists Charlotte Woodruff and Tom Strasser, both of Wilmington,
take a break from riding to walk along a Pamlico Sound beach at
Ocracoke.
Dustin Abbot, 12, and Marty Hardy, 11, both of Manteo, ride along
the sidewalk the runs beside U.S. Route 64/264 in Manteo. Both were
ont heir way to a morning of fishing. Mobility for pedestrians and
bicyclists along the busy highway has been easier since completion
of a new bike path. ``It's nice 'cause we don't have to ride ont he
street,'' Hardy said.
RIDING TIPS
Some bicycling tips from Mary Meletiou, manager of safety, education
and touring at the N.C. Office of Bicycle and Pedestrian
Transportation:
Wear a helmet
Ride on the right side of the road
Signal all turns with left hand: elbow crooked, hand up is right;
straight out is left; elbow crooked, hand down and facing behind
means stop
Obey all traffic signs and signals
Be courteous
Any child over 40 pounds should not be carried in a bicycle
seat.
If a child doesn't have the neck strength to hold his neck up, he
shouldn't ride in a bicycle seat.
In a group, ride single file
Always ride with traffic, not against it
Use care on sandy patches, where traction is reduced
by CNB