THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411040241
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 205 lines
TRAVELING ALONG N.C. 94, just north of Fairfield, drivers will come upon a one-lane drawbridge that crosses the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.
As it did on a beautiful day closing out October, the drawbridge will likely open, and a steady stream of yachts and large sailboats - flying colorful flags and yacht club pennants - will pass through the bridge.
The boats on this day hailed from Washington, D.C., Ocean City, Md., Chester, Md., and other Northern points. They were headed south for the winter in unseasonbly warm weather.
The bridge tenders waved to the boat captains as they passed through the bridge across the waterway that connects the Alligator River to the north with the Pungo River further south.
After the line of about 15 boats passed, the three-member crew slowly hand-cranked the bridge closed to allow road traffic - what little there was - to cross.
But the crew's work not finished. Even as cars rumbled over the bridge, a yacht, larger than the ones that had passed earlier through the span, waited about a half-mile upstream.
This tableau of hand-powered drawbridges and gleaming white yachts lies about 10 miles north of the intersection of U.S. 264 and N.C. 94 in Hyde County, or about 56 miles from Fort Raleigh National Monument in Dare County.
The road along U.S. 64 in Dare and Tyrrell counties and N.C. 94 in Tyrrell and Hyde counties, known as the Alligator River Route, is one of 31 routes designated earlier this year as North Carolina Scenic Byways by the state Department of Transportation.
The routes cover about 1,500 miles of road through more than 60 counties across the tar heel state.
Seven of these routes wander along some 575 miles of roads in northeastern North Carolina, from N.C. 12 along the Outer Banks in the east to Greystone, a crossroads community just northeast of Henderson in Vance County.
And three of these eastern routes - the Outer Banks Scenic Byway, the Pamlico Scenic Byway and the Alligator River Route - begin or end in Dare County.
``Every part of the state is beautiful in some way,'' said Bob Kopetsky, scenic byway coordinator with DOT in Raleigh. ``The mountains obviously have beautiful scenery. The Piedmont is also very beautiful. . . In the east, you see the impact of environment, the water, the history. You have the beautiful old buildings and lighthouses.''
Using state highways and narrow, twisting secondary roads, these routes are off the beaten path and are intended to show what the real North Carolina looks like, Kopetsky said.
Two such glimpses of the ``real North Carolina'' lie along the Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula - the Alligator River Route and the Pamlico Scenic Byway.
This is not high-speed travel.
It's life in the slow lane, with speeds averaging 40 and 45 mph over wandering state and secondary routes, where travelers will often want to apply their brakes to take in a particularly attractive vista.
The routes pass through communities time has forgotten: the colonial village of Bath in Beaufort County, home of the infamous pirate Blackbeard; Oyster Creek Landing in Hyde County, where stacks of wire-mesh crab pots with their orange buoys lie next to fleets of commercial fishing boats much as they have for the last 50 years; and Fairfield, where bridge tenders still open and close drawbridges by hand.
The Pamlico Scenic Byway generally follows the curves of the Pamlico and Pungo rivers, and heads north where the two join and empty into the Pamlico Sound. This is a route of low-lying fields, family graveyards, country churches, countless bridges over unnamed creeks, wide vistas of marshes, marinas, fishing boats and buoys.
By far the most majestic sight along the Pamlico Scenic Byway is the view from the top of the Walter Jones Bridge.
About 50 miles east of Washington (85 miles west of the U.S. 64/264 intersection coming from Dare County), the high-rise bridge spans the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in Hyde County. It provides an unlimited view of the waterway and the steady stream of gleaming tall-masted sailboats and giant yachts traveling between the Alligator and Pungo rivers.
Another spectacular scene can be found along N.C. 99 from a series of bridges just west of Belhaven. At the Pungo Creek Bridge, about 34 miles east of Washington, countless red, green and white buoys bob on top of the water, marking pots underneath.
About three miles farther east, groups of fishermen in small boats gather near the Pantego Creek Bridge, trying their luck in the dark blue water.
Just east of the Walter Jones Bridge, travelers along U.S. 264 and N.C. 45 pass beneath a canopy of tall pine and deciduous trees along U.S. 264 and N.C. 45. Some of the trees are askew, like they're ready to fall into the creeks that flow on either side of the road, just a foot or two below the asphalt.
The route then snakes through Swan Quarter, county seat of Hyde County, to Oyster Creek Landing, where white fishing boats wait at anchor, half-hidden by stacks of crab pots.
Travelers can combine two scenic routes by turning off of the Pamlico Scenic Byway onto the Alligator River Route at N.C. 94, about 74 miles east of Washington (70 miles west of the Elizabethan Gardens) and cross Lake Mattamuskeet.
The route follows a tree-lined causeway bisecting the lake with its groups of fishermen, bird watchers and duck blinds for hunters. In about a month, the lake and surrounding grasslands will be filled with waterfowl that travel the Atlantic Flyway seeking winter feeding grounds.
About 85 miles east of Washington is the Fairfield Bridge across the Intracoastal Waterway.
About 10 miles north of the bridge, the route passes vast stretches of blackland farms - soybean fields being plowed by green and yellow tractors and combines. F-14 Tomcats often race overhead - flying low, then climbing, turning upside-down as they head over their targets in bombing ranges farther east.
The Alligator River Route continues north and passes through Columbia on U.S. 64 business, past red brick and white frame churches and a group of historic homes.
From there, it's 45 miles through Tyrrell County and the Alligator National Wildlife Refuge to Manteo.
These routes were chosen based on factors that include historic significance, scenic attractions like waterfalls and rivers and the absence of manmade eyesores, Kopetsky said.
``It's our way of identifying scenic drives in North Carolina,'' he said. Kopetsky has coordinated the scenic byways project for the last two years.
The idea of establishing state scenic byways goes back several decades but was always put off for one reason or another, Kopetsky said.
During the summer of 1982, petitions arrived at Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.'s office, asking him to implement a scenic roads program in North Carolina. DOT's Landscape Unit was asked to evaluate the petitions, and in the fall identified 15 pilot scenic routes.
After more delays, the routes were increased to 31. In March 1990, the program was approved by the N.C. Board of Transportation. DOT staffers spent the next four years collecting information and waiting for the money.
Last year, money was approved to print booklets about the routes, put signs on the roads and set up administrative policies and codes for the routes. The 31 routes were finally dedicated in September.
Since then, DOT has been ``overwhelmed by the response,'' and the scenic byways have proven to be one of the department's ``most popular programs,'' Kopetsky said.
More than anything else, Kopetsky hopes to lure North Carolinians to explore these off-the-beaten-path highways. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
[color cover photo by Robie Ray]
The scenic byways program uses state highways and narrow, twisting
secondary roads like this one in Westover.
Photos by ROBIE RAY
Near Columbia, at the intersection of N.C. 94 and U.S. 64, you'll
find the ornate gateway to Soull Cemetery.
Fishermen, full of hope, cast from a bridge over Lake Mattamuskeet,
a favorite santuary for birds during the fall and winter.
IF YOU GO
Seven of the state's 31 Scenic Byways pass through northeastern
North Carolina and can be traced by following the green, blue and
white Scenic Byways signs. Here's a brief look at the routes:
Alligator River Route: Follow U.S. 64 from Fort Raleigh National
Monument and the Elizabethan Gardens to Columbia, then follow N.C.
94 south across Lake Mattamuskeet to Lake Landing. Length: 66.03
miles. In Dare, Tyrrell and Hyde counties.
Edenton-Windsor Loop: Two circular routes that follow N.C. 32
across the Albemarle Sound to Pleasant Grove in Washington County,
N.C. 45 across the Roanoke River, U.S. 13 Bypass north of Windsor,
N.C. 45 along the Chowan River, and U.S. 17 and N.C. 32 through
Edenton. Length: 56.02 miles. In Bertie, Chowan and Washington
counties.
Lafayette's Tour: An almost-straight route across the northern
edge of North Carolina from Morgans Corner in Pasquotank County,
west on U.S. 158 to Merchants Millpond and S.R. 1400 south to N.C.
37 to Gatesville, around Winton on U.S. 13, north to Como and then
southwest through Rich Square. The route then heads south on U.S.
258/N.C. 561, crossing the Roanoke River, then joins N.C. 125/903 to
Halifax and heads west on N.C. 561 and N.C. 43 to Warrenton and
continues west to Greystone. Length: 160.42 miles. In Pasquotank,
Gates, Hertford, Halifax, Northampton, Warren and Vance counties.
Outer Banks Scenic Byway: U.S. 70 from Beaufort crossing on the
Cedar Island Ferry to Ocracoke, then north on N.C. 12 to Whalebone
Junction. Length: 100.31 miles. In Carteret, Hyde and Dare
counties.
Pamlico Scenic Byway: N.C. 32 from Washington to N.C. 1331 to
N.C. 92 to Bath, then N.C. 99 to Belhaven, U.S. 264 and N.C. 45 to
Swan Quarter, then S.R. 1127 and 1124 to Lake Landing and following
U.S. 264 to the U.S. 64 and 264 intersection. In Beaufort and Hyde
counties.
Perquimans Crossing: U.S. 17 Business and N.C. 37 at Hertford
into the old part of town. Length: 1.84 miles. In Perquimans
County.
Tarheel Trace: From Wilson east of the U.S. 301 Bypass on N.C. 42
to N.C. 124 to Macclesfield in Edgecombe County to Old Sparta and
crossing the Tar River on N.C. 42 to Conetoe on N.C. 42 to Hassel on
N.C. 142 to N.C. 125 to Williamston. Length: 49.12 miles. In Martin,
Edgecombe and Wilson counties.
BOOKLET AVAILABLE
Additional details of these routes are available in a booklet
called ``North Carolina Scenic Byways,'' available at N.C. Welcome
Centers and Department of Transportation offices.
FERRY INFORMATION
Some of the scenic routes require travel on the state's ferry
system, one of the largest systems in the nation. For a schedule or
for reservations (recommended for Cedar Island to Ocracoke or Swan
Quarter to Ocracoke) on the N.C. Ferry System, call (800) BY FERRY
or (800) 293-3779. A brochure with detailed ferry schedules is
available from the N.C. Department of Transportation, Ferry
Division, 113 Arendell St., Morehead City, N.C. 28557, or at local
tourist offices.
by CNB