blacklightning
05-16-2022, 09:17 AM
As the title says, we finally got to ride the entire length of hwy 12 along the NC outer banks. My Buddy KK and I did the entire BRP and Skyline Drive a few years ago, so we decided to do the other side of the state this weekend. I have thought about doing this every summer, but there are always closures due to huricanes. So we scheduled it for this spring, and what do you know, a low sets up off the NC coast and floods parts of 12 all last week. They finally opened things back up late on Thursday and we get ready to leave Saturday morning. But now they are predicting rain all day. We head out anyway and take 421 south towards Carolina Beach. About 5 miles outside of Wilmington we put our rain gear on and get a light shower for about 2-3 miles. Thank goodness that is all the rain that we encountered the entire time. After taking a 5 minute look at Caroling beach and eating a meal, we go to make our way north to Morehead to spend the night. Clouds were looking bad inland, so we used the GPS, Map, and weather app to stay as close to the shoreline as possible and were able to avoid all the rain. Sunday morning we got up early and made the 42 mile ride to Atlantic Beach and got on the 7:30 ferry over to Ocracoke Island (2.5 hours). Then a ride down 12 to the next 1 hour ferry over to Hatarras Island. From there we took 12 all the way north, past Duck and all the way until it turned in to sand at the shoreline. We then doubled back and took 12 and 158 south to 64 west. That brought us right back into Raleigh. A total of 745 miles and gone exactly 36 hours. All together, it was a very successful trip.