Category: USA

Boating rules

We tried fishing for 10 minutes and didn’t catch anything; since time was running out, we decided to move on. Each of us took turns driving the boat – it takes a while to get a feel of steering the boat – because you would have turned the steering wheel, but the impact of that in the direction is only seen after many seconds – turning the steering wheel turns the engine direction (the response lag was more noticeable in slower speeds). We munched on some of the healthy snacks we had brought on board – the musk melons were yummy – a little chill and juicy; the trail nuts created quite a mess on all our hands since they contained chocolate bits that melted instantly in this weather.

As we neared an island, Rob told us about the lane rules – there were green and red cans floating around at periodic distances – not too close to each other but spaced out.
“When going in, stay closer to the red, and when coming out, stay close to the green.”
The red cans were on the right side, and the green cans were on the left.
As we took turns on the wheel, he warned us, “Don’t go too close to those cans. They are solid metal.” 
When you see them, you’d think they are harmless inflatable balloons, but when we neared one, I realized it was deceptive from a distance!

The boat had a Garmin navigation system along with something like an intercom that could be used in an emergency. The display showed how many feet above water we were – comes in handy when you want to know whether you are too close to land – because, say, the boat is just a few feet above water, and you stopped at that place; if the seas went into a low tide, then we’d end up with the boat being on land and that would become a problem – you’d end up having to wait for the high tide again to drive it or if you are not caught fully on land, would have to push the boat back to the waters!

Anchoring

When we came close to boat traffic, Rob took to the helm to manoeuvre the boat – he decided on a place near a small island for anchoring and getting to the island. There was another larger boat beside us struggling a bit to get their anchoring right. Our boat’s anchors (two of them) were tucked inside a small enclosure – one in the front and one at the back. Everything on the boat was neatly organized – nothing was out of place. 
To anchor the boat, you take out the large heavy metallic anchor and toss it away from the boat (one end of the rope is tied to the anchor while the other end you’d fasten on a hinge provided on the boat) – the danger of using just one anchor is that your boat would still sway a lot. 
The problem with anchoring near these small islands is that you need to watch out for other anchored boats – if you get too close, you could have your boat’s propellor cut or get entangled in the other boat’s anchor line. 

Because the boat next to us was struggling after we dropped the anchor, we were worried their boat was drifting our way. So Rob, like an action hero, removed his t-shirt and just dove into the water to retrieve our anchor and save the boat so that we could anchor a little further away. I don’t know how Rob plunged in because the water was extremely cold – it is deceiving because judging by the sunlight with the sun blazing, you’d expect the water to be warm. 

Ice water plunge!

After securing our boat, we headed to the island. The water level was only about hip deep – sitting on the edge of the boat near the engine, I dipped my feet in the water and felt the biting cold. I would have been happy to just sit there, but when you are in a group, and the others have ventured into the freezing water, you don’t have a choice! I was the last to step in, and my whole leg was stinging. It was a weird sensation – cold, pain, pricking feeling, and some numbness. After 2 or 3 minutes, I reached the shore. Since Rob had already done the plunge, Biju went straight down the water for a few seconds, and then Raghav did the same. Rakesh and I were happy to watch the spectacle from the shore. 

There were quite a few people on the little island. We sat briefly and then waded through the waters to hop into our boat. Rob lifted the anchors, and we pulled them in and stowed them inside their little compartments. We motored along at high speed, and for a while, our boat’s bow (the front) seemed way higher than the stern (the rear) – so for the two of us sitting in the back, we were looking up into the sky. Rob later adjusted the height of the motor, and that brought the bow down – still a little inclined, but not a lot. At high speeds, you can feel the boat bouncing up and down the waves – a nice rocking motion taking us forward. 

When we were on the last stretch, Rob let me take a shot at parking the boat and guided me to navigate the boat towards his buoy. When I got the boat really close, he tied the boat to the buoy and then switched off the battery inside the boat (the panel was hidden behind a small door at the rear). We then waited for the passenger taxi boat to get us back to land. Rather than buying a boat, there is also the option of renting out boats in these places – that way, you needn’t worry about maintenance. The water taxi parked in a dock, and the parking felt very much like how you park a car in a parking slot. 

Rob had timed this trip well by scheduling for us to start in the morning; at 1 pm, when we came to drop off some stuff in the car, we noticed that the whole parking lot was full, and cars were going around in circles hoping that someone will be pulling out their vehicle. 

We had lunch at about 1:30 pm in the Mill Wharf restaurant; there were no seats available, but we noticed that outdoors, it was empty – we picked a table, though it was pretty hot outside. Felt a bit like the Chennai heat (humid heat)! 3 folks had a little shade while the other 2 were facing the sun. We ordered tacos, fries, and onion rings. 

The next stop was Nona’s homemade ice cream, which Rob said was good. There were already folks inside, and we joined the line. What I liked was that they not only had a small, medium, and large portion size but also a kiddie version. The kiddie version was perfect for me – a single scoop. They were priced lower than Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, which we had tried in Boston.

By the time we were back in Boston, it was a little too late to make it for squash in Rhode Island, so we made a short trip to Merrimack to wind up our fun day. 

Today was Juneteenth, a new US holiday that came into place recently to commemorate the ending of slavery in the US.

We had an early morning start – taking an Uber to a boat station to catch a boat. In Boston, there is the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority), which runs the public transit system – also known as the ’T’ – and provides rail, bus, and ferry services. The Uber driver took a slightly different route from what Uber suggested, and I wondered if he was heading in the right direction. He stopped just past a signal and told us the station was across the footpath. When going to new locations, you tend to have this fear when the cab takes a different route – my fear was us missing the boat! Unfounded fear, it turned out to be.

The boat was already there waiting, almost ready to go in a couple of minutes, and the staff standing on the ramp asked us for our tickets – they told us the MBTA app could be used, or we could get tickets from the counter. But since I already had the app for my train rides, I got 3 tickets for the ferry. The app allows you to buy the ticket in advance but activate it during your ride.

It was a pleasant 30-minute ride – motoring along the Massachusetts Bay southwards (this bay is part of the Atlantic Ocean). I haven’t done boat rides on the ocean, so this was fun – an endless stretch of water. We reached the Hingham Terminal, and just like a car parking facility, this was an area for parking boats – there were plenty of private boats (Hingham is a town in the state of Massachusetts). We picked some snacks from a supermarket for our boat ride – a few cut fruits (muskmelons) and trail nuts – yeah, all healthy items, and since we were travelling with Rob, it was apt. We then drove via another town called Cohasset to Scituate. 

Boat parking

Rob had a boat that was parked in a facility over here. There are multiple such facilities in these seaport towns that have parking spots for a fee. You have a couple of options – you can get a dock, which is sort of a proper structure beside the coast where you leave your boat, or you pick a mooring which is not near the coast but a buoy a little further out in the waters to which you anchor your boat. Each has pros and cons – cost, convenience of easily getting out into the waters, parking etc. And it’s not easy getting a spot since there is a lot of demand for it.

The drawback of a mooring is that since it is further out in the waters, you need to get a ride on another boat to take you to your boat. There is typically a service provided in these facilities for that – sort of like a short ride-sharing boat taxi service – we hopped into one, and the lady manning the boat took us to Rob’s boat after dropping off a couple of other folks in their boats on the way. Pretty fascinating watching how this whole setup operates – I’ve never seen one back home.

We soon reached our boat – a Grady-White boat; Rob briefed us about the company and said that their boats are designed such that even if the water came on the deck, the boat wouldn’t sink. Depending on their size, different boats have different motors/engines for propelling the boat; each engine has propellers at the bottom. Rob’s boat had a single Yamaha engine. Our boat was like a convertible – since it was a hot sunny day, we opened out the convertible shade to provide us with some sunshade. When the boat is not in motion (i.e., docked), the engine is lifted so that the propellor stays above the water to avoid the effect of salt water damaging the engine. When driving, we lower the engine so the propeller is in the water and start the boat.

If you are curious to learn about these boats, the Grady-White company has some boat tutorials: https://www.gradywhite.com/explore/the-grady-life/videos/?filter=9720

After putting up the shade, Rob explained a few other things about the boat. It was fascinating that they had found a way to construct a restroom inside – you wouldn’t even guess there was one even after stepping on the boat. But there it was, in what seemed like a small door to a cabinet – but instead of a cabinet, it was a little restroom down below.
There were seats to sit just next to the driver(driver’s seat was sort of in the middle on the right side), as well as behind the driver (the back is called the ‘stern’). Also, in front (the area called the ‘bow’ of the boat), there were seats available. Six people could comfortably fit on the boat without feeling congested. 

The calm in the ocean

We were soon zipping away with the boat rocking along small waves on the ocean. Rob went on top speed and then shut off the engine at a point when he asked if we wanted to go fishing. He showed us the equipment used for fishing – the rod, the fishing line, the hook, the sinker dead weight and the fishing reel to let the line go further down in the water or to reel the line back in. The dead weight at the end of the line makes it easy for us to launch the fishing line in a particular direction and also helps take the line into the water. The hooks are pretty sharp in differing sizes, and Rob warned us to be careful when handling them. 

There is something about sitting in the middle of the ocean with the engines turned off – the noise you hear is just that of the water, and the sights you see are just small waves all around you and the sky on top – occasionally, there may be another boat passing by, but most of the time, there’s no one else around. Seemed like a nice getaway from the city – come to the middle of the ocean, read a book, listen to music or just do nothing but watch the waters.

We first headed to our colleague’s home in Yardley, Philadelphia, about an hour and a half away (NJ borders Philadelphia on one side, and the two have the Delaware River running in between, which we crossed). Raghav was fast asleep at the back – he did have this habit of catching up on sleep during drives!

Driving in the city

Rakesh was forced to drive within city roads – and here, these were just two-lane roads on each side, but one lane was taken up for car parking; so effectively, it became a 1-lane road on either side, and the divider is just the solid double yellow line painted on the road. In the US, the lines determine some traffic rules – a solid line means you can’t cut across the lane, and a dotted line means you can switch to the other lane.

We found ourselves stuck on the wrong side of a solid double yellow line while the shop we had to go to was on the other side of the road. In India, we would just see if there was incoming traffic and make the turn – but here, Rakesh struggled to find someplace where it was ok to cut across. The same struggle happened when we had to exit the complex to get to the other side of the road. 
Even in India, we have a similar road marking system, but on many roads, the lines have disappeared, and in other areas where they exist, barely anyone follows them. 

Finally, we got to our colleague’s home, where we were welcomed by his pet, an Alaskan Malamute – they look like Huskies and are large, like a little wolf! It was pretty playful and, I guess, excited seeing 3 visitors in its abode. There are strict rules on taking dogs outside in the US – you can’t let them loose and have to keep them on a leash; Maggie was an attraction outside, and in the short while that we spent outdoors, a little kid came up asking if he could pet it – with so much fur, it’s hard to resist giving it a little rub. They also shed a lot of fur when they shake their bodies. We enjoyed some juice and cheesecakes in our colleague’s home before leaving. 

The grand temple

It was about an hour’s drive to Akshardham – as we approached the destination, we noticed a board that said that on weekends, a reservation was needed for entry. The last time Rakesh was here, he didn’t make any bookings – we wondered if this had become so popular that they were issuing entrance tickets. Anyway, since we had come all the way, we decided to check it out – the worst case was that we’d be turned back. There were so many vehicles around, and people still driving in, though it was mid-afternoon. 

We did have to sign up online to make a reservation and get entry – Rakesh did so; I guess they were building a database of all visitors – for some reason, this was only for the weekends. 

The name of the place is BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham (eternal abode); we’d been to this temple in New Delhi a few years ago, and it is quite impressive; I had heard that the one in the US is even more grand and was curious to see this. You are welcomed by a massive statute of the teenage yogi Neelkanth Varni (this was Swaminarayan’s childhood name) standing on one leg – he is said to have done so for about 2 months and started his spiritual journey at the age of 11. There was a large water body with fountains that we crossed to get into the queue to enter the temple; it moved quickly – and we were soon inside the first hall; it was the reception area that could match the reception of any 5-star hotel – impressive decorations, artwork on the ceiling and pillars, there was an information centre, an orientation centre, small theatres on the sides, drinking water taps etc. The reception area was quite crowded. Dhotis were available for visitors to wear in case they came in shorts; we stepped past it and into the outdoors from where we could see the main temple – it was a sunny day, and the temple looked grand and impressive from the outside.

Inside, there was a place to remove our footwear before entering the main area of the temple in the centre. Because of the crowd in the temple, you stood in a line, and the line was asked to keep moving – so you couldn’t really sit inside the temple. There were many sculptures inside, within their dedicated enclosures – everything was made of white marble; intricate designs on the pillars that probably depicted a story – but we could not spend much time inside since we were asked to keep moving.

Based on what Rakesh said, this was how it was on his first visit here too, and I had heard the same from another person earlier. Maybe weekdays are better? I just wished we could have spent more time inside the temple. Photography inside the temple, just like in most temples, is prohibited. There are signs saying not to touch the marble pillars and carvings – so they have one small area where they’ve kept the marble used in the temple for touching. Some photos/videos of the temple’s interior are available on the official BAPS group website. And some of the Wiki pics I’ve given for reference just so that you get a sense of the grandeur – the place is an incredible sight to behold, just like the one in New Delhi, which is also very impressive.

This temple is among the largest in the world, slightly larger than the famous temple in Trichy (India). Topping the list in size is Angkor Wat in Cambodia. 
As we exited the temple, we saw images taken during the construction. 

There were visitors of various nationalities here – this was sort of like a tourist site that I guess many had on their to-see list. If you were into religion and spirituality, you’d probably be interested in learning about the group and their philosophy; if you weren’t interested in that, you’d still enjoy the architecture. I’ve found that when you see large Buddha statues, there is a sense of awe that overcomes you; similar is the case when you look at temples that have so many intricate designs from the base to the dome – it’s not just the resultant structure that inspires – you can sense the amount of care and effort that must have gone into making it perfect; that also inspires.

Since we hadn’t had lunch, we headed to the Shanoya cafe inside the temple complex – an all-veggie cafe. On the way, we saw a gift and book shop too – that was also quite crowded; they did seem to have some nice items for sale but we didn’t stop there. The cafe was also a bit crowded, though we were well past lunch hour – they had live counters, boxes that you could pick, a lot of snacks, as well as meals and desserts. Their cafe sales were probably better than what many full-fledged restaurants would make – the food was decent; some items were good, and some were ok – since there were 3 of us, we tried several dishes.

As we headed out, there were still plenty of visitors pouring in.

The good thing about New York in the summer is that even at 8 pm, there was still daylight. Sunset was to be at around 8:20 pm! Most restaurants and cafes we passed by were filled with people – inside and outside. We had been curious to try out a Michelin-star restaurant – these generally tend to be very expensive; the more the stars, the more expensive; even the 1-star restaurants are pricier than usual. The other problem is getting veg food – Raghav and Rakesh were veggies. New York has a few options, and we had read about a South Indian Michelin 1-star restaurant called ‘Semma’. It was about 8 pm when we reached the place – fortunately, we didn’t need a booking; inside was crowded, but they did have outdoor seating.

The menu had fancy cocktail names  – named after Tamil movies like Chandramukhi Milk Punch. They also had a couple of non-alcoholic cocktails (I didn’t know that these are called zero-proof cocktails) and some beers. Rakesh opted for a beer called Unapologetic UN1, and Raghav went for the Manjal saaru (the literal meaning is turmeric essence/juice).  The beer can said it was made using Basmati rice – guess that’s why this restaurant had it.

A Western waitress came over to explain the food menu to us – we pretty much knew what most of the dishes meant but she explained all of them as she must’ve been trained to do so. We asked her for recommendations and selected one appetizer – the paniyaram. This is a South Indian lentil dumpling – it tasted good. But Rakesh and I are very familiar with this dish, so we didn’t find it special – the decoration was unique. 

They grouped their items as small, medium and large in terms of quantity. The small section was the appetizers. We picked the Mangalore huukosu (sort of like what we call a Gobi-65; a form of fried cauliflower) and nathai pirattal, and a mirchi ka salan.
I ordered the Nathai pirattal just to try out one non-veg dish – this was a stir fried dish of snails in an Indian curry paste. It came along with a couple of small kal dosas (a spongy type of Indian pancake but made with a different batter containing lentils and rice). Again, the decoration was unique – the whole thing was arranged on a bed of shells.

The mirchi ka salan is a green pepper based curry – had it with a bowl of coconut rice. It was good – all the items were nice, but since all three of us were used to Indian food, we wouldn’t say it was extraordinary apart from the decoration and presentation of the dishes.
The cost of the meal, if you came as one person, would be expensive, but since we ordered only a little and shared everything, it was ok. 

Their current menu you will find here: https://www.semma.nyc/

Maybe we should have tried a different cuisine instead of Indian! We walked along towards Times Square, and on the way, Raghav was tempted by an Italian desserts shop that we saw – it was 10 pm, and we were just in time before the shop closed; Raghav asked the staff for recommendation, and he reeled out a couple of them and we picked both – but the Tiramisu and the cream bun were more pleasing to look at than was their taste – unfortunately they were large servings as well. 

15th June (Saturday) – Our plan was for Rakesh to take a rental car from New Jersey and drive to Boston on Sunday – it would be his first long drive in the US. On Friday night, he had done a lot of online searches trying to book a rental car, which we could pick somewhere nearby in New Jersey and drop in Boston – there’s generally an extra cost for doing this when you drop in a different city. But with many of the traditional rental agencies, we struggled with their websites – it was so hard to search, and each time you went down a few pages, the search criteria would get messed up. Everywhere, it said there was no Sunday return or that return counters were closed early evening itself. Eventually, we found that there was a rental car agency called Sixt – had never heard of this name before, but they had an outlet in the New Jersey mall near our hotel.
 
So early in the morning, we landed there, and two employees were at the counter. Rakesh was looking for a midsize car since this would be his first long drive in the US, and we also had to spend Saturday driving on the city roads. But the staff at Sixt said he’d get the best for Rakesh and came up with a large vehicle where he gave a price discount as well – it was like those large 7-seater vans! He said there were no small ones available, but there was a particular BMW that Rakesh wanted that was available, but the guy said it would cost $60 more per day. Oh well, his best deal for Rakesh likely was based on the fact that they were running short of smaller vehicles and were trying to let out the large ones!
He repeated, “It’s a brand new one. Only the best for you, sir.”
The Chrysler Pacifica vehicle was surely new but huge – classified as a minivan. Rakesh practiced within the car parking area to get a sense of the corners of the vehicles, and off we went. Being a little slow in exiting the mall, the car driver behind us honked – a reminder that we were in New Jersey! 

We walked to Raj’s home, which was 10 minutes away, and hopped into his car along with Ravi. This was going to be Raj’s first long drive in his Mercedes. As a backup, we had Ravi just in case someone had to take over.
When we said we were heading to a beach, most folks asked if it was the Wilmington one or the Outer Banks. But our destination was further south of Wilmington Beach – Bald Head Island. This was a recommendation from a Nepali colleague who said this was his getaway place, and since most folks staying in Raleigh didn’t seem to know about this place, we decided to check it out.

It was a 3.5-hour drive; we stopped in a Starbucks on the way to grab something to eat for breakfast. We picked some pastry and a sandwich, but strangely, the menu barely had any hot coffee on it – it was loaded with cold coffee and frappe-type drinks, probably because it was the summer. 

Around 11:30, we reached the Bald Head Ferry terminal – you have to take a ferry from here to get to the island. What surprised us was that the parking lot was packed with vehicles – were all these people on the island? Parking cost was about $12 and not charged by the hour. 
We parked the car, and Ravi carried his laptop – he had a production issue to attend to yesterday night and stayed up the whole night. “When I go out somewhere only there will be a production issue,” he said, bringing his laptop. 
The terminal building was pretty cool – there was a restaurant, restrooms, the ticket counter where you bought return tickets (about $20 per adult); ferries were there every 30 minutes – in the summer, they start from 6 am or so and run till late at night. The terminal felt a bit like a little airport.
We took the ferry at 12 – this was a fairly large ferry. We sat on the top, in the open, enjoying the ride. As we entered the dock, we saw a couple of folks holding boards welcoming their friend or a family member who had returned from rehab.

Motoring on the island

My colleague had said that you could rent cycles and go around the island, but we also spotted golf carts for rent and decided to take that since 4 of us could go in one vehicle. On Bald Head Island, there are no other vehicles that you’d see – it’s bicycles and golf carts. For the golf cart, they charge you for the day – so you don’t need to worry about timings; about $90 for the 4-seater one we picked. But we did see more luxurious types, like fully closed six-seaters, which would cost more.

We had a map of Bald Head Island for reference. No real plans or ideas on where to go to – off we went with Raj motoring along. Fairly simple to use – just accelerate and break, and there was the ability to switch into reverse gear using a button below. Raghav, eager to drive, took over from Raj and drove as fast as possible – but there’s only so fast you can drive the cart! There was a main road with trees on either side that made for a pleasant drive and branches off the main road, but we just stayed on the main road – planned to reach one end of the island, which was marked on the map as ‘Point of Cape Fear’ where there was public beach access. There were a lot of pretty houses near this spot – especially the ones just by the waters. Seemed like a really good place for a vacation – not sure if there were Airbnbs here but this would be a perfect getaway from the city.

We parked our cart on one side of the road, beside a few others, to get to the beach. We had to walk across a really long boardwalk from the road towards the beach – finally, we saw a bit of a crowd, but since the area was large, it didn’t feel crowded. The beach was clean, and the water was a clear blue – there was a smaller beach a little off the main beach – maybe it was a slightly high tide that led to parts of the low-lying land connecting the two beaches getting submerged. We crossed over to the other beach by wading through the waters – I wasn’t in shorts but waded through in my pants. We spent about an hour on the beach – clean sand, the vast ocean in front of us and the pleasant sound of waves. Couples and families were enjoying the beach. Something unique here was that you could see waves coming from two different directions converging at the edge of the beach – there was even a slight difference that you’d notice in the colour of the water coming from either side. 

“Walk towards that side, and you’ll get to Spain. Walk that way and can go to London,” Raghav said.
We were on the edge of Bald Head Island and on the waters of the Atlantic Ocean – just endless blue above and below. Quite a sight – clean beaches are always a lovely setting to simply soak in the atmosphere.

As we walked back towards the road, my pants dried up – it was that sunny! And Ravi got a call about some issue that was running. Fortunately, he didn’t have to log in; he just needed to be on the call. With so many golf carts parked, figuring out ours took a while! 

We headed to a restaurant in the central part of the island. Raghav noticed a board that said pizza, and being a fan of Italian cuisine, he wanted to get one. But the staff said the board was for another joint further down the road. Since we were already running late, we decided to stay in the same place – Raghav was a veggie, and at times, that can be a bit of a challenge – over here, he found a cheese sandwich in the kids’ section of the menu. We enjoyed a typical Western lunch with sandwiches, burgers and fries – we tried a dessert, but that was a massive slice of cake that was a little too sweet for all of us.
For those coming here, if you have restrictions on food, not a bad idea to bring some food to the island. There are a few other restaurants on the island, but we didn’t check them out. 

After lunch, we motored along the other main road – there are just two main roads which pretty much cover the circumference of the whole island. Because it would take us 30 minutes on the ferry and another 3 hours to return home, we decided to take the 3:30pm ferry. You can easily spend another 2 or 3 hours on the island – there was a lighthouse that we spotted, there were a couple of other places for food as per the map and possibly a few more things to do – public beach access is there in multiple points around the island – the one we went to is just one of them.

Though there is a large Indian community in Raleigh, we didn’t see any today – neither on the ferry nor on the island. The island is a little far from the city but a really good getaway to take a break from the daily routine – and not having any other motorized vehicles added to the island’s charm.

You tend to see a lot more SUVs and larger vehicles in the US than in India; same was the case in this parking lot – and Raj’s C300 Mercedes looked tiny since it was flanked by a Toyota and Mercedes SUVs. We saw a notice board nearby that read, ‘There may be alligators in the area.’

I ended the day having a home-cooked Andhra dinner at a friend’s place – it was a feast since they had cooked quite a lot.

Map of the island: https://media.scurto.net/1033/Uploads/Locator%20Map.pdf
Official site: https://www.baldheadisland.com/

Continuing up Pilot Mountain

All this while, just like us walking upwards on the ledge, an elderly Japanese couple was hiking the same trail as well – they were definitely better prepared than us with hiking poles and better shoes. Initially, they asked us to go ahead because they had slowed down and didn’t want to slow us down, but after a while, we slowed down and asked them to go ahead. We must have kept exchanging places some 4 or 5 times. 

After a while, we came across a board that said rock climbing ends. After this, we faced steep stone steps – you’d think that having a clear step would help, but because of the height, it was tiring. We kept going up the flight of stairs and taking breaks periodically.

I noticed that each trail had a colour on the map – and at certain junctures, we had the same colour sticker on a tree – indicating which trail you were on and also gave you comfort in the fact that you were not lost! We finally reached a point beyond which the path seemed to go down – we thought we could scale the mountain up, but there surely was no clear path. Just then, we saw a person coming from the opposite side, and we asked, “Can we get to the top?”
He wondered if the side path went up, but we told him it was a dead end.
“You go down, and there’s a trail that takes you close,” he said, pointing to the direction from which he came. 

We went down and saw that this was the Pilot Knob trail – red colour, 0.8 miles and marked ‘moderate’. After doing a strenuous one, this one was a breeze. This is the highest part of the mountain that you can get to. The part we were walking around is the distinctive dome shape of the mountain that you see from below – since it’s pretty much rock walls up to the top filled with vegetation, there is no accessible path to take you to the peak. We did the Knob trail and headed back down to the parking lot.

A bundle of energy

We spent about 2 hours on Pilot Mountain – not a bad way to spend an afternoon, though it is better to be here early in the morning than in the peak heat and ensure you come in the right shoes – because you need to walk on rough surfaces and rocks. 
We wondered if our wedding anniversary couple would have enjoyed this trip on their day out. 
“Making them walk in the hot sun on their anniversary – they will be cursing us.”
“Instead of taking them to a beach we took them hiking!”
“Not our fault though.” That was true – another friend had made us switch plans across Saturday and Sunday and in the end he didn’t turn up for today’s trip as well!

Looking at Dileep returning from the trail carrying a tote bag, a tired walk made worse by a haggard look and matted hair, none of us wanted to ask him the question. But surprisingly, behind the dad came his little daughter bustling with energy and speeding past her dad. She seemed ready to go on another trail! The family did the grindstone trail.

Meal in the vineyard

The website said we needed to book in advance, but when we called, we only reached the voicemail where we dropped our contact info. We never got a return call, but since the place was in the neighbourhood, we headed over – it was 5:20pm when we reached Jolo Vineyards – this was recommended by a colleague for good Italian food. They had a board which said no kids allowed – on enquiring, it seemed like if it was just one kid, they may have permitted, but since there were 2 in the group, they politely said they couldn’t have kids. Not sure why the rule but we relayed the info back to our other group that was still in Pilot Mountain. 

“Can we get a table?”

The staff looked at a sheet and nodded. But we noticed they also had a wine tasting option and Kiran and Raj took up the offer – $35 per person; sort of a bar setup indoors where they serve, in ascending order of price, 7 wines – after each wine, you sip a little water to ensure the last wine’s taste is eliminated before you try the next one. From Kiran’s facial expression, we could guess his opinion of each wine. The last couple of wines are what Kiran and Raj liked.

We took a table outdoor and ordered food but started off as is our tradition with a dessert – the Key Lime cake. And that was really good – so we tried the other dessert, the Lemon Cello cake, and that too was good. We ended up doing another round of desserts again at the end! As I expected, Raghav ordered the Pomme Frites (the French name for french fries), and we repeated that as well! The ravioli and risotto were nice – but the best dishes, we thought, were the desserts.

Only while leaving did we discover that there is a walking tour of the vineyard too – but we were running out of time and had to head back.

At night, we made a trip to Walmart at 10 pm because I wanted to buy a few items, but what ended up happening was that Raghav went on an impulsive shopping spree and filled his cart! Eventful end to the day.

In case you are planning a trip; website with details of the mountain: https://www.pilotmountainnc.org/

It was our friend Dileep’s wedding anniversary; so he wanted to start the day at the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Raleigh. Today also happened to be an auspicious day, and so the place was packed with cars – so much so that there were a few black American staff having to guide vehicles to vacant spots. The staff did seem to be enjoying their work; they were on headsets swaying to the sound of music as they directed vehicles.
After prayers, we bumped into a couple more office colleagues and then saw the food stall counter inside, where we picked up food parcels – sales were brisk. We also bought a lot of stuff since others were joining us on the trip as well. 

(Note: You can click on images to see the full view)

Pilot Mountain is about a 1.5-hour drive from the city – we were in two cars. Raghav and I were in Kiran’s car and were impressed by the navigation app that announced things like ‘obstacle on the road’, ‘speed sensor ahead’ and so on. Kiran also narrated a few sad stories of people he knew struggling in a tough job market – the market was good for folks with work experience but hard for freshers to get a breakthrough.

The best view of Pilot Mountain you get from the road – the distinct shape of the mountain. I didn’t ask Kiran to stop the car to take a shot, but Wiki has a nice image (snap above). 

Typically, things go away from the schedule when you have more people in the group. And we were really off schedule because we were in the park only at noon – not good on a sunny summer day! We stopped our car in the first parking lot within the park and read through trail details on the notice board. But then, we got a call from the other vehicle – they were in a different parking lot.

And so we headed on a 10-minute drive towards that – but there was no sign of them. All we saw was a well constructed spacious cabin toilet with a western-style toilet whose outlet just seemed to go on endlessly deep into the ground. A board near by described the trail and we saw an American family exiting the ‘Corridor trail’ with a large dog by their side. This was a 6-mile trail classified as ‘strenuous’; unlikely that our other group would have picked this one. It’s a good thing to know beforehand what trail you are getting into – the maps describe the trail route, difficulty and distance, and a colour code for the trail.

We got a call again and learnt that they had actually gone further up from where we had originally stopped. And so we went back again – from the first parking lot proceeded uphill to the second parking lot. 
“I guess we’ve done the hike in the car!” Kiran commented. 
“But we still aren’t at the top of the mountain.” The first thing that strikes you as unique about this mountain is the distinct pinnacle, and we certainly were nowhere near that.

Inspiration

In the parking lot, Kiran just took off after a round of intros. He was the fittest in our group and said, “We should start early so that we can finish early.” He was worried that we might all end up sitting on the lovely park benches, eating the food we brought and converting this trip into a family picnic! The two families in the group did stop at the benches, and since they had kids, we didn’t know if they wanted to hike. Raghav and I followed Kiran, and off we went without knowing what trail we were on.

The crowd slowly thinned out as we progressed. 
“Look at the dedication,” Kiran said.
Ahead of us was a middle-aged lady navigating the rocky terrain with a baby sitting in a sling that went across her shoulders. A man, a boy, and a dog were part of the group that followed her. As we went on what seemed to be a downward slope, we wondered, “Are we going down to the base? How do we get to the top?”

We saw an elderly man with hiking poles struggle upwards in the opposite direction but determined to keep continuing. You feel inspired seeing fellow hikers around you. This trail that started out easy wasn’t all that easy since you have to go through some bumpy terrain – not hard, but we did wonder if the 2 families with kids would continue on this trail.

The climb

We reached a notice board where a map said we were on the ‘grindstone trail’ – 3.5 miles and tagged strenuous. But there was a detour to another trail called ‘Ledge Spring Trail’ that seemed like a shortcut (1 mile) but was tagged ‘strenuous’ as well, with an added warning that the trail was steep. No second thoughts in all of our minds – we thought steep was good since we wanted to get to the top of the mountain!

As the name said, this was like walking on a ledge on the mountain’s periphery. After a short distance, there were signs saying ‘rock climbing’, and we soon encountered small groups of rock climbers. They were trying to scale up the side of the mountain – it did seem risky but seemed like a good place for intermediate-level rock climbing – not too high, and you did have a ledge below to give you some feeling of safety.

We paused a moment to see them – the climbers had someone drop a harness from a point above the mountain for safety (so in case you did slip, you’d not crash on the ledge below; looking at the safety harness, we wondered how the harness gripped onto the rocky surface). The folks took their time – no rush with any of the safety gear and slowly made the ascent. People below suggested what the place climber could use to keep their foot or hands in – a little rock sticking out, a crevice that could barely accommodate a toe or let you sneak in a finger to help get a grip to climb up. In some places, they only had one hand and one leg on the mountain. The strength you’d need in your core to keep you balanced is insane. 

One group asked if we wanted to try it, and we politely declined.