Category: USA

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.