< more recent | 16-22 December 2024 | older >
22 December 2024: I guess it’s really a good thing I decided to take the beach house instead of trying to camp here — though normally this part of North Carolina has nice mild temperatures this time of year, we are experiencing an “abnormal” week of very cold blustery weather, and today never got above freezing. I took that as a sign to start gathering some firewood for my Christmas Eve bonfire — usually it is just for ambiance, but it looks like this year I will need it just to keep warm outside for my Christmas vigil…
21 December 2024: Up early to catch the winter solstice sunrise from the beach. I almost didn’t bother as the forecast is for yet another damp cold overcast day, but I remembered that sometimes the sun sneaks in below the clouds and so I got out of bed and hurried to the beach where I was not disappointed. The sunrise was spectacular and it was as if it were “just for me” as I was the only one on the beach. Energized by the incredible beauty of the sunrise, I set out to make the most of the day and started with a little navigation practice to refresh my plotting skills and go search for some practice CPs on this part o the island …
20 December 2024: Today is all about “learning the lay of the land” as they say — just exploring the area around my location. Started with a walk to the beach in the morning as the tide was once again coming in, and it confirmed my concerns about reaching here during high tide. The waves crashed onto the beach with just about one “lane” of chopped up beach for travel. I made note of it and will plan around the tide times. Then I just went exploring on the dirt roads all around the forested side of the island. As it is “off-season” there aren’t many people here and it is like having the whole place to myself, so it was really pleasant to just go driving around to see what is there and what the terrain is like. I even saw one of the horses along my way (it wasn’t doing anything interesting, just grazing, which is pretty much what they do all day, but it was still cool to see one on my first day here!) …
19 December 2024: Made it the rest of the way to the Outer Banks and went directly to Corolla where we aired down before picking up the 4WD Beach trail north to Carova. The tide was coming in, but luckily it was not yet “high tide” as the stretch of driveable beach at the end is very narrow. I was really glad to be able to make the drive in daylight and far enough from high tide, especially because I hadn’t aired down quite as much as normal due to the heavy load we are transporting, which includes firewood for the week as well as water, groceries and all necessary supplies, as there are no stores up here. The sand was soft and the wind was blowing it, and the beach above the high tide line was very chewed up. I could feel Rubi struggling at a certain point and actually put her in 4-Low for the rest of the way. Once up the beach we turned off onto the dirt roads of the town of Carova which were nice and easy driving on flat sandy trails, but firm sand, so no concerns about getting stuck. The thing that had me worried on the beach drive was that the tide was incoming and if we had gotten stuck with the Jeep fully loaded like that, just getting to the recovery gear would have been a project. So big relief to have arrived without incident. Spent the last part of the afternoon unloading all the supplies and carrying them upstairs box by box. When we were settled in I got the firepit going for the evening — the weather is not terribly good right now. It is cold and windy and damp and the forecast doesn’t look that great either — so it was a good decision to have taken the beach house for this first week…
18 December 2024: Continued the drive along the Delmarva Peninsula today, crossing the Chesapeake Bay via the Bridge-Tunnel which is always an “interesting” drive. As the skies were blue and the temperatures reached the low 70’s it was a very pleasant day, and arriving early enough in the afternoon to Virginia Beach I actually took some time to go walking on the beach there–something I normally wouldn’t do in such a touristic area, but there weren’t many tourists there at this time of year and it was a nice walk. Though still a little bizarre in contrast to the beach at Beach Island State Park where I was strolling yesterday. Yesterday’s beach was a wild and undeveloped stretch of barrier island where you could feel the wilderness. Today’s beach is surrounded by hi-rise hotels and the commercial mass tourism industry, and while the beach itself was a normal “real” sand and water beach, the over-development of the area made it feel “fake” like Coney Island or Atlantic City …
17 December 2024: Got an early start on the day, leaving Nesconset NY at about 430am, and making it across the bridges to NJ in record time. First stop of the day was at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey where I wanted to go looking for the “Judge’s Shack,” an old-style beach “shack” built on top of the dunes on a remote beach. I had hoped for a nice day, but it was windy and overcast, and the first place I looked was the “wrong” spot, though it was a very beautiful section of beach. I eventually found the “shack” which was unfortunately completely fenced off and inaccessible, but still made some nice photos. From there it was on to Cape May where I wasn’t able to get out onto the beach with the old WWII era bunker this time — the beach was “closed for repairs” literally there were back hoes and construction equipment doing something with the sand out there and the whole section was blocked off. The weather had improved a little bit in time for the Ferry crossing, which was nice and uneventful, and I had timed it just right to be able to capture a bit of the sunset upon my arrival in Lewes Delaware …
THIS MONTH:
Getting ready for this year’s Holiday Roadtrip south, where we are changing it up a little bit and spending more time on our favorite barrier islands along the Outer Banks as we celebrate the season with plenty of good cheer out on the sand …
COMING UP SOON:
Returning to the “city of light” after a way-too-long hiatus and reconnecting with friends, favorite places and some urban exploring to change things up a little bit …
Joining the Barlow Adventures Rebelle Rally training for an intensive sand dune driving and navigation practice at the Imperial Sand Dunes in southern California. This is a seven-day driving and navigation program that focuses on moving safely and effectively through large dunefields with skills-building exercises intended to improve pace, line choice and vehicle control. There is a full classroom day of navigation instruction focused on mapping and understanding the basics of plotting and route planning on paper maps, as well as increasingly challenging in-the-field practice to develop precision map and compass navigation skills. It all culminates in a final day of “chasing checkpoints” out in the big dunes…
Trail Guiding for the California 4-Wheel Drive Association’s fifth annual Death Valley Experience fundraiser event. Each day will feature a choice of runs to some famous, some infamous and some secretive points of interest within Death Valley National Park. Some of the points of interest we may visit during Death Valley Experience 2025 include Zabriskie Point (famous), Barker Ranch (infamous) and the Racetrack (learn the secret of the moving rocks). Other points of interest include Dante’s View, 20 Mule Team Canyon, Artists’ Drive, Chloride Cliffs, Aguereberry Point, Skidoo, Titus Canyon, and Darwin Falls. All of the trail runs are suitable for novice drivers and SUVs with high clearance and 4-wheel drive…
USnomads.org is very proud to be presenting the fourth edition of the Nomad Overland Virtual Adventure Rally in 2025. This is a unique kind of rally experience — a ten week event that participants can do from anywhere within the continental U.S.A. Competitors design their own routes as part of the rally, then drive it in a points-based online competition that includes optional activity tasks, quests and weekly challenges. The 2025 rally will run from 2 June – 10 August and is open to any driver within the United States who has an off-road capable vehicle — stock or modified. Registration for 2024 is currently open. For more information see the Rally website …
ABOUT CAROVA BEACH
Carova Beach is found on Currituck Banks, north of Bodie Island in the extreme northeastern corner of North Carolina, and can be accessed only by boat or by four-wheel drive vehicle. The community’s name derives from the portmanteau of the first syllables of Carolina and Virginia, since the coastal community lies just south of the North Carolina-Virginia state line. Historically the Currituck Inlet which served as the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina existed where the community of Carova now stands. The inlet closed in 1730s. Banker horses and other wildlife roam freely on the beaches of Carova. The community only has approximately 50 year-round residents and commercialism is absent from this section of the Outer Banks; there are no restaurants, shops, or other attractions that often accompany beach communities. The community’s “roads” are uneven sand paths through the dunes and can become nearly impassable after heavy rains, when large potholes fill with water. During hurricanes and tropical storms the community can become inaccessible when the beach is awash due to storm surge…
ABOUT ISLAND BEACH STATE PARK
Island Beach State Park is a preserved barrier island that protects a number of natural shoreline and nearshore habitats. The park contains close to ten miles of sandy beach, an extensive shoreline along Barnegat Bay, dense maritime forests, rolling sand dunes, and tidal marshes. Island Beach is also home to foxes, ospreys, other wildlife, and more than 400 species of plants. The white sand beaches in a seemingly wild landscape seem frozen in time, and thanks to their remoteness, offer a welcome contrast to the rest of the “Jersey Shore” to the north. The original inhabitants of the area were Native Americans from the Lenape tribes. They had permanent settlements on the mainland and built seasonal homes at the coast. The Lenape were the earliest known visitors to the land where Island Beach State Park is now located. During the summer they would hunt waterfowl and shorebirds, fish, crab, collect shells for producing wampum, gather eggs, and trap turtles and muskrats. European ownership of the area containing Island Beach State Park began in 1635 when an English Earl was granted a parcel of land that included Island Beach. This deed meant little in terms of how the land was used but it did establish a private claim to the property. In subsequent years fisherman built summer shacks within what would become Island Beach State Park. One of those abandoned “shacks,” known as “Judge’s shack,” still stands, though access to it is blocked off. Built about 1911 and purchased in 1942 by Judge Richard Hartshorne, the Judge’s Shack is the last known surviving structure of its type in its original configuration on the NJ coast. The State of New Jersey purchased the land in 1953 to preserve the natural beauty of the island and provide recreational facilities for swimmers, hikers, anglers and other outdoor enthusiasts. The park was officially opened in 1959…
Nesconset | Paris | Belgrade | Lanoka Harbor | Cape May | Carolla | Mandeville | New Orleans
MORE NOTES FROM THE ROAD:
18-15 December – New York
8-30 November – New York
1-7 November – Roadtrip South
23-31 October – Roadtrip South
15-22 October – Roadtrip South
8-14 October – Roadtrip South
1-7 October – Roadtrip South
September – New York
August – New York
26-31 March – Eastbound
20-25 March – NM
15-19 March – DVE
9-14 March – AZ
1-8 March – NV & AZ
23-29 February – Glamis
16-22 February – Roadtrip SW
1-15 February – Roadtrip SW
January – Paris
22-31 December – Holiday Roadtrip
Archive
ROADTRIP
An epic journey crisscrossing the USA from east to west and back again, exploring some of the beautiful wild spaces that make up our “public lands.” The roadtrip covered almost 15,000 miles, much of it off-grid and off-pavement, focusing on the deserts of the American southwest. Some locations were truly “iconic” while others were little known, and the segments of independent exploration where punctuated with some fun events across the region… [read]
SPECIAL REPORT
All about exploring ghost towns and abandoned places in the USA and beyond, with tips, and information on the many different types of sites to be found across the globe, including detailed guides for eight specific sites… [read]
REFLECTIONS
EGYPT: CAIRO REFLECTIONS
A quick overview of impressions from a stop in Cairo during our recent scouting mission in Egypt and Sudan … [read]
SPECIAL REPORT
A look into south-eastern Algeria on the border with Libya and Niger: overlanding with the Tuareg in one of the most remote corners of the Sahara … [read]
LOCATION
This installment of a series that focuses on locations around the USA takes a look at some favorite places near our home base in NY. We share a few places we like to explore, where you can experience something of the raw natural beauty of coastal beaches, pine barrens and a little bit of obscure military history… [read]
