Finding some coastal solitude only takes a bit of planning and pedaling.

I usually head to the Blue Ridge Mountains or Shenandoah for a backpacking weekend, but this time I felt like staying a little closer to home. I had been to False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach, Virginia, however, I hadn’t camped there. The park is only accessible via bike, paddle, or hike. It is open year-round for camping, but resources are cut off in the winter months. This made for a completely “pack it in-pack it out” adventure, including water and trash. Given its somewhat remote location and off-season lack of amenities, the crowds are at a minimum, which is exactly what I was after. A solo trip to a location close to home, that wasn’t the usual commercial campground, without the usual noise and distractions made up a great combination.

Using a bike for the trip offered unique benefits. First and foremost, the ability to cover a lot of ground in a fraction of the time, and thus see more sites. Also, you can carry more gear and weight, and bring more luxury items along. Not to take away from backpacking, an activity that I truly love, but bikepacking clearly has unique advantages.

My goal was to head for the Virginia North Carolina border. From the Little Island parking lot, it’s 11 miles to the state line. With sunset at 4:48 PM, time was of the essence. I knew by checking the tide charts that high tide was roughly 5 PM and 5 AM and clearly low tide would be the best time to travel. Keeping bicycle speeds in mind, I could comfortably ride about 7mph. There are trails through the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge, but those are closed for the winter season. Therefore access to False Cape is only via the beach or by water. The large tires of my fat bike made traversing the sand at low tide a breeze. I feel any size mountain bike tire would do well during this time of day. Where the fat tires excels is in the deep loose sand, albeit slow going. 

I made it to camp before the sun decided it was done for the day. Sunsets on the Bay Side of the park are often deemed better than the sunrises over the Atlantic. I set up camp and began to prepare a little dinner. Fires are prohibited in this park, however, you are allowed to have stoves. My stove happens to be a wood burner so it affords me a small campfire so to speak. This echoes the point of bikepacking allowing you to take some luxury items that might be too bulky or heavy to carry backpacking.  The only others camping was a couple that had kayaked in and chose a site about a quarter of a mile up the beach from me. We were the only ones in the entire park. It was an amazing example of solitude with only the sound of the waves providing background music. I was excitedly looking forward to the sunrise.

Unfortunately solid cloud cover and a touch of rain obscured any chance of the sun breaking through. No worries, I welcomed the chance to be outside and enjoy the great outdoors. The temperatures at night only dropped to 56 degrees Fahrenheit. For a mid-winter weekend, I consider myself quite lucky.

I am looking forward to repeating this trip again soon. Next time I may elect to camp on the Bayside and set up a hammock in the trees.

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