Ballahack Rd VA & northeast NC

[racinchef]

After spending the day riding out to Busch Gardens Williamsburg from Virginia Beach and taking the long way back home via a nice long walk on the beach, we all decided to head south today into NC and check out the riding based on what a friend told us. Route 165 to 17 was our first way out of the megalopolis miasma and based on the advice of someone else we tried out Ballahack Road that runs between 17 and 168 near the NC border. That was so much fun that we turned around and rode it back to 17 where we continued south to the rest stop and the Dismal Swamp State Park. From there we continued south to 343 in a mapless attempt to make our way to Moyock and 168 to bring us back to Virginia Beach. Eventually, we found a rare road sign pointing us in the right direction and got to Moyock and 168. We headed back north and made our way home via 168, 64, 264, 410.
The ride down 17 was into an annoying headwind, but the scenery was beautiful and very much different from the riding I was used to in VT. I really do enjoy cruising flat wide open country where you can enjoy the lush green vistas. Ballahack Road had some nice curves to make the ride interesting and is nice and rural. Route 343 was very pleasant riding as was the road we turned on to get to Moyock. The roads were very nice through some farm country and made for some very enjoyable cruising under the hot humid sun. This was my second foray into NC and the northeast corner is most impressive. We will have take a ride on the outer banks some day soon and check out Elizabeth City. Around here you have to do some riding to get to the nicer roads, but there is so much to see that is new for me and fairly easy to get to.