Post originally written June 22, 2005.
Once in a while, you do something really neat that you will remember of a long time. Recently we had the good fortune to find one of those memories.
The weather was perfect with the temperature in the low eighties, with little humidity and a slight breeze. The seas were pretty smooth, and we were about 13 miles north of Beaufort, NC at Harker's Island. At breakfast I read an advertisement for Calico Jack's Marina and Pony Express. Their claim to fame if you watch the little animation on their web page is that they are the closest ferry to Cape Lookout National Seashore and they run a four wheel drive taxi service from the Capelookout Lighthouse down to the Cape Point which is the first picture in the post.
The ferry with the shuttle service to the point is twenty dollars. It has to be one of the most beautiful places that I have ever visited. Of course by its very location, there are not a lot of people there. It would be a long hike in soft sand from the Lighthouse so the four wheel drive shuttle service is the only way to go.
It took ten minutes by a 24 ft Carolina Skiff to get from Calico Jack's on Harker's Island to the beach where we had an easy exit after the skiff was beached. Then it was fifteen minutes or so by Chevrolet four wheel drive down to the point. We had an excellent captain and an equally accomplished sand pilot.
We then spent an hour and a half wandering and wading around the point. The water on the ocean side was cool but not unpleasant, the clashing seas at the end of the point sometimes sounded like thunder, and the wading on the soundside was just right. The Pony Express shuttle picks up every hour or half hour as needed and the boats run similarly. They are even careful to make sure that they leave no one behind.
The beaches are pristine, the crowds non-existent, and the water nearly perfect. It's the best twenty dollars that I have spent in a long time.
