Beach to Bayou - May 2016 - The Shoofly Magazine

Beach to Bayou - May 2016

5/1/2016

Biking in the Bay

Wanna feel like a kid again? Grab a bike and head on out! The Bay-Waveland area has miles of awesome bike trails!
- story by Lisa Monti

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Remember the freedom and fun of riding your bike around town you enjoyed as a child? Biking over to a friend’s house, to a park, to the beach, everywhere. That was transportation and that was then.

Today, riding a bike around the Bay and beyond is an easy and enjoyable way to take in the historic sights and the gorgeous scenery.

If you don’t have a bike, you’re in luck. You can rent a comfortable beach cruiser from Bay Breeze at 111 Court St. in Bay St. Louis. The bikes come in all sizes to fit kids and adults and the $19 rental fee includes a helmet.

Bikes are available seven days a week but you must 228-363-1290.

Once you’ve got a bike, consider where you can go and what you’ll see. The beach is an obvious choice, and a great one to take in the waterfront, the gulls, and other shorebirds (look for bald eagles and osprey overhead).

The Bay-to-Waveland trail is four miles of flat surface from Washington Street to just beyond the Coleman Avenue pier in Waveland. Join the walkers along the route, which has beautiful homes and grounds on one side and the sand and water on the other.

The Bay Bridge is more than a spectacular-looking structure, with its artwork from end to end. It’s also an award-winning path for walkers and bike riders. A little over two miles long, the bridge has mild curves and inclines with beautiful views all along the way.

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On the north side of U.S. 90 is Dunbar Avenue’s bike path in the quiet Cedar Point area. The wide street leads down to the water and the seawall, which is popular for fishing, crabbing and bird watching. Pelicans, herons and other birds are plentiful along the open water and in the nearby wetlands along the Beach Boulevard Scenic Byway.

If you're a more serious biker, you can take the 13 miles beach road all the way from Cedar Point to Bayou Caddy (or vice versa, of course!). Photographer Chris Christofferson wrote a fantastic mile-by-mile guide of the entire route for this magazine in 2015.

For those who want to take a self-guided tour, there’s a brochure for that: the Old Town Bay St. Louis Historic Walking & Biking Tour leads the way to 24 destinations (and you can access the mobile-friendly PDF version in our sidebar!). Start with the tiny Tercentenary Park that sits at 31 feet — the highest elevation on the Gulf of Mexico — and go from there. Bikers can travel along Main Street and Old Town’s shops to the Depot area and end up at the Kate Lobrano House, home to the Hancock County Historical Society.

Then there are Hancock County’s seven designated byways made for biking, walking, birding and boating. In all, there are more than 30 miles of roads offering access to the county’s natural resources and historical features.