Quote:
Originally Posted by Alaskan_West
So I have been in Alaska freezing my butt off for my whole life. My husband and I are ready for a change, a warm change. I have thrown the idea of moving to North Carolina or South Carolina, somewhere by a beach. I would love any help on finding this great new place. I am looking for affordable living, beach, ocean, out door activities, nice schooling, laid back personality, camping, fishing and hunting. I am also wondering about your CCW permits. Is it easy to obtain, and do you need one at all? In AK we don't have to have one at all. Anyway's any input would be appreciated! Thanks.
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One of the unique things about our area near Cape Carteret, Emerald Isle, and Swansboro is the 158,000 acres of
Croatan National Forest (http://ncnatural.com/NCUSFS/Croatan/ - broken link).
It gives us a great buffer to keep development from overwhelming the area.
In fact one of the things that drew me to the area was the mix of woods and beaches. We lived in the Canadian wilderness for 17 years so having some wild country around makes me feel at home.
During the fall, "winter," and spring, we really enjoy
the area's trails.
There are wide variety of new or relatively new homes available under $200K within seven or eight miles of the beach.
There are also older homes in Swansboro or Cape Carteret that are close to your price range. We haven't been immune to housing slump so there is plenty of inventory and some of it available for 10% or more below asking price.
You can fish year round, but most of the serious fishing is from April to November. You can fish in the surf, with a skiff in the sounds and rivers, or along the beaches. Slightly larger boats go offshore.
This
Google aerial photo will give you a good view of the area. My
area services map shows where most things are in the area including airports.
There seems to be plenty of space for hunting, but I know some of the best hunting is done in areas owned and managed by clubs. I have a friend who has a mounted bear in his home. It would be tiny in comparison to the stuffed bears that I remember from my 1970 summer trip to Alaska.
At that time, I think only 15 miles of the ALCAN Highway was paved. I still remember stopping and camping at gravel pits and catching rainbows and graylings for dinner. Can you still do that?
The schools are very good in Carteret County. We have people move to the county just for the schools.
As to the personality of the area, it is a really nice spot filled with people who generally appreciate the uniqueness of the area where they are living.
Most people in the area love the out of doors, so if the weather and winds are good and you disappear for fishing, most people understand.
The waters are filled with shrimp. One of my neighbors went fishing last Sunday and his son-in-law made a single cast with a nine ft cast net and came up with over 100 shrimp and minnows.
We also benefit greatly from living near a river that doesn't have a city on it. The White Oak River is a very unique river, filled with oyster beds and plenty of fish. I often slip
my kayak into the water behind my house and pretty much have the river to myself.
The White Oak is one of
the most natural rivers remaining in North Carolina. Some of the best hunting in the area is available in its upper reaches. The 30+ mile length of the White Oak is tiny in length by Alaska standards, but
the river where I live is over a mile wide.
Still we are only 2.75 miles by water from the Intracoastal Waterway. Usually it takes me ten minutes with our 90 hp skiff to get there and another ten minutes to get out Bogue Inlet into the Atlantic.
These are slides from
a fishing recent trip when we went after Spanish Mackerel. We left from our home on the White Oak about 6 am.
We have some great fun in the area. I love the annual
Swansboro Oyster Roast which along with the Saint Patrick's Day Festival in Emerald Isle usually kicks off the outdoor festival season in mid-March when you're still covered in snow and darkness.
We walked the beaches all months of the year. Here's
a December beach walk,
a walk on the beach on New Year's Day. This is
a spring beach walk where you can see people swimming in April.
We are also in a great area with lots of things to do. There's everything from the history of
Beaufort (http://coastalnc.org/beaufortnctravelguidecd - broken link) to
Cape Lookout National Seashore and Fort Macon State Park.
We are
a small town area, but that is one of the
reasons that
I love Carteret County.
We even have
great fireworks on the Fourth of July and lots of year round restaurants.
The
Cape Carteret City Data Profile is pretty representative of our end of the county even though it is only one of the towns.
We get pretty quiet in the "winter" but I ride my bike whenever I want, kayak pretty well through December. I even got ripe tomatoes off my tomato vines until December 19 last year. This year I got my first ripe tomato on June 1. I have already gotten one that weighs 1.335 lbs. Our area strawberries are usually ripe sometime between the last week of March and
the middle of April.
This is
a tour of Emerald Isle and
a Swansboro Sunday in the "winter." Notice the flowers blooming in December in Swansboro.
As you can see from
this picture our winter can be pretty spectacular.
January of 2007, we had a total of 19 hours below freezing for the whole month. We also had 12 days when the temperature went over seventy.
These are some of
my favorite pictures from a recent beach walk and
another morning on the water.
I think the back of the tee-shirt that I often wear pretty well sums up our area.
QUIT YOUR JOB
GET A TAN
FALL IN LOVE
NEVER LOOK BACK
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Ccw
Try western Carteret County or Swansboro
