My boyfriend and I visited a friend on the Eastern Shore over Memorial Day. We had a really terrific time eating crabs, hanging out by the pool, and canoeing on the Choptank River.
A few years ago my parents did some bike touring around Oxford, Maryland, so I decided to look into doing some myself. I want to say first that my boyfriend is a terrific sport: not only did he endure countless IMs, texts, and probably emails about this subject, but he took my advice about rest stops, hydration, Clif bars, and wearing a straight-up bike kit.
This was my first time planning a bike trip, sight unseen, without much discussion with other people ahead of time. My parents had taken quite a different route, although they did mention the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. I used the googles to track down Bike New England’s page about the Del Marva peninsula. Somehow I figured out that On the Rivet, a cute LBS in Cambridge not far from our host’s home, had a bicycle map with a few different routes that I found a PDF of online. I knew I’d found a solid little LBS because my mom independently recommended this shop to me when I told her we were staying in Cambridge. I wish I’d had the occasion to buy something from them – we chatted with the man working there for about 5 minutes and he singled out the Hooper’s Island route as the one we ought to take. So thanks, On the Rivet, for the recommendation! We’ll try to stop by next time.
So, map in jersey pocket, we set off. (A note: we bought a 6-pack of 34-oz bottles of Smartwater, and easily drank 4 between the 2 of us. We also ate 3 Clif bars, some clementines, and drank some Budweiser at a picnic table outside a country store, because I am shameless.)
We really couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. There’s a pretty well-stocked visitor’s center in the wildlife refuge where you can park. We picked up some bug spray and sunscreen, and the nice volunteers there assured us that the park rangers will leave the gate unlocked for you if your car is still there after 5.
We were excited about checking out the Harriet Tubman memorial sites in the area, but we were a little disappointed. In spite of all the signage to the “HARRIET TUBMAN HISTORIC SITE,” there was just a marker in a field. So that was kind of a bummer. It looks like Cambridge is building some kind of memorial center for her though, so maybe that will be better.
On the mainland, there were 3 or 4 old churches and too many family cemeteries to count. Some nice views of marshland and the river/bay. The roads were very well-maintained, drivers were courteous, and we saw a few other cyclists.
If you’re riding at a slow pace, like we were, and are conscientious about hydration, I recommend taking this ride on a Saturday, when Gootee’s Marine is open and you can use their bathroom instead of peeing in the woods behind a church (it looked like there might be some hiking paths off the road where you might be able to duck off and pee, but for the most part the wetlands come right up to the road and there are channels on either side, except for when the road is directly adjacent to someone’s property). I also recommend not pushing it too much on this ride: I had my first encounter with a dog in the country on this ride, and I was not carrying pepper spray). I was glad I hadn’t sprinted a whole lot so that we could outpace the dog.
We got cell phone reception intermittently after we were a few miles from the visitor’s center – we could generally make and receive calls/texts, but the Internet was sporadic. Strava still uploaded the ride pretty satisfactorily. The ride was pretty much completely flat, except for the bridges. There are 3 or 4 and they are quite steep.
On the way out, some other cyclists recommended we stop for a bite at Old Salty’s, the only restaurant on Hooper’s Island. Boy, am I glad we kept riding past the restaurant to see the rest of the island! The best part of our ride was the actual island: it gets super narrow, so you have water views on both sides for parts of the ride. Tons of fishing infrastructure – lots of crab cages, old boats, etc. There are some places where you can quite obviously pull over and sit for a minute to enjoy the water – you will be able to spot them from the dozens of people fishing.
I can’t recommend Old Salty’s enough. The oysters with crab imperial were everything the cyclist said they would be. Might have enjoyed them even more than the fabulous steamed blue crabs we ate
yum.