Oyster Fritters, Antiques, a Hike (and a bad sign)

23 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by Ronald Parks in chincoteague, Eastern Shore, Hiking, kayaking, Road Trips, Trails

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Antiques, birding, Fritters, Lighthouse, Nassawango, Nature Conservancy, stuff found, unicorns, Veterans park

This was a two day adventure. On the 20th we went to the Chincoteague VFD for a fund raiser – oyster fritter sandwich, a bottle of water and a bag of chips. Although this was my first fritter and I enjoyed it, I must say, I like a fried oyster sandwich best. We picked up our lunch and headed to the Chincoteague Veterans Memorial Park.

It was a nice place to sit and look at the water. Part of Assateague, Va. is right across the water.

Man, are you kidding me? I can see why there is no swimming, but no kayaking?

We left Chincoteague after lunch (We did stop at the bookstore and I picked up a couple local, Eastern Shore history books). Decided to check out a couple antique shops heading up Route 13. Stopping first at Chesapeake Antiques. Last time we were here they had a lot of stuff. Not so much now. It actually looks like they are going out of business. Pickers Paradise next door is closed. Headed up the road a little further and stopped here – Worcester House Antiques. Wow…

We did stop at a very nice shop in Princess Anne – Somerset Choice Station Antiques. It is part of the Somerset Historical Society. http://www.somersetcountyhistoricalsociety.org/shop.html

So, the next day, the 21st, we decided to take a short hike. Went here once again. Always nice to be along the Nassawango Creek, among the cypress.

Found this in the swamp and Kathy wanted it, soooo. We will fix the baby carriage up and place it in the garden.

Looking for frogs. We heard them but did not see them.

Possible UFO sighting.

We did find that elusive Unicorn we have been looking for.

A favorite spot to sit and daydream about kayaking.

A little confusing. After this point the trails were not marked so we stayed next to the creek.

Not sure how this ended up here. Kathy suggested that it was brought up from the creek and the person just walked away. There is a house about a half-mile from here, but they have a ramp? We hiked to about the house and then headed through the woods to the road – Creek Road.

Saw this from the water while kayaking. Like I stated above, the closest house is about a half-mile away.

Nice two days of adventures. Thanks God for these days.

Pete and Repeat

27 Saturday Feb 2021

Posted by Ronald Parks in Assateague, chincoteague, Eastern Shore, Hiking, National Parks, nature

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adventures, bivalve, chincoteague, dunes, Eastern Shore, Google Lens, nature, oysters, photography, Toms Cove, Virginia

An old joke but still cracks me up – If Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence and Pete flew away, who was left? Repeat. Ok, If Pete and Repeat were… and on and on it goes until someone tells you to stop it! What does that have to do with a nature hike post? Nothing, other than the fact we have repeated this trip to Assateague Island in Virginia a hundred times. And we never get tired of it. And we always seem to find a new adventure awaiting us – whether we are biking or hiking.

This particular trip was just to get out of the house before the rains came, have lunch and to look at the ocean from the parking lot. But the lot was closed so we decided to see what was going on.

Me wondering where all the sea shells are?

The beach is under a constant state of erosion and the Rangers/contractors are under a constant state of trying to fix it. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that the Atlantic Ocean and Tom’s Cove will soon be connected. That at the rate of erosion, maybe by 2025 this stretch of the beach will be gone. So much for doomsday projections…Kathy and I headed over to the cove. Kathy was wondering how are we going to get over to that strip of land. The tide was the lowest we have ever seen it. Off in the distance is where we usually hike – The Bi-valve Trail.

Mostly hard sand but there were some pockets of mud.

Quite a few varieties of shells. Mostly empty oysters and mollusks. Some clams here and there.

Kathy’s photo of some bivalves.

And a very lonely, cold, star fish.

Time to head back and we thought this path would take us towards the beach. It didn’t.

It took us somewhere alien! I have an app on my phone called Google Lens, which if you take a photo with it, it will tell you what it is you photographed. The app didn’t know what to make of this.

We finally make it back to the parking lot. Amazing how it changes every time we visit. Bulldoze the sand up in a pile and the ocean just washes over it.

After walking around for a couple hours we then headed to the Crusty Crab at Greenbackville for a couple oyster sandwiches and their delicious coleslaw. Sat at the beach and ate. The tide was also low here…

Another great, repeat adventure with some new twists! Thanks GOD!

Saxis, Virginia

04 Monday Nov 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in chincoteague, Eastern Shore, nature, Road Trips

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hike, library, nature, saxis, sea glass

A Facebook group I follow shares information concerning Chincoteague and the surrounding areas. The other day the topic of ‘sea glass’ came up. Kathy and I very rarely find any sea glass while walking the beaches of Assateague. A couple people suggested that the best place to find any is at Saxis Island, which is about 20 miles west of Chincoteague, facing the Pocomoke Sound. So off we went.

On Route 13, right at the Maryland-Virginia border we came across this while getting gas.

As the plaque states, it is a 1/6th scale of the Union Merrimac aka the C.S.S. Virginia.

Before going into Saxis itself, a person on the Chincoteague page suggested turning onto Mathews Rd., following that to the end where a beach is. We found this fixer-upper at the turn-off. $39,000 for a 2 bedroom waterfront lot. I looked inside and there is a 240v breaker box.

If I still drank, these unopened beers would have been in my car.

At the end of Matthews Rd we found the beach. A small beach and of course it was high tide.

Molly has no respect for signs like these – when she has to go, she goes.

Walked thru the seagrass to get to another section of the beach. Found a few pieces of sea glass.

After roaming around here a bit we headed to Dennis Drive. On the right are some homes, on the left is a huge mound. Looks like a covered over landfill.

Reaching the beach there are three discharge pipes that appear to be coming from the mound. The one behind Kathy is above water. In front of her partially submerged and off in the distance, fully submerged.

They kind of remind me of the outfalls at Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant.

We did find a bunch of glass but as to whether or not it is real sea glass is debatable. Kathy brought up an interesting point – if the mound was at one time a landfill and being from the Eastern Shore, she told me that years ago people would just ride to the ends of streets like these and dump their household trash. So, possibly after a county cleanup of the area and getting people to stop dumping, the glass we found may be no more than someones trash. (But isn’t that what all sea glass is??)

Museum was closed. No one to ask there.

Headed to the end of Saxis Rd. to see what was there. This was interesting. Cement and sea shells.

They say Martha’s is a great place to eat.

Not too sure about this place.

Love these little libraries.

Took a different route back to 13 and found this school.

Temperanceville High School, erected 1921

Since we were out and about, we thought we would revisit Greenbackville to look for oyster shells.

Shells everywhere. Molly not too happy to walk on them.

Mr Rays (You need to be from Baltimore to get it!)

From there to George’s Island Landing.

Parker Bay Rd. is the one we took to the oyster house last time. Not today though.

Nice day to be alive and in God’s Country. Thanks God.

Chincoteague 9-3-2019

07 Saturday Sep 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in chincoteague, Eastern Shore, Hiking, Road Trips, State Parks

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Bay, biking, Hiking, horseshoe crab, ocean

Kathy and I figured we would get at least a couple days of biking and hiking in before the weather took a turn for the worse (Hurricane Dorian). Chincoteague is always a favorite spot. First we biked over to the Bivalve Trail on the bay side.

Kathy’s sister Gail’s bike. Kathy likes this one better.

Upside down in the grass. Grass cuts your legs up!

Reading Naturalist on the Nanticoke. Full chapter on these guys

Then we headed over to the ocean.

The female carries a male, digs a shallow hole for her eggs then tosses the male onto the eggs to do his thing. Then they go their separate ways. This group didn’t make it.

A bunch of trees with sea shell ornaments.

Packed up and headed through town to see if we could find a decoy carver’s shop. No luck but found this old house – Sign on left says: Capt. Timothy Hill House. Islands oldest home. 1800. Another sign says privately owned, visitors welcome.

Great day for the bike and beach.

Bike, Beach and Drive-by

11 Sunday Aug 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Assateague, chincoteague, Eastern Shore

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Beach, biking, chincoteague, Hiking, kayaking, oysters

Another day trip to Chincoteague. We rode around the wildlife loop and instead of taking the Swan Cove Trail we headed to the service road. This is about a 7 mile road. The road wasn’t bad but the mosquitoes were terrible!

Lots of dead trees.

Headed to the beach via the OSV – Over Sand Vehicles entrance.

This wasn’t a bad road either.

Parked our bikes. Ran into a volunteer ranger and we asked about all the dead birds on Chincoteague Road bridge. 100s of them. She said they were fledgling seagulls, just learning to fly. They come up out of the marshes and because they are young, they can barely get the height they need to get over the bridge. Not to worry she said…there are a lot of them. Ugh!

Lots of birds and other life on the beach.

Beach and ocean as far as you can see.

Aura around Kathy’s reflection.

Survey marker

Can never have too many seashells from the seashore!

Heading back, need to watch out for the 4 wheelers.

Took a different route home. Usually we take Chincoteague Road (Rte 175) to Rte 679, which turns into Rte 12 in Maryland. We turned on Rte 798 and went past Wallops NASA. Back to 679, turned at Captain’s Cove. This is on the Virginia side and put us in Greenbackville.