Blackwater Refuge to Hoopers Island

28 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by Ronald Parks in Eastern Shore, HISTORY, kayaking, nature, Road Trips

Tags

blackwater, bridges, Cemetery, deer, Eagles, egret, fishing, heron, Hoopers, kayaking, longhouse, photography, Tubman

This was a really nice road trip. A little over-cast but nice. The first time we visited BWR a couple years ago, we followed the not too smart, smart phone that directed us to the middle of a swamp and then to Crappo. Another time we traveled to Cambridge and then south to the Refuge. This time we decided to take the scenic back roads. I saw on a map that there were a couple kayak put-in spots so we thought we’d check them out.

We took Rte 50 to Vienna and headed south on Rte 192. On the map was Bestpitch Ferry Rd., showing a launch. What wasn’t on the map was this sign:

When you see a “Bridge Closed” sign, you should heed it! Na! We thought this was the bridge they were talking about. It wasn’t.

Electric wire fishermen.

The road started to get a little hairy and we could see where it had been washed out in places. Then we came upon this.

On the other side of the barrier a wood, one lane bridge. Looks alright to me.

The kayak launch site is across the river, to the left. In the photo below it looks like a launch that has flooded out over the years.

Time to turn around. Bridge blocked, road falling apart and now a fire.

We make it thru the danger and head back to Decoursey Bridge Rd to Bucktown. On the way we came across this little, unafraid of the truck fellow.

Glad we had the detour. Some nice places to visit.

Harriet Tubman Underground Rail Road.

The Brodess Farm is where it was said HT was born. Other accounts say her mother and herself were brought (bought) here after she was born.

There is no trace of the original farm house, although this one is there. Private property, keep out.

Heading down Greenbriar Rd to Maple Dam Rd, we came across this house. It was unmarked but looking at a couple history pamphlets, we found that this was the Nause-Waiwash Longhouse. It was an abandoned church before the Indians took it over. It looks a lot nicer in the brochure.

Moving along towards the refuge, we spot our first of many eagles. (We lost count at 9-10).

This guy was hanging out on the way to the visitor center.

Kathy checking out the displays.

We leave the visitor center and head to the main entrance of the Wildlife Drive. Stopping to eat lunch at the observation deck. On the left of the road there is the Marsh Edge Trail and that was closed due to nesting eagles.

Here are some shots from the refuge.

Leaving the refuge it was time to head to Hoopers Island. Rte 335. Heading down Hoopers Island road we came across this church. Originally the “Tubman Chapel”, it moved across the street. St. Mary Star of the Sea.

First bridge onto the islands is at Tyler Cove, Fishing Creek.

Another historical marker.

And another General Store

Behind here is a cemetery, which brings me to WHY we wanted to visit Hoopers Island. We want to see all this before it is completely submerged. There is a great video on the sinking of this island. You should watch it – High Tide in Dorchester – https://www.bayjournal.com/films

Lots of fishing and sea life down here. Hard to believe it was mostly farms at one tome.

We headed south to the middle island. There are 3 islands, probably more at one time.

Pulled off the side to see what we could see – some sea glass, shells and debris.

Looks like 3 adults and one juvenile. Even with a 300mm lens, they were too far off.

Adult brought food to him.

Our map. the lower island has no access.

Great day and so grateful that Kathy likes going on these eight hour adventures with me. For too long I did all this kind of stuff by myself.

Paul Leifer Trail

16 Thursday Jan 2020

Posted by Ronald Parks in Hiking, HISTORY, nature, Trails

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canals, Conservancy, cypress swamp, Furnace Town, Geocache, Hiking, nature, Snow Hill, State Parks, Trails

In my last blog, First Hike 2020, I spoke of looking for the Paul Leifer Trail at Furnace Town and how we thought the only access was from the gift shop, which closed in October. Well I sent an email to Furnace Town asking about access to the trail and they told us to go through the gate and then head to the trail, so we did.

Through the gate and head to the right, where you will see the Iron Furnace. Go to the left and there is an information board with a map and cautions that the boardwalks are very slippery.

Some interesting signage and some not so interesting!

The boardwalks were not only very slick, some were falling apart.

Molly didn’t mind and she did a lot better on this hike.

Some of the sights along our hike. It was very quiet here.

Heading back out after about 1-1/2 hour hike. A couple shots in the ‘town’.

Wedding arch? Or sacrificial temple at the top?

Our hike, via All trails: Under a mile but very adventurous!

But the best sign was this one…

Life is full of next bends!! Thanks God for pointing the way to each and every bend, not that I am always paying attention to where you are pointing…

Saxis, Virginia

04 Monday Nov 2019

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

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.

Cape Lookout

18 Friday Oct 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Hiking, National Parks, nature, Photography, Road Trips

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Beach Life, Cape Lookout, ferry, Hiking, Lighthouse, National Parks, nature, North Carolina, photography, sea shells

While at Indian Beach, North Carolina, we decided to visit the Cape Lookout National Park. To get there we needed to catch the ferry from Harkers Island. They have a nice visitors center there. A few blocks away is/was a museum, Core Sound Waterfowl Museum. It is still closed from the storm of a year ago.

Visitor Center, anchor from ship that sank in 1902

it was about a 4-1/2 mile ferry ride, making one stop at Shackleford Banks. People like to stop there and look at the 100+ wild horses on the island. Kathy and I visited the western end of this island back in June. Nice trip. Didn’t see any horses though.

Arrived at our destination and stopped at the Keepers House first.

We missed being able to climb up to the top by about a month.

Black diamonds face north and south. White, east and west.. So, not only does the light shine 24/7, you can also get your bearings by the diamonds.

Instead of taking the boardwalk to the ocean, we took a service road.

The ocean. Too many people before us so the pickings were slim for seashells.

So, Kathy decides instead of us walking back up the beach, we should cut across to the bay side. “Are you sure?” “Yes” Ok!

Not just a marsh but also a bunch of inlets of rushing water. I didn’t know we were doing this kind of hike or I would have worn my water shoes and not my Tevas!

Looking back from where we came from. It was actually a nice hike.

Random camera colorization of image. It does this sometimes.

The ferry coming to drop off people and pick us up.

Although I was only at the beach for about 4 days, it was so nice to get away! Ha! Get away from what??!! Kathy and I always go to the beach! A wonderful trip. Thanks Gail and John.

Fishing Off Tangier Sound

15 Tuesday Oct 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Eastern Shore, Family, fishing, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Boat, Charter fishing, Crisfield, Deal Island, fishing, Rockfish, Tangier

Whoa! Who the heck gets up at 4:30am to go fishing!? Apparently I do now! But before I tell you about this great day of fishing, let me give you a little back story…

The last time I ate fish was April 20, 1993. That was the day my daughter Jules was born. Best day of my life and I thought it was going to be my last. Hungry and tired after a long day, with both her mother and Jules resting, I went to the cafeteria and ordered fish. I never eat fish in hospital cafeterias, but I did that night. After a few bites I started choking on a bone, got up and ran to the nurses station and struggling to say, “Fish! Bone! Choking!” Well, she got the gist of it, reached over to a used dinner tray on a cart and handed me a piece of someone’s dinner roll and said, “Here, eat this!” And I did and the bone slid down my throat. I swore off eating fish that night and haven’t had any since, until a couple weeks ago. A friend of Kathy’s had some trigger fish and her and Kathy’s family persuaded me to try some. Did so and I really enjoyed it. So now I am headed to be the great fisherman of the Eastern Shore!! Ha!!

Back to the story at hand – Up early and headed to Deal Island, Wenona for a fishing excursion. Started in the dark.

The moon setting and the sun coming up over Fairmount.

I forget who tried to catch this huge skate – Gail? Well, he took everything when he was cut loose.

Gail did good, catching quite a few trout. but Kathy out did us all with her 19-1/2″ Rockfish.

I didn’t do too bad. The Captain kept coming over to give me some pointers (Damn City people!) He told me, “You’re doing pretty good – almost.” WTH! No, actually the Captain was very helpful. He kept re-baiting our lines and then removing the fish for us. Half the time he would unhook the fish and throw it back over the side. “Hey, I wanted him…” He was trying to make sure we had good sized fish for our limit.

After a few hours out there, somewhere between Crisfield and Smith Island, it was time to head back.

Our catch for the day: 1 rock fish, a few Trout and 3 Spots. We caught a bunch of Spots and most of those were used for bait. Also caught a couple Oyster Toad fish and Croakers, which do make a croaking noise.

Time for cleaning.

Kathy’s mom asked what I was doing? I was supervising!

Great day with great family!

Trap Pond State Park 9/11/2019

15 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Eastern Shore, kayaking, nature, Road Trips, State Parks

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cypress, egret, heron, kayaking, nature, Trap Pond, turtles

First off, I would like to thank the team @KayakingDelmarva for writing and documenting their trips/adventures to places I had no idea about. Because of them, Kathy and I have been able to follow their paths on our own adventures. Thank you!

I had previously written about Trap Pond a while ago when we were looking for a new place to hike, but because it was $8 to enter, we passed. Seems crazy to pay to go hiking. Kayaking and use of a boat launch is worth it though.

In the above photo is a yellow sign to the left:

The water was nasty looking and we did everything in our power not to touch it!

We followed the shore, passing the camping sites, into the first creek.

Turned around and headed back along the shore, occasionally heading out into the open water, then back into the cypress.

Kathy took some nice pics of the flowers and nature, adorning her kayak.

And of course me photo-bombing her pics!

We then headed into another creek. A sign says this is Terrapin Branch. On Google maps it is noted as Thompson Branch. Lots of signs pointing you in the right direction.

Only became aware of this guy because of all the noise he was making.

Various nests (or spy cameras?). Also odd markings on trees. Looks like scrapings from falling trees maybe?

Uh-oh! End of the road? A fallen tree in the way. There were a lot of trees down but for the most part, people had cut them out of the way.

My kayak will fit under, but I won’t.

So, I tried backing up and going full speed, to get my kayak to leap over it! No luck – just bounced off!

Time to turn around and go back.

Turtle very still – “Please don’t look at me!”

After about 4 hours out there, back to the launch. It will take quite a while to clean the kayaks off.

Our path. Not really sure of the ending point only because I had no GPS signal. Very nice day. Thanks God for another great one!

Leonard’s Pond Kayaking

17 Monday Jun 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Eastern Shore, kayaking, nature

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bridges, Eastern Shore, kayaking, nature, ponds, turtles

Kathy’s friend from many years ago is in town so we asked if she would like to go kayaking with us? Off to Leonard’s Mill Pond we went. Kathy and Lisa strategizing our adventure.

Lisa waiting for us.

As we leave the smaller portion of the pond, where the visitor center is.

Under the bridges of Rte. 13 to the open water of the pond.

Idle canoes and kayaks.

A fork in the road, so to speak. Looking at a map before heading out, the left (north branch) goes to another pond (Williams Mill). That will be our route. The south branch looked like it just fizzles out in the woods.

Waiting to attack.

Heron to the left and unsuspecting kayakers to the right.

At the last minute he flew off.

We’ve never seen this many turtles in one day before.

X-Men Turtle.

The small guy jumped on the big guys back and the big turtle started clapping.

This guy has stuff growing on his back.

The north branch splits up into 2 other branches. The right side was guarded by geese. Lisa took this way. Up a ways you can cross thru to the left side. We went back and forth through the trees.

Kathy used the inflatable kayak again today. I was surprised at how tough it is. There are quite a few semi-submerged branches and trees in the water.

Heading through the trees.

The trees and reflections just sort of merge together. Seems like we are just floating in air.

Up ahead, the end or a new beginning?

Three pipes. Can we fit?

No we can not. But we needed to get out to look at what is on the other side.

Park the kayaks and head up the hill to the road (Williams Mill Road).

Williams Mill Pond. With launch area! New adventures await!

Time to head back.

Some sights along the return trip.

A Ducks Unlimited hidden camera.

Back towards open water.

The wind had picked up and it was a lot of work to get back.

Shipwreck.

Under the highway were a lot of barn swallows. Making it through without incident.

At the launch site.

The map of our trip. It was just over 2-1/2 miles round trip. Great day with a new friend and another new adventure!

Bicycle

07 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in biking, Hiking, National Parks, nature

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Beach, bikes, biking, chincoteague, Eagles, nature, songs in head

Whenever I ride my bike, a variety of songs pop into my head – “I ride my bike, I roller skate don’t drive no car” (Brand New Key by Melanie). But we needed to drive my truck to get to ride our bikes!

Then pops in: “I’ve got a bike. You can ride it if you like
It’s got a basket, a bell that rings and
Things to make it look good
I’d give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.” (Bike by Pink Floyd) But we took the basket off of Kathy’s and she hasn’t got a bell yet.

So I guess we will just settle on “Bicycle, bicycle, bicycle, I want to ride my bicycle” (Bicycle Race by Queen). We headed to Chincoteague for our first outing together. I use to ride my bike around Montebello Lake when I was working. This is my first time out this year. Kathy’s co-workers gave her money to buy a bike when she retired. She picked out a cruiser.

The Wildlife Loop is a 3.2 mile adventure. We went around twice. Kathy looking for the eagles. Saw the nest. None of the eagle babies survived this year.

Next stop is the Swan Cove Trail, which is 1 mile round trip.

Nice path that takes you to the ocean.

Park the bikes…

…and walk over the dunes to this.

An old stump with seashell ornaments.

Back on the bikes to continue the loop. Saw lots of egrets, ducks and red wing blackbirds.

Another pit stop along the way. An observation platform. No bikes allowed.

Oh yea, we saw a mud turtle.

A type of dandelion?

Making wishes…

Our National Park selfie.

Great day of bikes, nature, beach and God!

Looking for a Place to Hike

27 Monday May 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Hiking, nature, Road Trips, State Parks

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Hiking, nature, State Parks

Nice day out Sunday so we headed out to go hiking. Our first stop was Trap Pond State Park in Laurel Delaware. They wanted $8 to get in?? They wouldn’t accept our Maryland State Pass nor our National Park Pass. And you would think it being Memorial weekend veterans could get in free! Nope! Not that we didn’t have the money – it was the principal. Maryland has lots of parks we can go to so we headed down Rte 13 to Leonards Mill Park. Their Website says they have a hiking trail – they don’t! It’s more of a visitor information center and park.

Kathy went in to get some info brochures.

I checked out the view.

We knew there is a boat launch in here somewhere, so we looked for that. Nice little bridge. some kids fishing down stream.

Sluice gates need adjusting.

Found the boat ramp. Get in here and head under the bridge to a larger pond. Looking forward to that.

The visitor center folks said we could hike at a park on Naylor Mill Road. So we headed there next. It is called the Henry Parker Sports Complex. Lots of mens slow pitch softball going on here. It has a trail, but it looks more like a mountain bike course.

The trail(s) [multiple switch-backs] were not marked for hiking with hash marks. We just headed towards the opposite area of the ball fields. Below the hill where Kathy is, is Leonard Pond Run. Couldn’t really get to it.

There were a lot of frogs on the trail.

More of the bike course.

Short hike but enjoying nature. Old growth trees.

The layers just peal away and fall to the ground.

Back to the car and Molly now has her own Yeti Tumbler. Spoiled dog!

Lesson for today – investigate where it is you are going before you go! Still a great day to be out. Thanks God.

It an’t the end of the world…

19 Sunday May 2019

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

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Beach Life, boats, bridges, Chesapeake Bay, Crabs, Hiking, nature, oysters, photography

The one thing I really love about the Eastern Shore is the abundance of new adventures that await Kathy and I. Today we headed to Deal Island. Lots to see here. Starting with a Wildlife Management Area.

We took a gravel road, passing marshes, seeing a gazillion dragon flies. They were feeding on all the mosquitoes. Looking out over the marsh.

We parked and headed across the marsh on foot. This may be duck hunters paradise.

So flat down here. There are water elevation levels throughout the island. Most read at 4″ above sea level.

A boat ramp in the middle of nowhere.

Molly lost track of where Kathy was so she headed into the water…

There she is!

A sandy path.

A place to rest and to meditate/contemplate.

Egg shells and a hole?

Molly needing a break.

And a little attention.

We leave the wildlife area and drive towards the end of Deal Island Road. A group of little communities along the way. Dames Quarters, Chance, Wenona. A couple historical markers.

Where Kathy’s family spent their summers.

Next was Deal Island Marina and beach. Molly has had enough of the water.

Best beach/trail sign ever.

A little windy but some kayakers were out.

Seafood processing – soft crab area?

Tons of oyster shells.

Heading down the road we came upon this church. Someone is trying to restore it. Google maps shows where restoration had once started but it seems to have stopped. The John Wesley Restoration Project.