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.

Next dinner date!

Left there and headed north to George Island Landing Road.

No windows or doors, but I have 3 boats.

Everywhere are signs, blocking the scenery…

Great day trip!

Algonquin on the Pocomoke

09 Friday Aug 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in biking, Eastern Shore, State Parks

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Algonquin, biking, Hiking, nature, Pocomoke

Not too far from the house so we thought it would be a good day for a bike ride. Wrong! This trail is not made for leisure cyclists like us.

We should have heeded the ‘Mountain Bike’ icon and said – Nope!

It would have been a nice ride if not for the sand traps and branches in the path. Not well kept. And rocky.

A pond of some sorts. Not sure why it is red. Kathy suggested because of the reeds around the pond had red flowers on them that fell into the water…

I think she touched the water with her magic shoes…

First time seeing something like this – visitor counter.

Only went a mile and turned back. Did not like this trail at all.

Headed over to Milburn Landing to check the boat launch. Water moving quite fast. Headed home.

Still a very nice day to be out and about.

Chincoteague Bike/Hike

14 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by Ronald Parks in Assateague, biking, Eastern Shore, Hiking

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biking, chincoteague, Crabs, Hiking, ocean, ponies, wallops

Kathy and I cannot get enough of Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. We did another bike ride through, with a small hike thrown in. As can be seen below, this was our path. According to the brochure, shown at the end of this blog, we only did about 8.3 miles, but with Google Maps we went over 9.7 miles. Either way, it was nice.

When we left the house on this adventure, our intent was to only do the Wildlife Loop and part of the Service Road, but we ended up leaving the Wildlife Loop on Black Duck Trail and headed towards the Woodland Trail. On that trail is a great trail – The Bivalve Trail. Afterwards we went back to the Wildlife Loop and the Swan Cove Trail and eventually the ocean.

After conferring with a couple of people, Merrill and Phil,
This is a reflector for Wallops Island (NASA)

Views along this path…

Back to the bikes and onto the Woodland Trail

Another wonderful adventure! Thanks God

Bicycle

07 Friday Jun 2019

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

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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.