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.
Playing in storm drainKathy’s sister Gail’s bike. Kathy likes this one better.Snails in high tideDon’t tread on me.Upside down in the grass. Grass cuts your legs up!Reading Naturalist on the Nanticoke. Full chapter on these guysKathy’s photo of the Roy Orbison bug.This was all dry last week.
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.
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.
Ghost crab
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.This beach was all shells…Years of piles upon pilesEverywhere are signs, blocking the scenery…Might do, but doubt itNice launch and not crowded.Old oyster houseWaiting for the ships to come inNew structure among the ruins.Lots of shellsI’m looking through you..
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.
Pumping-restoring the marshBlack Duck TrailPony PensWoodland TrailRoad less traveled on leftWishes in waitingOff-road bikingEnd of road – off bikes and hikeLooking leftLooking rightWhat is that?Getting closeAfter conferring with a couple of people, Merrill and Phil, This is a reflector for Wallops Island (NASA)NASA in distance
Views along this path…
The FiddlerWho am I?Long ago pufferContemplationAbandoned
Back to the bikes and onto the Woodland Trail
Pony PensPoniesSwan Cove Trail to oceanMarshes drying upMap Paths
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.
Water and Me 