MARYLAND TOUR OF THE EASTERN SHORE
Discover this bicycling mecca of flat, quiet, back roads on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Full of history and charm, this area makes for some wonderful early spring riding. This tour is perfect for the beginner rider or someone who hasn’t traveled with us before.
Day 1: Meet at the Tidewater Inn in Easton, MD at 2:00pm for a bike fitting, orientation and warm-up ride. Then we’ll have dinner together at the Inn.
Newly renovated, the Tidewater Inn is situated in the center of charming Easton, one of the Top Ten Best Small Towns in America. Full of tree-lined, narrow streets, it is fascinating to walk among the cute shops, art galleries and restaurants. Easton also features the premiere Academy Art Museum and a Historical Society’s museum surrounded by award-winning Federal period gardens.
The leisurely bike ride takes us to Unionville, a community settled by ex-slaves after the Civil War. It’s a beautiful ride, with a canopy of trees above most of the roads to keep us cool. We’ll cross a small drawbridge and an even smaller wooden bridge. 18 miles.
Day 2: Today, we’ll explore the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge by bicycle. We’ll begin at the Visitors Center, bike through the refuge and then through Upper and Middle Hooper Islands. Look for the Hooper Island Lighthouse three miles off shore.
The Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge’s 23,000 acres were established as a park for migratory birds in 1933. Its rich tidal marshes, freshwater ponds, and mixed evergreen forests serve as home to the 35,000 geese and 15,000 ducks that fly by at the peak of fall migration every November.
The Refuge is also a haven for three threatened or endangered species, including the bald eagle, the Delmarva Fox squirrel and the peregrine falcon. And if we’re lucky, we may see some white-tailed fawns or some eaglets starting to fledge. Bring your binoculars!
We’ll have a picnic lunch on the road during the ride and then we’ll have dinner together tonight in Easton. We’ll be sure to celebrate anyone who has accomplished a “personal best” today by cycling more miles than ever before. 40 or 59 miles.
Day 3: Today we head south and west to explore farmland, the coastline and the charming town of Oxford where James Michener wrote most of his book Chesapeake. From there, we’ll take a short ferry ride across the bay to St. Michaels for lunch on your own. Consider having crab cakes, which are famous in this area. You can take the time to visit the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum or shop along Main Street before cycling back to Easton. 33 or 45 miles.
Day 4: After a hearty breakfast, we’ll explore more of the quiet back roads around Easton and head toward the Old Wye Mill. This flour-producing grist mill is the oldest operating mill in Maryland, dating from 1682. It helped prepare the flour that shipped up the Chesapeake Bay to feed the army during the American Revolution.
We’ll return to Easton for a picnic lunch and to say our good-byes. The airport shuttle will leave at 1:30pm for a 3:00pm arrival at the Baltimore airport. 20 or 32 miles.
