Wedding Weekend Bike Rides, PLUS Horseshoes (?)

Matt and Elizabeth got married on Saturday late afternoon, at the Maritime Museum in St. Michaels.  Big crab feast on Friday night, and a brunch at our place on Sunday morning.

Spring, Two

Finally, Spring in Easton, and everything is in bloom -- daffodils and forsythia, apple and cherry blossoms, and wild flowers everywhere.  A mist of green on the trees, as they start to bud.  Perfect for a riding  Despite having a bunch of painting to do -- getting the house ready for Elizabeth and Matt's wedding -- I went for a nice ride each day last weekend.


On Saturday, I rode with Kathy, and we did the Oxford/Island Creek/Trappe route -- which I've ridden (and written about) before, but may never have mapped -- for around 35 miles.  We started at around 8 am, and it was a overcast and a bit cool -- even with arm covers, I was cold, without full fingered gloves.  But the sun came out, and the winds stayed down, for a great ride.

                                                 We've had a lot of rain on the Eastern Shore, and many of the fields are covered with standing water.  (I have a picture of one of this in my last blog entry).  It will be interesting to see how this affects the summer crops.  The drainage gullies along the side of the roads were full -- so full that there were ducks swimming in them.  Unfortunately, the ducks wouldn't cooperate for a photo.  But one of the "oreo" calves did.

Kathy's a great riding partner, strong and steady.  She grew up in Oxford and works in real estate/insurance.  Kathy knows a lot about what's going on on the Eastern Shore.  She told me that one of the big farms out on Island Creek Road had been foreclosed -- a 50 acre cattle farm.  I knew the place -- they had a nice corral, with a few horses, along the road.  Kathy said that the cattle had been sold off and that the bank was trying to sell the farm.  The family that owned the place ran a big landscaping company -- a father and sons operation.  They did a lot of work for local developers and grew (too) quickly during the boom -- bought up a lot of equipment a lot of equipment from Las Vegas landscaping that got caught on the front end of the bust.  One Friday, the owners showed up and took the truck keys from their employees -- they were out of business, 100 folks lost their jobs.  Very sad.  During the boom, the farm would have sold for more than $6M.  The bank initially listed it for around $4M; Kathy said you could get it for $1.7M.  Very sad. 

Here's the link to the route:  http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3683573

On Sunday, I rode solo.  I rode out to Bellevue, past Bella Luna, one of my favorite restaurants, to the ferry dock, and then around town.  Bellevue has a working dock and a largely African-American population.  There was a family with a Chesapeake retriever on the beach, throwing sticks in the water for the dog to fetch.

After riding through Bellevue, I took a bunch of side roads, out Ferry Crossing Neck and Deep Neck Roads.  These are nice, quiet roads for cycling, but not a lot of nice water views -- big estates, with private roads, kept me away from the water.  But the trees were in bloom, and the views across the open fields were beautiful.  Not a lot of wildlife -- the field on the way to Bellevue, which usually has a flock of wild turkey eating the scrub -- was empty. 

This was a nice ride, but I wouldn't recommend it for a first (or second) ride on the Eastern Shore --  not a lot of water views, and the "there and back" routes aren't the best.  But there's no such thing as a bad ride on a sunny day on the Eastern Shore.

I've mapped the Saturday ride before, and here's the Sunday route:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3623373

It's Been A Long Time Coming

It was a long, cold, snowy Winter -- probably did the least amount of outdoor bicycling since I first started to ride.  But March may be going out like a lamb, and both days this past weekend were perfect for early Spring rides.  I've been nursing a sore knee, so Saturday was a test day -- a short ride around the Woodland Farm/Waverly Island area.  The fields are very wet, with lots of standing water because of the snow melt and heavy rains.  We'll see how that affects putting in the Spring corn crop.  Cycled by Playtor's Cove, went home, and iced my knee.  

All was well, so I set up a Sunday ride with my local riding partner Cathy.  This was her first ride since getting hit by a car last Fall, so between that and my knee, we kept it to about 25 miles. We headed out the Oxford Road, through town to the ferry -- which they were prepping to reopen for another season. (The Oxford-Bellevue was established in 1683 and is reputed to be the oldest continually operating ferry service in the country.  The first operator was Richard Ryston, who was paid 2,500 pounds of tobacco a year (about $25) to operate the ferry.)

We did a loop through Oxford and then headed back to Easton.  The daffodils were in full bloom, and the buds were just starting on the trees.  I took my "Spring picture" of Peachblossom Creek -- I now have pictures of the Creek from all four seasons -- as well as a shot of Cathy.   Did both rides on the Basso.  The knee felt great.  Hoping for longer rides through the Spring.

Tour of Oxford

This is a great ride for new visitors to the Eastern Shore. It's a relatively short trip; I'll sometimes use my Basso for this one.
Basically, you follow the Oxford Road to Oxford, with a number of possible side trips along the way. You'll ride over Peachblossom and Trippe Creeks, both very beautiful, particularly in the morning or evening sun, and then ride several miles through farm country. I like to show folks the view across the harbor from the Oxford Cemetery -- a short detour to the right, before town.
The Oxford Road ends at the dock of the Oxford-Bellevue ferry, reputed to be the oldest continually running ferry in the country. If you've got a few bucks in your pocket, you can take the ferry across to Bellevue, a short boat ride to a working dock across the way. From there you can head to St. Michaels. But that's another ride. On this one, you wander through the town of Oxford, which has maintained the feel of an old Eastern Shore town. When St. Michaels decided to focus on tourists, Oxford made a different choice, avoiding most development. There's the Robert Morris Inn, right on the water, and the Oxford Inn, near the harbor. But that's about it by way of restaurants/bars. There's a general store and a few shops, but mostly it's nice old houses (and a pretty old population), with a great town park right on the water.
The map below takes you to Bachelor's Point, which has nice views of the Choptank and Tred Avon Rivers (and some very big houses), and out World Farm Road, which also has some beautiful views. Then it's back towards Easton and the Oreo cows.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3157981