DelMarVa, just what is it? It’s a shorter way to say Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. More specifically the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay and the peninsula to the Atlantic Ocean. I once had a chat with Bob Henig from Bob’s BMW about great places to ride in Maryland, and we both agreed on the eastern shore of Maryland as one of the best places to ride that no one knows about or seems to take advantage of.
There are only four ways into DelMarVa. From the north, there are a few bridges over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (C&D Canal). From the west, the Bay Bridge from the Annapolis, MD area. From the south, the very long Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel from Norfolk, VA area. The other is a ferry from Cape May, NJ that arrives at Lewes, DE.
This collection of routes has a lot of options and brings you in from all those locations. Although choices do have to be made. You could do all of this and if you have the time to do it, it’ll be a treat. But if you don’t, look the routes over and make some choices. The biggest decision will be whether to follow the Delaware shore or the Maryland shore. Both routes lead down to the Virginia route that takes you into Norfolk. And if you are coming in from the south, just reverse the routes.
Starting in the North
If you’re coming in from the north, a good place to start is North East, MD. North East is easily reachable from the north allowing you to sidestep the congestion of Philadelphia and the West Philly Suburbs. The town has a number of branded hotels as well as B&B-style places. In addition, a great little main street full of restaurants as well as other places to eat nearby. If you get into North East with plenty of daylight still left and want to do more riding, running out to the Turkey Point lighthouse is a very nice and short ride. The ¼ mile walk to the lighthouse is an easy walk and gives you a great view of the upper bay of the Chesapeake, especially at sunset.
Eastern Shore of Maryland
If you continue following the Maryland route along the Chesapeake Bay, the Maryland route does its best to get you to where the Virginia route starts while avoiding the major federal highways in the region. This route takes you through some very historic areas, like Chesapeake City, Chestertown, and Cambridge as well as the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Blackwater is where Harriet Tubman began the Underground Railroad to help those that were slaves escape to freedom in the north during the mid-1800s.
You will also have the opportunity for you and your bike to ride two ferries across small bodies of water at Bellevue/Oxford and Whitehaven. The advantage of the Maryland route is that there are a number of spur routes that run out to the end of an island chain to either a wildlife refuge, park, or a nice little town with some tourist options.
Rock Hall & Eastern Neck Island
The first spur from the north takes you to the oyster fishing town of Rock Hall and then down to Eastern Neck island and the wildlife refuge. Rock Hall has a great harbor with a couple of restaurants and a statue of an oysterman in tribute to its heritage. There is also an ice cream and coffee shop downtown if you need a break. The ride down to the Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge and back to Rock Hall is scenic with excellent views of the Chesapeake.
Tilghman Island
The next spur south takes you to Tilghman Island through St. Michaels. St. Michaels is another old and historic Chesapeake town. It is also home to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Lots of restaurants and B&B options in St. Michaels. The road out to Tilghman Island ends at a Naval Research Laboratory and the Sharps Island Navigation Light along with the entrance to the Black Walnut Point Inn.
Hooper's Island
When you reach the Taylors Island area after Cambridge, our next spur takes you out to Hoopers Island. It is a nice long ride along the water and over a number of causeways and bridges. The route ends at Hoopersville where there is a small marina and a couple of small B&B places to stay.
Crisfield, Smith Island, and Tangier Island
The last spur off the Maryland route takes you to Crisfield. In Crisfield, you’ll find a number of accommodations for an overnight stay including camping. Crisfield is also home to the Smith Island Bakery which is renowned for its famous Smith Island cakes.
Crisfield is also the only place where you can take a passenger ferry out to Smith Island, MD, or Tangier Island, VA for this time of the year. Both of these locations are out in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Anything they don’t catch from the bay or grow on the island must be flown (Tangier) or ferried onto the islands.
Delaware
If you’re blitzing into the area from the north and taking interstate I-95 instead of sidestepping to the west of the Philadelphia and Wilmington metro areas, starting in Delaware at the New Castle Pier is a good place to begin. The Delaware route takes you from New Castle on state highway DE 9 along the farms and old plantations of the Delaware Bay shore. You come out at the south end of Dover Air Force Base where you will find the Air Mobility Command Museum, home to many of the largest airplanes you can get up close to.
Farther down the route you can either continue on state highway DE 1 and follow the alternative Beach Run route into Maryland, or continue into the southern Delaware farming region. The farming region is a much easier route of travel. It will take you through the town of Milton which is home to a regional favorite craft brewery by the name of Dogfish Head. Milton also has a few great restaurants and an ice cream shop if a break is needed.
The Beach Run
The Beach Run route takes you along the historic beaches and towns in Delaware and Maryland of Rehoboth, Bethany, Dewey, and Fenwick Island. Let’s not forget Ocean City, Maryland. If you happen to take the Cape May Ferry from New Jersey into DelMarVa, this would be a great route to start with. With the rally timing this year, the Beach Run route should be advantageous as the schools in the region do not get out until after Father’s Day weekend. This means the only other pickup in traffic is on the weekends.
For those GS riders itching for some sand opportunities, this is your chance! At Cape Henlopen State Park, the state allows vehicles onto a couple miles of the beach. Riding the beach along the tidewater is the easy part. Getting out to the beach and the tidewater on trails through the sand dunes is the real challenge. Having a riding partner or two along is very handy in these situations.
The Delaware beaches are also home to a number of World War II naval artillery batteries and observation platforms that are still accessible and visible today. There are also a number of state parks in Delaware along this section of the seashore that provides camping opportunities.
Assateague Island
The next spur opportunity is Assateague Island, home of wild ponies and miles of pristine ocean shore. At the northern end of the island, the state of Maryland and the National Park Service both have beachside camping opportunities. If you’re a GS rider and relish in a long beach ride opportunity, this is your chance, for what appears to be a very hefty price of admission, to follow the shore for 20 or so miles down to Chincoteague Island.
Maryland Atlantic Shore
The next route after the Delaware route is the Atlantic Shore of Maryland. Like the lower Delaware route, this is an easier route of travel avoiding heavy traffic areas.
Both the Eastern Shore and Atlantic Shore of Maryland routes take you down into Virginia and the next spur out to Chincoteague Island.
Chincoteague Island
Chincoteague is home to NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility where they also launch rockets into space. So catching a view of a rocket launch is a possibility. In addition, Chincoteague provides access to Assateague Island and more opportunities to see the wild ponies and opportunities to get on the beach.
The junction of the two Maryland routes and the Chincoteague spur gets us to the Virginia route, our last route heading south.
Virginia
This route bounces you between the Atlantic and Chesapeake sides of the area. If you like quiet and quaint places, Wachapregue might be the place you want to stay overnight with a view of the bay side of the Atlantic barrier islands.
On the Chesapeake side, the Virginia route takes you to the town of Cape Charles. Cape Charles is full of B&Bs and a few restaurants. The harbor is also worth a stop. Here you can see a concrete barge that once ferried railroad cars from the eastern shore of the Chesapeake over to Norfolk. Further down the route in Kiptopeke, another worthwhile view is waiting. At the fishing pier, an amazing scene and the use of man-made breakwaters are waiting for you. Kiptopeke offers an excellent camping opportunity if that is your thing.
And the last thing to see before crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel is another WWII naval artillery fortress. The Winslow battery is home to a barrel from a turret used on the battleship USS Missouri. Along with that barrel, they also have a replica of a shell that was used. That replica helps give some perspective on the size of the projectiles used in those guns.
Now, we haven’t talked much about the food. So closing out… let’s talk about the food. Remember this, seafood is king and crab rules. You cannot go wrong in DelMarVa with the seafood. Find the right towns, the oysters are local and awesome. If you see muscles on the menu, ask where they’re from. More than likely either the Chesapeake or bay side of the Atlantic, but definitely regional. But crab, you can almost be certain that they are local.
However, there are two specialties to look for on the menu. Crab cakes are pretty common in DelMarVa. But if you're having breakfast and you can tolerate poached eggs and hollandaise sauce, many places do an eggs benedict dish with crab cakes. The crab cakes take that dish to a whole new level if you like complex breakfast dishes.
The other item, crab also, but specifically a soft shell crab. Ever done the spider roll at a sushi place? That’s a soft shell crab. This region can one-up the sushi-styled spider roll. They give you the whole soft shell crab deep fried and placed between two pieces of bread with lettuce and tomato. Like my Uncle Roger used to say, it’s a mind over matter thing. If you can get over the visualization, you’ll find yourself craving another in a few years.
I hope you enjoy this route. Find me at the rally and let me know your thoughts if you ride any part of it.
See the Full Collection of Routes at Ride with GPS
Using Ride with GPS
Ride with GPS is a great way for the MOA to share and distribute maps, GPS routes, and turn-by-turn instructions. As with any great service, some best practices in the form of tips and tricks are in order.
- Each route in Ride with GPS is equivalent to a track in the world of Garmin GPS’s and BaseCamp. So for all the routes, make sure you get the entire collection of routes in Ride with GPS.
- Ride with GPS allows you to download many different GPS files types including GPX for the BMW Navigator series and other Garmin products
- When downloading GPX files, only download the ‘GPX Track’ version
- The ‘GPX Route’ version will leave you at the mercy of the settings on your Garmin GPS, and will take you off the planned route and maybe to unexpected places and road conditions
- Once you have the ‘GPX Track’ version loaded on your device and want turn-by-turn navigation, convert the ‘track’ on your Garmin GPS to a ‘trip’
- If you don’t have a dedicated GPS device and use your phone for navigation, Ride with GPS also has a number of file formats to work with various navigation apps for phones
- Ride with GPS also has its own phone app that will also help guide you