Day 1 (15 May). Tidewater.

From: Alexandria, VA

To: Elizabeth City, NC

Miles today: 289

May 15 has finally arrived, and I departed home at about 7:30 am.  May is one of those transitional months in Virginia, and the morning was cool (about 60 degrees) with a high overcast.  I wore the liner in my motorcycle jacket. 

Rather than fight the angry traffic on I-95, I crossed the Wilson Bridge over the Potomac and headed down the Maryland side, toward Indian Head, on back roads. This is a route I have taken many times before in my riding, and it was pleasantly empty.  I crossed back into Virginia at the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge near Dahlgren, VA.  This is a two-lane, two-way bridge that crosses the Potomac where it is about 2 miles wide, and is the last bridge (going downstream) over that river.  It has a high hump in the middle to let large ships pass underneath, and can be an adventure in high winds, but today was calm.

I picked up VA 3 and drove all the way down the Northern Neck, the name given to the northernmost of the three great Virginia peninsulas: the Northern Neck, the Middle Peninsula, and the Virginia Peninsula.  These are peninsulas due to the four great rivers of Tidewater Virginia: from north to south, the Potomac, the Rappahannock, the York, and the James. I crossed all of them today. 

The tidewater region of Virginia is surprisingly hilly, to my mind; considering that it is designated geologically as a “coastal plain.”  Winding roads, some pleasant ups and downs; makes for nice riding.  This was the original “Virginia” in colonial times.  Interestingly, the population of the Northern Neck is remarkably similar to what it was in 1776 (about 46,000 then, about 76,000 now), and might actually be lower if it were not for the creation of the Dahlgren Naval Air Station in the 1930s, which remains a major employer today.  [Reference: “Historic Sites in Virginia’s Northern Neck & Essex County: A Guide,” edited by Thomas A. Wolf (2011).  I picked up this surprisingly interesting book at a small museum on an earlier trek.] Many of the farms have returned to forest, but those that remain look well-tended.  They grow mostly wheat.  The few towns in the Northern Neck (Montross, Kilmarnock) seemed quite vibrant. I have no idea what the economy is; too far from DC and Hampton Roads to be bedroom communities, and it seems unlikely that wheat farming is as lucrative as the semi-gentrified towns would apparently require.  Something to pursue on another trip.

Southwest of the Hampton Roads area, where the US Navy bases its Atlantic fleet (Google maps satellite view shows an Air Craft Carrier tied up at one of the docks), is the remnant of one of the great wetland areas of the east coast, the Great Dismal Swamp.  It is now a preserve, and is pretty big.  At the center is Lake Drummond, which I rode 6 miles down a gravel road to see.  It is three miles across, and an average of about 3 feet deep.  Wikipedia says it is one of only two natural lakes in the entire state of Virginia.  Minnesota supposedly has 10,000+.  I guess that says something about the power of glaciers to form lakes. 

Lake Drummond, Virginia: 3 miles across, 3 feet deep

A large portion of the swamp burned in 2012, after a lightning strike.  I ran into a small tour group while at Drummond lake, and several of the people (all from the Hampton Road area) described waking up to the smell, which was very “earthy.”  How does a swamp burn?  The answer is that the decaying material turns into peat, which is half-way to coal.  It apparently burned for week, and they did not have enough water (!) to put it out. 

The Great Dismal Swamp -- Google Maps Satellite View

After my visit to the Great Dismal Swamp, I drove south on back roads and crossed over into North Carolina.  Here, finally, were the vast, flat expanses of farmland I was expecting.  Wheat again seemed to be a dominant crop.  Very pleasant riding. 

I had hoped to get a bit closer to the Outer Banks today, since I will be driving them tomorrow.  But all of the inexpensive hotels anywhere near the beaches were booked, so I pulled into Elizabeth City and that is where I am now.  There is probably a lesson here.