edtrek

I'm considering an October tour around the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore, Elkton, Milford, Pocomoke, Virginia Beach, Dahlgren. 75 mile days for 8 days. Hotels.

Has anybody done a similar trip? Any advice?
Anybody interested in riding?

Paul01

We did New York to D.C. via the Chesapeake 20 years ago. Lots of great, low traffic county roads but also lots of smelly chicken farms. If you need to cross the bay on the Rt. 50 bridge, call a few hours ahead and they will arrange for you and your bike to be taken across in a pick up truck since you can't cycle on the bridge.

Philly Tandem

I'd recommend staying to the western side of the Delaware-Maryland peninsula, rather than heading over to Milford. Easton, St. Michaels, Oxford, and Cambridge Maryland are quite pretty, and if you have time to ride through Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge that's really nice, too. In general I think you'll find the western side to have nicer riding and less traffic.

In the northern part of Maryland, Chesapeake City and Chestertown are nice waypoints when riding.

The chicken houses can make for aromatic riding, especially in warmer weather. You'll find them throughout the peninsula.

Once you get down into Virginia your options are more limited for road choices, as Rt. 13 is pretty much the only through-road. Some careful routing will allow you to detour off of it here and there for stretches, but otherwise you'll be riding along a four-lane, heavily trafficked road (which I assume you are aware of).

chipg5

I've ridden down the eastern shore from upstate NY to the tip of the peninsula in Virginia three times in the past three years, there are definitely side roads the entire way, including in Virginia, absolutely no reason at all to ride on 13 or any other high-traffic road.

On crossing the Susquehanna, I'd definitely avoid Rt 1 (even though the MD bike route map has it listed as a bike route), do the bike crossing service on Rt 40: https://www.billersbikes.com/bridgeservices.html

Delaware has an excellent set of bike maps, for free, from Delaware DOT, and is one of the best states for biking that I've been in, in terms of bike friendly policies, wide shoulders, bike lanes, etc.

Here's the route of my last two days, from Smyrna DE down to the tip of the Virginia E. Shore:

Smyrna to Salisbury: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/299727

Salisbury to Kiptopeke (entrance to Ches.Bay Bridge-Tunnel): https://ridewithgps.com/trips/299367

That last day I used suggestions from the Seagull Century people to get out of Salisbury down to Pocomoke City, then some great suggestions and maps from the Bike Club of the Eastern Shore to take back roads the entire way through Virginia.

These roads are great, absolutely beautiful, avoid highways the entire way. I really recommend it. I'd get a map to have with you though since there is the occasional unlabeled road.

If you have any questions or want more info, let me know, as I said, I've done these routes three times so know it pretty well.

ps as you probably know you can't bike across the bridge tunnel but they have a service that will bring you across for $12, same toll as for a car, in a van.


Seaside Rd in Virginia, you take this the last 40 miles in Virginia, very quiet, beautiful road

tom cotter

Add a ferry ride to the Bay crossing options. You can cross from or to Crisfield Md from Reedsville Va via Tangiers island. Kinda cool and the approach roads are mostly low traffic.