Segment 2: Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

The second segment of the American Discovery Trail takes us across part of Maryland, from the Delaware border west to Chesapeake Bay. We cannot walk across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, so we have to get a ride in order to start the next segment on the other side of the bay.

The Internet says Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, and it is very large: Starting in Virginia at Virginia Beach, it is between three and twenty miles wide, and it extends 200 miles north and nearly cuts Maryland in half.

This 42-mile segment goes through Tuckahoe State Park - 1,800 acres with camping - and the towns of Denton, Ridgley, Queenstown, Grasonville, and Stevensville, like the first segment deliberately going through communities rather than avoiding them.

Stevensville, on the west side of Kent Island, is the end of the road - literally, for walking purposes - so you need a car or a boat to get across the bay. If you wanted to walk around, you could go north and walk about an extra 60 miles, but let's not do that. The trail goes across the bridge.

The next segment is 43 miles long, across Maryland in the direction of Washington, DC. I am getting in 5 miles per day on average. Walking conditions are about perfect now, with clear skies and temperatures in the sixties mornings and evenings when I walk, so the next post should come in another nine days.