Morning in the Dismal Swamp Canal: cool, dim; birds singing in the stillness; the road noise of Highway 17 not yet pervasive. It’s a dichotomy – this at-times jungle-like oasis paralleled at close quarters by a bustling highway.
We ate breakfast at anchor and then proceeded on to the Welcome Center at the VA/NC border.
There’s a long free dock for passing boats which offers access to a very nice North Carolina Visitor’s Center and a state park on the other side of the canal, accessible by bridge. I packed lunches and we set out to do some hiking.
We started off with the Supplejack Trail…
…a footpath that features the remains of a Prohibition-era still as well as a full-size replica one.
Where the trail rejoined Canal Road, we continued North and found a picnic table at which to eat lunch. As we ate, we reviewed the park map and determined that, with more than 20 miles of ridable trails, this warranted going back to Grace and digging out the tandem.
It took us an hour and 15 minutes to assemble, including a nice conversation with a local lady out enjoying the day (the 80+° day, holy smokes!).
By 2pm, we were back across the canal and riding north on Canal Road.
We took it all the way to the park boundary via the S. Martha Washington trail…
…and then rode west on Corapeake. This road had been surfaced – partially – in #1 stone (2″-4″), which made for tough going. We were gratefully distracted from the bone jarring by watching turtles slide off logs in the adjacent ditch, and managed to make it all the way to the 2011 fire scar – a vast expanse of bog and charred stumps (and more turtles).
From there, we rode south on Forest Line Road to Kim Saunders Road and took that back east. We passed at least two mounds of bear poop, a wild turkey, 4 deer, and a rabbit.
I know we actually passed alot more, but the sight of a a big pink two-person bicycle causes most creatures to flee before identification. Back on Canal Road, twice Eastern Kingsnakes crossed our path, the second one necessitating a skidding stop.
We arrived back at Grace around 4:30pm, having ridden 17.2 miles. After a brief pause for a little refreshment, we set to stowing the bicycle. By 6pm, the toy was back in the box, proof that it’s entirely practical to break out the bicycle, even for an afternoon. Dinner was a repeat of last night – Sicilian eggplant pasta. A big bowl of carbs hit the spot.
Sailing Gracefully 
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