Virginia
Bicycling the Eastern Shore of Virginia
Program No. 18032RJ
The Eastern Shore of Virginia boasts pristine landscapes, unique wildlife and historic monuments. Come discover this and more as you cycle paved trails and national parks with experts.
Enroll with Confidence
We want your Road Scholar learning adventure to be something to look forward to—not worry about. Learn more
Protecting the Environment
We offset a portion of the emissions created by your travel. Learn more
4 days
3 nights
8 meals
3B 2L 3D
1
Check-in, Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner
Wallops Island
3
Trans-Peninsula Ride, Onancock, Museums
Wallops Island
4
Wallops Island, Program Concludes
Wallops Island
At a Glance
Explore Virginia’s gorgeous Eastern Shore by bike with a small group of like-minded adventurers for a scenic learning journey with Chincoteague Bay Field Station. Ride the biking trails of Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and Assateague National Seashore, travel around the Eastern Shore Peninsula to protected lands, historic sites, and quaint small towns learning about the cultural and natural history along the way.
Activity Level
Outdoor: Spirited
Novice to intermediate cyclists! Cycling 11-27 miles daily (up to 6 hours/day) on flat paved or hard gravel terrain with frequent stops. Primarily biking on roads with some bike paths/lanes. Average speed 10-12 MPH. Walking one mile on uneven terrain, standing for up to an hour and climbing stairs. Participants encouraged to bring own bike. Limited rentals available.
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.
Best of all, you’ll…
- Ride Chincoteague’s well-kept paths and learn about the area’s Saltwater Cowboys and wild ponies.
- Visit Ker Place, a 200-year-old home built in the Federal style.
- Visit the Wallops Island Navy and NASA facility to learn about dune ecology at a deserted and pristine beach restricted to the public.
General Notes
PLEASE NOTE: We have limited bicycles available to rent. If you are choosing to rent a bicycle, please get in contact with us as soon as possible with the size needed. Availability is not guaranteed. The Retreat Difference: This unique, often basic and no-frills experience at a Road Scholar Retreat includes opportunities for early morning exercise, interaction with the local community for insight into local life, an authentic farm-to-table or locally sourced meal, a live performance or event, and a value-priced single room. Due to the nature of this program, listening devices are not available. ATTENTION FOREIGN NATIONALS: Part of this program takes place on Wallops Island, which is a restricted access NASA base. In order to participate in the Wallops Island activities, all foreign nationals must complete additional paperwork at least 6 weeks in advance to be allowed access onto the base. Access is then subject to approval by NASA Wallops Island base. If you are a foreign national enrolled in this program, please contact the program provider directly at julie@cbfieldstation.org to request the required forms.
Suggested Reading List
(11 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Bicycling the Eastern Shore of Virginia
Program Number: 18032
Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay
William Warner exhibits his skill as a naturalist and as a writer in this Pulitzer Prize-winning study of the pugnacious Atlantic blue crab and of its Chesapeake Bay territory. This wonderful work contains all you ever wanted to know about the life cycle of one particular kind of crab that lives in Chesapeake Bay (the kind you probably smashed with mallets if you ever went to that area). Surprisingly, for most of its life, the Atlantic blue crab has nothing to do with beer. Taking it for a focus, Warner draws connections with the sea, the rivers, the crab-friendly environment that produced such a wealth of the creatures, and then the people who live from that wealth, the islanders who lived isolated for centuries, but are now firmly within the web of modern life. Warner tells of the marketing of crabs, the catching of other Chesapeake products like oysters, and even of festivals like a Miss Crustacean contest ! You can learn about esoterica like crab pots, the Waterman's Union, the religious heritage of crabbers, and lots more.
Voices of the Chincoteague: Memories of Greenbackville and Franklin City (VA)
Beginning around the turn of the 20th century, people flocked to boom towns like Greenbackville and Franklin City on Virginia's remote Chincoteague Bay to cash in on the lucrative oyster trade. Most eventually settled for simple rural lives, living a cash and barter economy, commuting on foot or by boat, always closely tied to the tide and water. From mystery in the marsh to jealous lovers, these accounts of life on the Bay are filled with work boats, crab pots, and saltwater.
About the Author
As come eres newcomers to the Eastern Shore, authors Martha A. Burns and Linda S. Hartsock bring a fresh perspective to life on the Bay. They present here the memories of a vanishing way of life in rural America, largely in the words of those who lived it and worked it. Much of the language, insights, and emotion of the last century are here for all to read, coupled with the authors' observations and interpretations of their neighbors and the bay they call home.
Eastern Shore Railroad (VA)
In the 1880s, New York railroad magnate Alexander Cassatt looked at a map of America's East Coast and decided that he could overcome a challenge of geography if he thought of a new railroad in a non-traditional way. North and South were now trading with each other postwar, and the two most prominent coastal cities of those regions, New York and Norfolk, were less than 500 miles apart except for one very large problem: at the end of a straight route down the Eastern Shore of Virginia lay the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, with more than 20 miles of open water to the rail yards of Norfolk. Thus Cassatt created the New York, Philadelphia, & Norfolk Railroad, which ran overland from Philadelphia to Cape Charles, Virginia; at Cape Charles, the railroad became waterborne on barges and passenger ferries that traveled the rough waters at the mouth of the bay. Now known as the Eastern Shore Railroad, since 1884, the operation has followed a path through history that has been no less dramatic than the rise and fall and curves in the rightof-way of American railroading during that time.
A Field Guide to the Atlantic Seashore: From the Bay of Fundy to Cape Hatteras
More than 1,000 illustrations, arranged according to visual similarities, show plant and animal species of the Atlantic Coast from the Bay of Fundy to Cape Hatteras. This guide includes information on how to locate each species by geographic range, tidal range, tidal level, season, topography, and climate.
Wallops Island (Images of America: Virginia) (Paperback)
Located in Accomack County on Virginiaís Eastern Shore, Wallops Island was once a primitive swath of land, uncivilized but by the wild ponies and mosquitoes that made its scrub-covered shores their home. But as the centuries passed, the wildness of the island was radically altered by the influx of colonists, then vacationers, and, eventually, some of the brightest scientific minds in the country. ÝÝThe history of Wallops Island has been one of transition. In the colonial period, John Wallop, an industrious man and self-made millionaire, was granted much of the islandís acreage by the English Crown for providing assistance to new colonists trying to reach Virginia. In 1889, Wallops Island was bought and converted into a vacation destination for a handful of wealthy families from Pennsylvania, who, in turn, sold the island to the federal government in the 1940s. Once in the hands of NASA the island was transformed into a center for the high-tech development of rockets, missiles, and the means for space travel. From weather balloons and Tiamat missiles to aerodynamics and hurricane research, the Wallops Island Flight Facility and its predecessors have been instrumental in the evolution and success of the American space program.
Off 13: The Eastern Shore of Virginia Guidebook
Kirk Mariner's book "Off 13 - The Eastern Shore of Virginia Guidebook" offers a highly informative and entertaining guide to an overlooked but tranquil peninsula bounded by the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, not far from the Nation's Capital. Many people know of Chincoteague but may not be aware that the rest of the Virginia eastern shore is well worth exploring. "Off 13" is full of interesting anecdotes and historical information about the area and its many little towns as well as useful and practical information for travellers.
Cycling Past 50 (Ageless Athlete Series)
Conventional wisdom says that middle-aged cyclists should slow down and expect to achieve less as they grow older. But in Cycling Past 50, author Joe Friel shows cyclists that with proper training and the right attitude, the years after 50 can be their best ever.
Written for cyclists of all types-road riders, mountain bikers, track racers-this book provides an in-depth look at the full range of considerations for cycling successfully into and through middle age.
Joe Friel, a writer and contributing editor to several top cycling publications and a dedicated rider himself, will inspire cyclists toward better performance and more biking enjoyment as he presents:
basic principles of training;
advanced workouts to improve endurance, climbing ability, and sprinting;
training advice for 100-mile events and multi-day tours;
planning tips and a workout program for getting into racing form;
injury prevention tips and exercises; and
body fueling advice.
In addition to explaining the physical adjustments seasoned cyclists can make to keep their biking effective and satisfying, Friel discusses the mental aspects of cycling successfully into middle age. He explains the importance of developing a positive attitude, maintaining a high level of motivation, and taking pride in their accomplishments. He also reminds cyclists that, above all, biking should be a fun activity that should be shared with fellow riders, family, and friends.
Every Woman's Guide to Cycling: Everything You Need to Know, From Buying Your First Bike toWinning Your First Race (Paperback)
More women than ever before are jumping on their saddles to enjoy one of the fastest growing sports in the country-and to improve cardiovascular fitness, control their weight, and liven up their social lives. At the same time, cycling remains very much a "man's sport," an intimidating world that can be difficult for women to navigate.
Now celebrity spokeswoman Selene Yeager covers all the basics-for all ages and fitness levels. Women will learn...
- How to find the perfect bike and other essential equipment
- How to shift, spin, climb mountains, and get back down
- Training techniques that take it up a notch
- What to eat off-and on-a bike
- Competition craziness-race information and strategies
- Why guys who work in bike shops act the way they do
- And more!
Chincoteague Revisited: A Sojourn to the Chincoteague and Assateague Islands (Hardcover)
Through Dorothy Camagna’s artful photography and Jennifer Cording’s essays, Chincoteague Revisited captures the essence of the community, ecology and the natural landscape of this unique place off Virginia’s coast.
The first essay, "Community", welcomes readers to island life and to the islanders themselves—an uncommon culture of people who share a common bond. Local watermen, decoy carvers and shop owners ply their trade; visitors from everywhere transform the community in the spring; simple, whitewashed houses line Main Street, and the Channel Bass Inn bed and breakfast invites afternoon callers to tea. Townspeople and visitors enjoy the traditional Christmas parade and the tastes of the annual oyster festival. Chincoteague Island comes to life in poetry and pictures.
The next essay, "Refuge", centers on the mystery and beauty of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge—its seashore, marshlands, maritime forests and wildlife. Through Camagna’s expert eye and Cording’s sensitive language, the sun sets on the loblolly pine, and the great egret takes its majestic flight towards Chincoteague Bay. The most famous inhabitants of Assateague Island, the wild ponies, also call the refuge home. Each July, local cowboys herd the ponies for their swim across the channel to Chincoteague’s shore, where the foals are auctioned at the annual Firemen’s Carnival.
And finally, the essay titled "Transitions" focuses on the ecological and seasonal changes of Chincoteague and Assateague Islands. "It is a delicate balance," writes Cording of the fragile combination of a beautiful natural landscape and thousands of human visitors who descend on the island each season.
Chincoteague Revisited is a rare collection of over one hundred full color photographs with accompanying essays—from aerial shots of the coastline and barrier islands, to intimate portraits of the water, land and people that make Chincoteague Island a destination to be visited, revisited and remembered.
Once upon an island: The history of Chincoteague
This book is not just another collection of essays and sepia pictures about a local landmark or town. Kirk Mariner's review is a thoughtful and thorough history of a small island community - as thorough as one can be when natural history and the lack of written records affect the narrative as often as it does Chincoteague.
True Tales of the Eastern Shore
