To Hooper's Island, MD

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Type: Day Trip. Distance: 199 miles round trip Riding Time: 4hr 29min according to Google Map.

It was a beautiful day today. Just a perfect weather for riding. The sky was clear, but not too warm, nor too cold, and it was pretty dry as well. I went to Hooper's Island on Eastern Shore. I am planning to do a longer distance touring next week, so I decided to do just a day trip even though it was a three day (Memorial Day) weekend. What a great day trip it was!  

Mail box at Old Salty's on Hooper's Island.

Point A (E):
I wanted to get there around noon. It was supposed to be about 2 and a half hours ride so I upped the kick stand around 9:15. Filled up the gas tank before I left. The weather was gorgeous right from the start.  I got "Born to be Wild" ringing in my head for some reason, thinking "It's a cruiser guy's song." at the same time.

Point B:
One of the highlights of this route comes right after the departure, major and impressive Chesapeake Bay Bridge (btw, don't get this confused with Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, another major bridge. I plan to go there soon as well.)  It is a beautiful 4.3 miles long bridge connecting Annapolis and the Eastern shore of Maryland. According to Wikipedia, it was the longest over-water steel structure in the world when it was built, and still is one of the longest. Unfortunately though, it is hard to take a photo while going through the bridge on highway (of course you can't stop), and it probably won't come out right. So, I'll just post a stock footage here. Try clicking on the panorama picture to get a sense of the scale.

Bay Bridge. Courtesy of Baydreaming.com 

Bay Bridge Panorama. Courtesy of WikmediaiCommons.

It has a toll of $4.00 (well, they are hiking it up to $6.00 from 7/1/2013) for two-axle vehicle, which includes motorcycles, when you are crossing from Annapolis to Easter shore. The other way around is free. The view from the bridge is just glorious on a sunny day like today, especially on bikes. It would be cool to video tape it some day. Soon after crossing the bridge, there was a sign that said, "First English Settlement in Maryland". The ringing in my head changed to "Glory glory hallelujah". It is a kind of embarrassing come to confess it.

BTW, I saw many groups of bikes heading to the direction of Washington DC, while did not pass even one heading to the opposite direction. Maybe they were all going to the big Rolling Thunder parade in DC.

Point C:
The route is entirely on US-50 until you cross over another bridge to reach Cambridge, MD. I took a first pit stop and stretched my legs here. I was a kind of surprised to find a nice visitor center there. It is complete with a small museum type exhibit. It could be a little hard to find although there is a big sign on highway. It is the first right turn after the bridge, then one more right turn immediately after that. It is clean and even has a little play ground for kids. It is a nice stop.

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Looking back Choptank River bridge I just crossed.

A little light house in the distance.

From C to D:
Now, after leaving the visitor center, from Cambridge to Hooper Island was just a gorgeous, gorgeous ride. You actually ride through a part of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. The view was great and the road was a modest, relaxing twisty that was just right. I managed to stop by the road and snap a couple of photos, but it really didn't do a justice. You see, the road has no shoulder due to the fact that it is weaving through a salt marsh, so there really is no place to stop, take off gloves, get the camera out and take a photo. Again, I wished I had some sort of a helmet camera. It was just a beautiful ride.

Nope, it really doesn't capture the beauty at all.

Point D:
I think it was around noon when I got to the North Hopper's Island. Hooper's Island is actually a chain of three islands. The North and the middle islands are accessible via bridge from the mainland. The island ride was beautiful too. Heck, maybe everything is gorgeous on the day like this. Anyway, the water was clear, blue and green, the sun was bright. The ocean breeze was just right. I really enjoyed the island.

The bridge behind boats connects the island and the main land.

Maybe because it was a memorial day weekend, or may be there was something poetic about the way they were set, I took a few pics of graves. There were several plots of small, small cemetery. One of the ones I took a pic of happens to be of Hooper family's. It probably  is a family of the Island's name sake.

The capstone reads 1835. People have lived here for a long time.
In the back ground, you see a several of them that says "Hooper"

The island is also the birth place of Phillips Seafood. Phillips is a well known sea food restaurant chain in the East Coast. They had a sea food processing factory there. The travel guides say that it is no longer in operation. But it looked like it was very much in operation to me. Well, nobody was working since it was a sunday, but there were a couple of tracks parked outside (with current tags), and cleaning and other supply were stocked.The upstair looked like somebody occupies there.

I had to eat a lunch before leaving the island. This was actually an event. There is only one operating restaurant there. I looked up on the internet. I have never seen such a polarized review. One side says it is fantastic, the other sides says it is so bad the tourists should avoid it at all costs. Well, not that I had much choice. The next nearest restaurant is all the way back in Cambridge. I had to see it with my own eyes.

I must say that it was pretty good. The service was prompt and the people were friendly. The rustic decor (apparently a converted school house) was not bad and the view from the window was great. The food, I ordered a crab cake, was pretty decent. Here is a pic of my food. Simple, nothing fancy but had a lot of crab meat.

Point E:
The return leg is just a trace back of the outbound. There is really no other way besides some back road deviation here and there. I actually tried some back way and got lost, started running out of gas. So, I went back to the original route. I left the Old Salty's restaurant around 2:00 pm and got home around 5:00. It was such a nice day.