I started this blog to focus on cycling, hiking and wildlife viewing in the Rio Grande Valley, but today will write about cycling and wildlife viewing at Dismal Swamp State Park. I live in Elizabeth City now, in northeastern North Carolina. I will continue posting from here about nearby sites.
Dismal Swamp State Park is a 14,432-acre site adjacent to Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, 113,000 acres. The park runs south about three miles from the North Carolina / Virgina boundary line. The Refuge is in Virgina and North Carolina.
When the first Europeans arrived in this area, Dismal Swamp spread over about 1.3 million acres. Since then, about half has been drained, it has been logged, and the Dismal Swamp Canal has been cut through it. Slaves dug the 22-mile canal at a rate of 10 feet a day for 12 years. The canal created the means of connecting Albemarle Sound in North Carolina with Chesapeake Bay in Virgina.
Dismal Swamp also served as a refuge for thousands of runaway slaves, called maroons, over a 200-year period.
Dismal Swamp State Park has about 22 miles of trails for hiking and biking. I rode most of the trails during two visits to the park in the past week. The trail system forms a series of rectangles, except for a trail along Dismal Swamp Canal, Canal Trail, and a trail along the southwestern boundary of the park, Bull Boulevard.
The trails differ from what I’m used to in Deep South Texas, mostly caliche or dirt and grass. These trails are mostly good hard dirt with grass or dirt with gravel. In some stretches, the gravel is loose and consists of ¾ inch stones that require extra effort to pedal and steer through. Other stretches have obstacles such as above-ground roots, broken branches, and pinecones. The most challenging stretches have holes full of water and mud to maneuver around.
The trails run through heavily wooded wetland, except for the northwestern portion where a burn occurred. Water is usually nearby, sometimes on both sides of the trail.
From the Visitor’s Center beside Dismal Swamp Canal, I pedaled my Surly along Canal Road, a sandy, dirt road that runs north along the canal. It’s an easy 2-mile run to Kim Saunders Road, primarily grass, dirt, and gravel. It runs west almost six miles. I took S. Martha Washington Trail north just over a mile. It winds through trees and is bumpy because of the many roots that cross the trail.
At the north end of S. Martha Washington Trail, I headed west five miles on Corapeake Road, a smooth ride except for a mile or of chunky, loose gravel. About a mile and half along I came to the intersection of the north/south Laurel Trail. I stopped and looked toward the Virginia line a quarter mile to the north.
On the trail, 200 feet away, an American Black Bear grazed on something. I took out my camera and snapped a few photographs. The bear looked at me and stepped off the road and into the woods. I put my camera away and continued to the western boundary of the park, and there I turned south on Forest Line Road.
I spooked a few small groups of White-tailed Deer along the way. I saw many warblers that I couldn’t photograph or identify because they moved too quickly in the brush and trees. I also saw squirrels, Northern Mockingbirds, American Robins, Northern Cardinals, and Wild Turkeys.
I followed Forest Line Road a few miles to Bull Boulevard Ditch and continued southeast for a couple more miles, the roughest miles of my ride. The road was overgrown, cluttered with dead, broken branches, and with plenty of holes full of water and mud. Maneuvering the road took plenty of energy. When I reached the end, I had to return the same way I’d come. I saw a few piles of fresh bear scat along the way and thought I would see a bear. I didn’t.
I pedaled northwest to the intersection of Forest Line Road and Kim Saunders Road, which I pedaled five and a half miles east to Canal Road and then back to the Visitor’s Center.
Dismal Swamp State Park is an excellent place to ride a bicycle off-road and to view wildlife. Seeing the bear was the highlight of the ride.
