Paddling the Water Trails of Saxis, Virginia

A guest article shared by the National Park Service's Chesapeake Bay office; the writer's account is paraphrased here.

Saxis is a small watermen's town on Virginia's Eastern Shore, just short of the Maryland line. Crisfield, Maryland, lies only a few miles to the northwest, but because Pocomoke Sound lies between them, the drive takes about an hour. Saxis is technically an island, cut off by a wide salt marsh, but Saxis Road runs across on a causeway, so no boat is needed to get there. Most of the marsh is protected as the Saxis Wildlife Management Area of Virginia's Department of Wildlife Resources.

Where to launch

Several water trails wind around Saxis, with three launches close to town:

• a boat ramp at the end of Hammock Road, a short detour on the way in;
• a soft launch off Matthews Road;
• the main public ramp at Saxis harbour — with interpretive signs, a picnic pavilion, a water fountain and clean flushing toilets, which the writer found almost luxurious.

For a day trip into the wilderness, the Marsh Market and Cattail Creek launches inside the Wildlife Management Area feel a world away from civilisation, their open salt marshes a quiet escape even for a few hours. Virginia Water Trails has interactive maps worth checking before you go.

A working waterfront

Apart from the toilets, a fishing pier and a well-regarded restaurant, the Saxis waterfront is a working one: crab shedding shacks, piles of crab pots, oyster cages and the workboats of local watermen. A visit puts you in the middle of the Chesapeake's culture of working the water.

Birds on the water

Paddlers can watch great egrets wading in the shallows, clapper rails calling from hiding in the marsh, ospreys diving for fish, bald eagles overhead, black skimmers skimming the surface, and several kinds of sandpipers and sanderlings along the sandy beaches.

Camping

Primitive camping is allowed in the Wildlife Management Area with an access permit obtained in advance. A few small beaches are suitable, but check the map so you don't camp on private land. Tunnels Island is privately owned: if its long sandy beaches tempt you, stay below the high-tide line.

On land

If paddling isn't for you, the Saxis Island Museum preserves the history of the island and of the people who made their living on it and on the surrounding waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

Sources

• "Exploring the Water Trails of Saxis, Virginia", a guest article shared by the National Park Service's Chesapeake Bay office. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/exploring-the-water-trails-of-saxis-virginia.htm
• The source's photograph, credited to a private photographer, is not reproduced.
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.