Day 75, Oct 6. Denton, MD to Annapolis, MD

The Cross Island Trail  was lined 

with some of the tallest pines

I have ever seen.

Today's challenge was twofold. First, Google Cycling Maps was determined to put us on Route 50. While Route 50 allows bikes, we wanted to arrive in Annapolis alive, so we did not want to go on a highway. Our second challenge was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge which is part of Route 50. Putting our heads together we determine a path that, though longer, kept us off of 50 while still getting us to Stevensville, where the bridge begins.

Every time we mention that we'll be crossing the Bay Bridge, people kept telling us how "horrible" it was to cross. There was even an episode of Inside Edition called "The Scariest Bridge in America?" ( Inside Edition Bay Bridge ) that shows how afraid people are to cross it, and tells about the shuttle service available to drive people's cars across the bridge for them.

All of this talk made John and I curious to see it for ourselves. Since the Bay Bridge does not allow bicycle traffic, we had to hire a shuttle service. For $40 a driver came, loaded our bike and trailer and off we went across the bridge. While chatting, we learned that:

While neither of us think we would need a shuttle to drive across the bridge, I can see why some might. To begin, it's 4.3 miles long, 250 feet high at it's peek, and very heavily traveled. I was surprised to see that there is no shoulder, so in case of an accident, there is no where to go. In fact, there have been accidents that caused cars to go over the side, falling into the bay, in part because the guardrail is quite low. Apparently, on the east bound side the rails are even shorter and can be seen through. Our driver said he drives between 30 and 40 cars per day over the bridge.


 

Tomorrow we head to Alexandra, DC, a bedroom community of Washington, DC. We'll need to go through the city and travel through some highly populated areas. We can handle it, especially since our reward will be a visit with Scot, Becky and our two adorable granddaughters.