Virginia Beach - First Landing State Park Explorations
How can one not love the location, the nature and history that this State Park offers?
Over a mile of prestige beach, and the water is fairly calm as it doesn’t face the North Atlantic straight on but it points more north. So one side of the parks offers the beach for walking, swimming or surfing, fishing.
The other side offers marshlands and miles after miles of hiking. One trail is also open for biking. The Cape Henry Trail with about 15 miles to ride on. This trail also leads to a most magical beach that used to be used and occupied by Black Beard. He is just one figure in the lineup of historical events. I learned one can drink the swamp water as the trees and their leaves, that only grow here, filter it so it is safe to consume. This is why Black Beard came here to fill up his fresh water supply with water that didn’t spoil.
First Landing of course got its name due to the first boats from England landing here. Anyone remember John Smith? No not my husband but possibly some long ago relations 😉
However, they didn’t like the area and moved on after killing many many native Americans. A mass grave was discovered when the trail center was build and they were moved to another location. Hence why many locals claim the swamp is haunted.
This made me sign up to go on the ‘Haunted Hike’ the park offered. It was suppose to last for 1 hour, starting at 8 pm to end at 9 pm. We were suppose to show up with enclosed walking shoes and ‘no’ flashlights. I went now on many guided State Park hikes that I was really looking forward to a quit walk through the swamp. Sadly it wasn’t to be. Over 100 people showed up and many of them teenagers who thought a haunted walk in woods would translate in a ‘Haunted House’ experience. Not sure how familiar they were with guided hikes in a State Park. Anyway they showed up with flashlights and all kind of light up gear, they were screaming, yelling and laughing the whole time. The Park Ranger asked several times to please be quiet so we could listen to nature and the noises of the nocturnal animals but that just riled them up more. The hike was cut short and canceled by 8:30 pm. So it was sad and I figured they need to remove the word ‘haunted’ for next year and call it a ‘Study of the Marsh at Night’ and I bet the numbers would go down.
Lucky for me my husband agreed to come back with me in daylight and finish the walk with me, starting at the boardwalk and finishing at the cemetery. Beautiful!
My mishap happened however when I tried to reach the 64th Street beach inside the Park. A magical beach, reachable for now via bike or hike. I took my bike, which is an e-bike, and ventured out. Now the closer I got the more the path entteere into the marsh. This mean slowly but steadily the trail was covered in water for sections at a time. Initially it was just a few inches deep but then I entnerve section that ended up being 30 to 40 cm deep. I realized that this will be an issue for my bike and started to try and carry it through. Again my brain was not aligned with my body! 80 lbs and kind of awkwardly trying to carry it we almost both ended up in the water. I finally made it to the beach and loved everything about it. It looked like out of a Pirate Movie and I felt like I was in the tropics and not Virginia. Magical. Then came me attempt to trying to ride my bike back home. I found a road that was leading away that was paved but closed due to construction. My bike’s pedal assist did not want to come on at all. It sputtered and then just stopped. If my bike had regular tires it would have been okay, a workout but foam le, but mine has the very fat tires that make it very challenging to move. I stopped and wiggled the cables. Lucky me is sputtered back to life enough to get assist 1 in place. Now that was a big win as at least I could pedal now and limp home.
So lesson from me to you: don’t take your e-bike for a swim!
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