New Interactive Website Highlights Middle Peninsula Waterways

Outdoor enthusiasts who want to explore the Middle Peninsula waterways like Captain John Smith, wade in the waves like a waterman, or paddle the bays, creeks and rivers of the Commonwealth’s premier rural coastal Virginia region can now plan their outing and experience more easily thanks to the newly launched Virginia Water Trails interactive web site.

Created by the Rural Coastal Virginia Alliance thanks to a grant initially funded by the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program at the Department of Environmental Quality, the Virginia Water Trails web site exists to present unique ecotourism activities and destinations for locals and visitors to easily enjoy.

“Our mission is clear,” said Lewie Lawrence, Executive Director of the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission. The Middle Peninsula Planning Commission is a member of the Rural Coastal Virginia Alliance. “We aim to connect locals and visitors to our world-class ecotourism destinations.”

Virginia Water Trails is available at www.virginiawatertrails.org and includes interactive maps and details about water trails and tourism destinations available throughout rural coastal Virginia, including the Middle Peninsula, Northern Neck and Eastern Shore.

“It was important for us to make the site as accessible as possible and also provide as much education as we could to the public,” Lawrence said, highlighting that the site also includes trail safety tips and guidance on how entrepreneurs can train to become certified eco-tour guides.

The Middle Peninsula is the second of three large peninsulas on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. Nestled between the Northern Neck and the Virginia Peninsula, it’s bounded by the Rappahannock River on the north and the York River on the south, with the Chesapeake Bay to the east. It encompasses six Virginia counties: Essex, Gloucester, King and Queen, King William, Mathews, and Middlesex.

“Perhaps what the Middle Peninsula is best known for, though, is its pristine blue-green infrastructure from which nature lovers can launch their kayaks, see wildlife up close and experience the best this rural coastal Virginia region has to offer,” Lawrence said.

Gloucester County and its 506 miles of shoreline is home to the Gloucester Blueways, a system of water trails spanning five tidal rivers, dozens of navigable creeks and a lake formed by a man-made impoundment. The trails are particularly suited for small hand-powered craft such as canoes and kayaks. Used by the area’s native inhabitants for generations, Gloucester’s waterways were explored extensively by Captain John Smith’s shallop in the early 1600s.

Thanks to the Middle Peninsula Chesapeake Bay Public Access Authority, locals and visitors can access hundreds of acres of waterfront land for recreation, hunting or wildlife watching.

Mathews County is home to more than 100 miles of water trails, including the Mathews Blueways Water Trails. Of particular interest for many paddlers is the third oldest lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay, New Point Comfort Lighthouse, commissioned in 1804 by Thomas Jefferson.

Dragon Run, which was ranked second in ecological significance among 232 areas investigated in a Smithsonian Institution study covering 12,600 square miles of the Chesapeake Bay region, is also located on the Middle Peninsula. A brackish water, tidal/nontidal stream, it flows 40 miles through the counties of Essex, King and Queen, Middlesex and Gloucester.

The Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission’s support and involvement in the project fits squarely in its regional planning mission, Lawrence said.

“We are charged with promoting the orderly and efficient development of the physical, social and economic elements of the district by planning, and encouraging and assisting localities to plan, for the future,” Lawrence said. “Our waterways are among our most important assets in our community, helping drive tourism and economic development. The planning and launch of this project highlights another way that our Commission has helped push the region into the future.”