Mathews Blueways Water Trail -
Information
Contents
Our Visitor Center has full information on all aspects of the county. The available lodging is growing rapidly with the addition of guest cottages for rent. Other outdoor activities beside boating and fishing include cycling tours (route guide available) and birding and wildlife trails (trail guide available). We urge you to visit their web page, or walk in for a visit. The Center operates a retail store and has people there to answer your questions during all of its business hours (which are found by clicking Mathews Visitor & Info Center at the bottom left of their home Web page).
Mathews County Visitor & Information Center
239 Main Street
PO Box 1456
Mathews, VA 23109804-725-4BAY phone
877-725-4BAY toll free
804-725-7964 FAXe-mail: mcvic@visitmathews.com
The Blueways Guide can be ordered from the Mathews County Visitor and Information Center, address above. Call or write them, or visit their web site and click Maps & Trail Guides, then Blueways Water Trail Guide, or click here to go there directly. Information on cost and ordering is there.
The Visitors Center carries the guide. Drop by and pick up a copy.
Bay Trails Outfitters, our local paddling outfitter (boat sales and rentals, and guided tours), also carries the guide. Their home page is http://www.baytrails.com . Once there, click Retail Store for driving directions.
Most organized paddling activities on the Blueways Trail are sponsored by Bay Trails Outfitters, a local supplier of boats and tours. In addition to selling and renting boats and providing guided tours, they also sponsor group tours and benefit tours in which the proceeds go to a charity. Check out their web site and get on their mailing list for notification of these nice events.
Many local businesses carry small credit card size foldout tide tables and they are free of charge.
The tides for the day(s) you are paddling can be found on-line via the link below:
Once there
You'll be in a section named Chesapeake Bay, Western Shore, north of York River
Scroll down until you see the three subsections Piankatank River, Wolf Trap Light, and Mobjack Bay
Cherry Point is the north tip of Gwynns Island, and Dixie is at the start of the Piankatank Trail. Wolf Trap Light is in the Chesapeake Bay offshore of the Winter and Horn Harbor Trail. Finally New Point Comfort is at the lighthouse, and Mobjack is at the mouth of the East River.
Tick whichever one you need
Scroll down until you see the phrase "Jump to date selection." Click that.
You can then choose the date(s) you want, and the tide table will display.
Lodging/Camping, Other Activities, Paddling Equipment
All of this information is on the Mathews Visitor and Information Center web site:
Lodging and camping are under "Lodging", and the rest is under "Outdoor Activities".
The original Blueways Guide was quite different from the current, professionally designed version. It was forty pages long, with detailed narrative descriptions of the trail sections. There's lots of good information in it that didn't fit into the new, much more concise guide. The marine charts of the old guide were sections of the NOAA marine charts that span the county, and the trail sections were overlaid onto them. It was strictly a homemade effort, but some people like it because of its wealth of detail. It is now out of print, though Bay Trails Outfitters (www.baytrails.com) may still have copies for sale.
We considered putting the entire original guide on-line on this web site, but the color charts are unusable except when scanned at the highest resolution, and they then take many megabytes of space. We have, however, placed the text portions of the guide on-line for those who wish to download them. They are MS Word (.doc) files. You are welcome to download and print them (at no charge). Click here to do so.
We can make copies of the charts that go with the guide and send them to you for a small charge. You can do your own waterproofing (ziplock bag, plastic sealing covers, etc.). If interested, send email requesting them to the Blueways Committee (address below).
You can contact us by e-mail at email@blueways.org
