Mark’s Score 8.9
Tilghman Island is in the back of the beyond, and Black Walnut Point is in the back of the beyond of Tilghman Island. This summer I am making an attempt to explore Delmarva’s lesser-known hiking trails. I was working in St Michaels last week so I went to the Delmarva Trails website and saw that there was a trail on Tilghman Island, so I decided to check it out.
The park at the bottom of Tilghman Island has an interesting history. There is an inn at the end of Black Walnut Point. During the cold war (1960s) the property was rented by the Soviet Union as a recreational facility for its embassy staff in Washington. The State of Maryland acquired the land in 1986, and in 1992 it designated the point, less 6 acres (2.5 hectares) for the inn, as a Natural Resources Management Area (NRMA).
NRMA’s are different than state parks, the focus is on nature, not people. This park has trails, but no other public facilities. Its first mission is to protect the sensitive coastal ecosystem, which is essential for migrating birds. Its second purpose is to provide low-impact public shoreline access, the Tilghman Island shore is largely privately owned and not accessible to the public.
The trails aren’t very long, you can walk the entire park in under an hour. But having said that, this is one of my favorite places to walk. Tilghman Island itself is well worth the visit. Given all the inlets on this side of the bay, it is one of the few hiking areas on the Eastern Shore where you can get sweeping vistas of the bay.
Then there is the history of the place. Black Walnut Point is where James Michener meets Leonid Brezhnev. During the Brezhnev era, this was an exclusive playground for Soviet diplomatic staff. It was private property, so Americans weren’t allowed, unless invited by the Russians. As for Michener, the opening scene in his book “Chesapeake” was on Devon Island. The book covers several centuries and part of the story describes the slow reclamation of the island by the bay. All islands on the Chesapeake are ephemeral. On the eastern side of the property, you can observe the bay slowly swallowing up Tilghman island.
Though the trails are short, the path meanders through a variety of habitats. The trail starts on the bay side with views of the open bay. The path then takes you through a grove of young loblollies. I love these trees; I am inspired by their majesty. On the other side of the park, you come to a patch of reeds that open up on to an inlet, where you can see fallen trees in the water. The fallen trees are the direct consequence of the bay’s reclamation efforts.
This park is tiny and out of the way, but it is well worth thrip. If for no other reason, where else can you walk in the footsteps of Michener and Brezhnev?
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