Cruise then Brews Series: Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

Last Sunday, a group of paddlers joined Jack Turner (aka Jack Wildlife) for a Capital SUP adventure paddle through Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Maryland. Being the first event of our new “Cruise the Brews” Local Adventure Series, we stopped for refreshing brews at RAR Brewery afterwards. Officially recognized as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1933, Blackwater is considered to be some of the most important wetlands in the United States. (RAR, on the other hand, is considered to be a purveyor of the tastiest hops on the Eastern Shore).

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

The drive to Blackwater is like any ordinary trip to the Eastern Shore, but once you turn off 50 and head toward the refuge, it looks like a completely different world. “I’ve lived in Annapolis for years, and have been paddling all over the Bay, but when I got here I thought, ‘Wow! How [did I not] know this existed?’” said one paddler, Eric, “I had no idea there [were] wetlands of this size in Maryland.”