This single-lane ramp is often used for smaller, lower profile vessels that can make it under the adjacent railroad and highway bridges to head east down the Pass for fishing, hunting or weekend camps located at the other end of the winding, seven-mile long channel.
The relatively narrow Pass is reckoned by geologists to have once been part of the nearby Tickfaw River before Lake Maurepas cut it off. It’s curvy like the Tickfaw, with shallow point bars that can hang up a boat when the water is low.
Because of a history of cypress logging and subsequent salt-water intrusion, the trip to the other end is mostly through open marsh. It’s a great excursion for birders because of the open horizon and the many large, skeletal tree trunks that now hold the bulging stick-nests of Bald Eagles and Osprey.