Following John Smith

Jamestown Island also features a loop road through woods and across a marsh, perfect for strolling or bicycling (leashed dogs also permitted). Nature sightings yielded in one brief tour of the island: a red-shouldered hawk, two eagles, several deer, hermit thrush, mourning dove, flicker, woodpecker, pine warbler and mergansers.

'The countrey is wonderfull fertile'

Leaving Jamestown, the middle section of John Smith's Trail follows Route 5 toward Richmond, crossing the Chickahominy River, along which Smith was captured by Indians and the much-mythologized Pocahontas comes into the story. For fans of the Terrence Malick film "The New World," a number of scenes from the film were shot here. The 5,217-acre Chickahominy Wildlife Management Area (take Route 623 north from Route 5) follows the western shore of the river and not surprisingly is included on the Virginia Birding & Wildlife Trail. Boaters can get on the water via a ramp in the wildlife area or on the opposite bank at Chickahominy Riverfront Park (also on the Bird & Wildlife Trail).

Farther along Route 5, stop in for snacks at Haupt's Country Store ("family operated since 1893") then continue for a visit to some of the riverside plantations.

Though the word "plantation" conjures up "Gone With the Wind" imagery, most of these properties significantly predate the Civil War era, and for the first English settlers, the word meant simply "place where you plant." Dubious credit goes to John Rolfe (who would marry Pocahontas, admitting himself "entangled and enthralled" with her) for sowing the seeds of the colony's first truly profitable venture: tobacco. For "The New World," Malick's crew built a painstakingly accurate re-creation of an early Colonial farmhouse on the grounds of Berkeley Plantation to serve as Rolfe's farm, planting gardens and a field of tobacco. Plans are being made to turn it into an interpretive site. Berkeley lays claim to a number of historic firsts (first Thanksgiving -- though no turkey; first corn whiskey in America distilled here -- by an Anglican priest; "Taps" first played here), but one of its most interesting stories is how it came into the hands of current owner Malcolm Jamieson.

His grandfather arrived in the United States from Scotland, penniless, at age 12 and joined the Union army as a drummer boy, mostly for the regular meals his service guaranteed. At one point during the Civil War, the army camped on the Berkeley grounds; decades later, when the former drummer boy had grown well-off operating a fleet of tugboats in New York, he bought Berkeley for its timber. The stately Georgian home (circa 1726) had fallen into ruins, the grounds were overgrown, but Jamieson's father lovingly and laboriously restored it all. Now the son devotedly maintains it -- right down to the flock of grazing sheep.

Nearby Shirley Plantation is an entirely different story. Eleven generations of the same family have made Shirley, with its commanding views of the James, their home, and though house tours are offered on the first floor, the family still occupies the upper floors (and the kitchen in the basement); the running footsteps of generation 12 could be heard overhead while Randy Carter (generation 11) discussed what it's like to grow up in an antique. "It's unusual having 40,000 people go through your house every year," he admitted.

When you've gone through their house, enjoy the shade of the massive willow oak (estimated to be about 350 years old) overlooking the river before continuing on, as John Smith did, to end your journey at Richmond and the Falls of the James, where, he found, "the water falleth so rudely, and with such a violence, as not any boat can possibly passe."

Resources

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH'S TRAIL http://www.virginia.org/johnsmithtrail . For more information, contact Virginia Tourism Corp. at 800-847-4882 or the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation at 804-786-1712.

JORDAN POINT YACHT HAVEN 101 Jordan Point Rd., Hopewell. 804-458-3398. http://www.jordanpoint.com/ . Launch fee $8, includes parking.

JAMES RIVER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE Flowerdew Hundred Road, Prince George. Access to the property is closed to the public except by permission; call 804-829-9020. http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=51621 .