It seems nowadays that log canoe regattas on the Eastern Shore have the appearance of a Ralph Lauren advertisement. With a disproportionate number of healthy young adults wearing clean polo shirts scrambling around canoe planks, it is hard to imagine that this magnificent Chesapeake tradition had a much more rough-and-tumble heritage, more rooted in the working towns of Rock Hall and St. Michaels then Washington, DC gentlemen clubs.
Bob Hewes knows this first hand. As a Philadelphia Main Line family eager to find a getaway from the urban jungle, the Hewes and Johnson families, started to retreat to the Eastern Shore in the 1930s. And very early, Bob developed a lifelong love affair with log canoes while also discovering how hard it was to break into the one of the most exclusive clubs in the world.
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