First Field Trip of the New Club Year - Sept 13th to Smith Island
On Saturday, September 13th, two days before our first meeting of the new club year, we'll hit the road, and water, for a trip to the Chesapeake Bay's only inhabited island that is accessible only by boat. Smith Island, which lies between the Chesapeake Bay and Tangier Sound, 12 miles west of Crisfield, is actually made up of several small islands separated by creeks, shallows, tidal guts, and thoroughfares. We'll see the Smith Island Center at Ewell where we can tour the center's museum, or take the 200-foot boardwalk above marshlands that are habitat for Virginia rails, great egrets, osprey and great blue herons. Mink, muskrats, otters, red foxes, and abundant domestic cats also live on the island.
To get there, we take the passenger ferry from Crisfield at 12:30 p.m. The boat ride to the island takes about 45 minutes. We'll have a few hours to spend on the island before we return, or, for those who would like to stay there overnight, there are several B&B's located on Smith Island. We'll carpool from Bowie to get to Crisfield.
If you would like to join us, contact the Field Trip Captain, Vince Ferrari, by phone at 301-249-2210, or by e-mail at vincentferrari@gmail.com
Here are some links:
http://www.sherpaguides.com/chesapeake_bay/eastern_shore_md/somerset_county.html
http://www.smithisland.org/