October 18, 2012 Assateague Island seashore

I woke up at dawn. The sky was pink. We had the shades up on the ocean side of the bus and I had to see sunrise.

pre sunrise, and sunrise

The wild ponies of Assateague Island grazed their way through the campground. The rumor is that they are spanish horses that swam to the island from a sinking ship. But they say they are really farm horses they put out here when there were too many and they were eating the crops. In July they round up the foals and yearlings and who ever else and swim across the bay to the mainland and auction off the foals and yearlings, the ones that does sell and the rest swim back afterwards.

The shellac is drying on the basket. John does not believe me how arousing a man vacuuming is. Hubba hubba.

We took the bikes out and explored the island. Here are all the things to be aware of here, green head flies, dog ticks, salt marsh mosquitoes, poison ivy, sea nettles, Portuguese man o’ wars, cyanea-artic jelly fish. Fortunately only in the summer, the bugs and the jellies are gone now. Another wild island pony in the salt marsh on the bay side of the island.

Bay side of the island. A couple kayakers on the bay side.

The waters here were very treacherous before modern technology. Here is a map of the ship wrecks in the area.  They had two life saving stations on the island. Here are some of the early coast guard putting their rescue boat in the ocean.

One legged sanderlings. They were hopping like crazy on one leg. When I got closer they put the other leg down and scurried off. The second photo has a crab in it, he blends right in.

Very dramatic wind worked clouds this evening.