John Bowen, a travel writer who has ventured far and wide from his Newport News home, put 8,000 miles on his car driving around the Chesapeake Bay preparing this handy and extensive glovebox guidebook of the Tidewater country of Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Actually, this is several guidebooks in one binding; to be sure, it is a guide of where to go and what to see, but it is also a guide of hunting and fishing spots, of wildlife habitats, of flora, of parks, of outdoor festivals. And interspersed is lots of history. Tacked on the end is a 43-page appendix of where to write for more information on everything from from historic inns to biking trails. Bowen thoroughly covers the territory on both sides of the bay from the “Peake of the Bay” at Havre de Grace, Md., down to the Great Dismal Swamp – and, of course, he doesn’t skip Tangier and Smith islands.
Bowen’s book confirms the obvious: The bay area country, menaced as it is by development, is special in so many, many ways. And Bowen reminds those of us who live in the watershed of the Chesapeake Bay to use the bay wisely and preserve its beauty and its bounty.
– Will Molineux
* ADVENTURING IN THE CHESAPEAKE BAY AREA
The Sierra Club Travel Guide
By John Bowen
Sierra Club Books. Illustrations. 449 pages. $12.95
