Sharpshin Island is an island on the Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

 in Maryland.

Geography

It is located less than a mile upstream (northwest) of Riley's Lock, which is Lock 24 on the C and O canal.
Sharpshin Island itself is about two hundred yards long and very narrow, not more than fifty feet at its widest point. Like many of the islands on the Potomac, it usually has a flat beach at its head, a fairly open area, then denser foliage and trees toward the middle and to the foot.
On the Maryland side, there is a small sandy beach about fifty feet downstream of the head that is a good place to land. Walking up to the middle of the island here reveals a small campsite complete with fire ring.
The head of the island lies across from a boat ramp on the Virginia side; many power boaters and jet-skiers launch from here as well as Riley's. Dulles Airport is also fairly close, so you'll see plenty of planes flying across (usually north or south), but they're high enough not to be a nuisance.

Flora and fauna

Sharpshin has the usual variety of Potomac flora and fauna. You're almost guaranteed to see painted turtle

Painted Turtle

The painted turtle is the most widespread native turtle of North America. It lives in slow-moving fresh waters, from southern Canada to Louisiana and northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The turtle is the only species of the genus Chrysemys, which is part of the pond turtle...

s sunning themselves, great blue herons flying across the water, Canadian geese and ducks swimming by, and may even be lucky enough to hear an owl

Owl

Owls are a group of birds that belong to the order Strigiformes, constituting 200 bird of prey species. Most are solitary and nocturnal, with some exceptions . Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish...

 at night or see a white-tailed deer

White-tailed Deer

The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...

 swimming to the mainland. If you're allergic to poison ivy

Poison ivy

Toxicodendron radicans, better known as poison ivy , is a poisonous North American plant that is well known for its production of urushiol, a clear liquid compound found within the sap of the plant that causes an itching rash in most people who touch it...

, be careful; there's plenty of it.