March 7, 2011

Report Details

We walked beach mile 212 today under partly sunny skies with a light SE-SSW wind and comfortable temperatures (43-47 F). We noticed numerous fairly large sand slumps eroding from the cliffs and many smaller sand slumps and rock slides. Reading the online beach reports, we see that these slumps were previously reported by “pbsbch” (17 Jan 2011 for mile 213) as having occurred the weekend of 15 January when the HMSC weather page recorded over 5 inches of rain (thanks, “pbsbch”!). It looks like the slumps continue to slide, as many looked fresh and even more extensive compared with the excellent photographs posted by “pbsbch”. The beach was covered with sand and many small pebbles hiding the underlying rocky substructure. There was not much plastic trash, as the community beach approach has a trash bag dispenser and encourages users to pick up flotsam and jetsam. The wrack line included tiny bits of plastic, driftwood, some crab carapaces and kelp. No dead birds or mammals were observed; live birds included a few crows, a few gulls and a turkey vulture overhead, and some white-winged scoters foraging in the surf. Six people walking and one dog on leash were enjoying the sunny weather.