Mile 271 Report
Cape Lookout
October 4, 2017
This report covers the entire cape, since it can only be done by boat, and the other miles are not currently being covered.
Report Details
This report covers the entire cape, since it can only be done by boat, and the other miles are not currently being covered.What a beautiful day! What a beautiful area! Just got back from the last stretch of my retirement project to paddle the entire west coast of the US mainland. We made the Mexican border after starting from Port Hardy BC, Canada five years ago. Cape Lookout remains one of my favorite places to paddle, truely a gem. It looked really good on this day, warm, sunny, and calm, with clear water and far less plastic on the couple places that it can collect.The sea stars are back. The diversity of wildlife looked good, with two notable exceptions that may be due to the time of year. I saw no sea lions, they may have mostly headed south by now. I saw very few common murres, they may be off somewhere, as well. I saw a grey whale that surprised me by surfacing perhaps 20 yards from me near the cliffs. I saw my first local skate; it was gliding directly under me about 10 to 15 ft down, mostly holding its position in the current next to the south side cliff. Swarms of minnows ( I know schools, but they looked like swarms of bugs that happened to be under water.) could be seen in the calm water again near the cliffs along the south side.I went into seven sea caves. Few people know that there are some really large or deep caves here. Some of the largest north side caves have a red/pink biological coating on the walls. I landed on the beach just south of the cape and saw river otter tracks. I once saw two river otters swimming among the bull kelp just off of the cliffs, again south side.
Conditions
Temperature: 60 F. Cloud Cover: Partly Cloudy. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: E.
Human Activities
Other Activities: Just me, kayaking..
Notable Wildlife
grey whale, skate, numerous sea stars, numerous brown jellyfish, a few seals, numerous cormorants, three dozen pelicans, a couple dozen western grebes, an american widgeon, a bald eagle, a few murres, an oystercatcher, a flock of surf scoters, schools of minnows in the bull kelp, eelgrass in the shallows, thick mussel beds and gooseneck barnacles.
Beached Birds
Total dead birds: 1. gull
Driftline Content
Wood pieces, Ocean-based debris (from fishing boats, ship trash, etc.).
Natural Changes
No major slides, though a couple from a year or two ago.
Actions & Comments
I collected and removed all the foam debris from the only beach, the beach within the cave at the end of Well's Cove.
yakinsea
CoastWatcher
All Mile 271 Reports
Mile 271
Cape Lookout
There is an illgal ladder near the tip of the cape, south side.
yakinsea
Mile 271
Cape Lookout
The pigeon guillemot population here is by far the highest that I have ever seen.
yakinsea
Mile 271
Cape Lookout
The main observation was a ladder that was placed perhaps 100 ft.
yakinsea
Mile 271
Cape Lookout
Many gulls, and a few miscillaneous birds, most notably a pair of peregrine falcons (one dive-bombing a smaller one until the small one dropped the bird it had).
yakinsea
Mile 271
Cape Lookout
The cape looked good, no pollution, or cliff erosion noted.
yakinsea
Mile 271
Cape Lookout
Paddled solo on a beautiful calm day with small surf and a light off-shore breeze.
yakinsea