June 13, 2018

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Hiked the Three Mile Lake - ocean beach - Tahkenitch Dune Loop Trail (6 miles) today.  The beach portion of the loop covers Mile 154 and the south half of Mile 155.  Met only two other hikers all day and had the entire ocean beach all to myself!  Very clean beach trash-wise.  Major portions of the upper dry sand beach have been roped off by the Forest Service for snowy plover restoration.  Observed several osprey and a bald eagel fishing in the surf.  A single sea lion was just off-shore heading south.  Remains (casts) of Vella vellela were along the entire beach, mixed in with lots of dead mole crabs - which I have not observed on this beach before.  The Forest Service has relocated the west 1/3 mile of the Tahkenitch Dune/Beach trail several hundred feet further inland from the Tahkenitch Creek estuary due to high water damage on the old trail.  Nice trail!The Forest Service has aggressively roped off any hiker access to the Tahkenitch estuary sands at the west end of the Tahkenitch Dune/Beach trail, forcing hikers to use the rather steep but do-able drop-off down to/up from the beach (photo).  Fortunately, the access didn't get washed away by winter storms/high tides like last year.To make my stroll on the beach an absolutely perfect day, a formation of WWII heavy bombers - a Boeing B-17 and a B-24 - flew up the beach apparently heading to an airshow somewhere up north.  What a glorious sound for this old Navy pilot!