January 23, 2017

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I visited Mile 197 to see what changes the recent storms had brought. Was amazed to find that the cliff had been scoured almost completely clean of carved-in initials, images, words of wisdom, etc. Also, a great deal of sand had been washed off at the cliff's base, revealing layers that hadn't been visible for some time. It didn't seem possible that heavy rain had caused the erasure of the cliff face, since previous comparable rains haven't had a similar effect. The only conclusion I can draw is that the storm surge not only came all the way to the back of the beach but also reached high enough to hit the cliff face directly, and forcefully enough to peel off several layers.  More large chunks had come down as well. I returned on Jan. 27. This time I noticed some dramatic erosion of the softer horizontal layers in the cliff. As those crumbling layers weaken further, I think some very large chunks of cliff that rest atop them could fall sooner rather than later.   I'm sorry I'm not able to add photos because of the 2 MB requirement.