November 3, 2022

Report Details

There were a few cars in the parking lot in Patterson State Park this cool non-windy Thursday morning. Patterson Creek was easy to cross to start my mile. The first thing I noticed was this very long log that was perpendicular to the shore line. I stepped it off and measured it to be between 65-70 feet long! The tide line closest to the ocean contained kelp, lots of feathers, crab body parts, wood pieces and sticks, and some kind of short string-like vegetation.  As I walked south, I counted about 30 gulls near the shoreline and saw a seal swimming close to the shore. There were a few groups of walkers and their dogs, but overall pretty quiet. As I turned around near the Big Stump to head north by the dunes, I noticed that the water pipe had no water coming out of it. As I walked north, I could see where the ocean tides had deposited lots of debris and dead birds close to the dunes. I counted a total of 11 dead birds. I inspected a path that leads to 101 just south of the Mile Post 158 sign. It had nicely built stairs and winds through the sandstone bluffs. Continuing to walk north,  I noticed more graffiti than usual on the sandstone bluffs. I snapped photos and compared with previous ones and there is definitely a lot of new graffiti. The trash on the beach was a little less than previous times - candy wrappers, plastic bag, tennis shoes, used band aid, some pieces of rope and netting and of course, pieces of styrofoam.