March 16, 2024

Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light.

Number of people: 43. Number of dogs: 5. Walking or running: 31. Sitting: 4. Surfing: 8. Other Activities: Picking up trash, myself and a person I met on the way down the 90+ steps to the beach. I was picking up trash as part of a Surfriders clean up for some of the beaches in Lincoln county.. Two fairly large tired bicycles on the beach/ bicyclists had small unleashed dog w/them but during the short time I observed the dog it was staying pretty close to its people. Most people walking, standing to look at something, plus some surfers. Saw no runners/joggers.

Apparent violations: Dogs not under good voice control or leashed (which state park ruies require, even on the beach). One dog was left alone for at least 30 minutes, probably by someone surfing. I had to pass between the dog & the base of the cliff, w/about 12-15' between myself and the dog, dog barked, came towards me, started to growl. I told the dog to go away & be quiet & pointed my grabber at it. Dog subsided, stood & watched me until I moved away. Dog barked steadily at anyone (particularly if that person had a dog w/him/her/them) if they came w/in 20' or so. I couldn't see if the owner had left a bowl of water for the dog, the dog was on some kind of long line, I have no idea if it was just lying on the ground or if the owner had tied the dog to a tree that had tilted over until it was pretty much on the beach surface. Saw a little evidence of at least one past fire, but there were no live fires..

I saw a few little brown birds (wrens?) in the underbrush, mostly fallen trees, at the base of the beach cliffs. A few gulls. Saw no mammals other then dogs, saw no invertebrates, did not see shells, etc.., in the high tide lines.

Seaweeds and seagrass, Wood pieces, Land-based debris (picnics, etc.), Marine debris (plastic, styrofoam, etc. washing in from the sea), Ocean-based debris (from fishing boats, ship trash, etc.). Lots of plastic bits, most looked like bits of plastic that were once part of a larger object. The person before me had picked up quite a few plastic bottles.

Landslides/major boulder falls, Newly exposed roots/trees falling, Visible retreat of solid bluff. Movement of drift logs. In the past few years I've seen a mass of drift logs near the base of a path off the beach, about 1/2 way down the beach, walking south, just north of the Alpine Chalet access. Maybe 1-2 drift logs this year. The largest mass of drift logs I saw was approx 2/3s south from my beach access point: almost all deposited/clustered where a deterioriating culvert under 101 is located. For a few years, ODOT or other agency would bring a bulldozer or backhoe in to clear the logs away from the culvert. That hasn't happened for the past few years. This year some of the beach cliff/sediment/strata on top of the culvert opening had eroded & is probably deposited in front of the opening unless it's all been washed further down towards the ocean. I I didn't have time to clamber over more of the drift log pile to see just how much brush, sediment is still near the culvert opening. However, I could see & photographed what I saw-there was some brush or part of a fallen tree sitting near the culvert's opening onto the beach. There were signs of multiple relatively small slides, and that what I saw deposited onto the beach was probably much less then had slid down onto the beach, given the type of "rock" that makes up the cliff, mudstone, poorly consolidated sandstone, etc. Compared to my last walk of this mile, there were noticeably more trees that had begun their trip from the top of the cliff, down its face & onto the beach, same for some trees that had almost completed their slide down onto the beach.