Mile 224 - Beverly Beach north, Johnson Creek - November 25, 2010

Report Details

A nice day for a walk, cloudy but not raining, cold, or very windy. I saw more people on the beach than I expected to. No fires, mostly just people & quite a few children, walking on or playing on the beach. Saw one live gull standing on the beach near the waterline, some gulls & a few members of another species (not sure what, was pretty far away) flying off shore. At the south end of my mile, higher energy wave action is (I think) transporting the lighter sand particles off shore, leaving/exposing the heavier pebble & cobble sized sediment, also "garnet" sands were very visible, some of the sand looked quite pink (in a red violet kind of way). See 2nd & 1st uploaded photos for higher energy beach (2nd) and example of "pink" and "purple" sands (1st). Also noted: what I believe is a continued shift in transport of drift logs. There is a creek outlet & path up to a street just a bit north (200 feet? 300?) of the Alpine Chalet access. For at least the past 4-5 years, if I wanted to ascend that path, I had to clamber over a large pile of driftlogs spread out over that part of the beach. Today I simply walked over, a much smaller number of logs lay mostly a bit further north. Because of the lack of erosionally protective drift logs, some of the "steps" or the slope leading up and to the path appeared to have been partially eroded or worn away by the fall/winter rains & possibly storm surges/very high tides as well. In an earlier trip report I noticed a decreasing number of drift logs as well as an apparent shift in placement. Today's observations seem to confirm the decrease/change in location. Will try to remember to photograph the logs next time.

Conditions

Temperature: 45 F. Cloud Cover: Cloudy. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: SW. Tide Level: -3.0 feet.

Human Activities

Number of people: 23. Number of dogs: 7. Walking or running: 27. Playing in sand: 6. Surprised at how many people there were on the beach on a Thanksgiving Day afternoon. Looked like quite a few families (people w/fairly young child. Several people had multiple dogs w/them under varying degrees of control.

Vehicles

Cars/trucks parking: 10.

Notable Wildlife

none

Beached Birds

Total dead birds: 2. I think one was a common murre, the other was in parts, tangled up in some seaweed, I have no idea as to species.

Dead Fish or Invertebrates

Saw only some crab shells in the the driftlines.

Driftline Content

Seaweeds and seagrass, Shells, Wood pieces. plastic bits, see uploaded photo

Man-made Modifications

nothing new noted

Natural Changes

Visible retreat of solid bluff, Landslides/major boulder falls.

Actions & Comments

The erosion observed, small slides, loss of vegetation, is ongoing. Nothing unusual for this mile.

Report Images

malachite

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