February 28, 2010

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I have been able to walk my mile about 7 times in January/February, thanks to minus low tides and mild weather. What I have seen is a great deal of erosion from one end of my mile to the other, much of it old riprap walls that have come apart, but north of Sijota near the junction of Miles 236 and 237 a massive land slide has put one house in major jeaopardy and affected at least two others. Devil’s Lake Rock began to build a road at the Sijota Street access January 29, and they continue to work on rebuilding the base of that cliff. I’ve been watching a public access via metal staircase on my Mile, and noted in January that the base of the stair was a jumble of large boulders, probably riprap collapsed from nearby walls. The staircase seemed unusable. But today the sand was flat and clean to the base of the stairs, and a couple came down with their dog to confirm it was not only usable, but quite stable. They have lived here 11 years, and said that the community repairs the stairs from time to time, that those boulders are still there, but that a high tide brought enough sand in to cover them. That would be, by my calculation, three to four feet of sand. I’m impressed. It was the debunking of a long-held belief that winter tides take sand away and summer brings it in. This was the day after the Tsunami alert. No evidence of any change in terms of debris (none) or sand shift. This beach has been so clean, it is remarkable that anyone could find a souvenir. January exposed agate beds, but even those have now been covered over.