Mile 48 Report
Beach southeast of Battle Rock, north of Hubbard Creek
July 31, 2021
Hubbard Creek has "drifted" pretty far north/northwest, but it appears to be natural.
Report Details
Hubbard Creek has "drifted" pretty far north/northwest, but it appears to be natural.There were several groups of people on the beach and coming down while we did the report. I only counted the cars in the lot when we arrived. There were more when we finished. Most activities appeared "normal" and didn't see anything of concern.
Conditions
Temperature: 67 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: NW. Tide Level: 2.8 feet.
Human Activities
Number of people: 35. Number of dogs: 9. Walking or running: 27. Playing in sand: 6. Sitting: 4. Other Activities: Kayak fisherman was setting up, and put in while we were nearby, but he didn't stay long - was gone by the time we came back by where he had parked. Was maybe 30 minutes later.. One of the SUV-type trucks on the beach was stuck briefly, but was able to "walk" out of the deep sand without help, by accelerating slowly. Didn't tear things up. There was a tent on the sand at Hubbard Creek - may actually have been on Mile 47 side, but I think it was just set up to be a sun-shade for the family as there were 2 smaller kiddos playing in the sand with the Mom nearby.
Concerns
Fire, Litter
Apparent violations: Signs of 3 separate campfires, all appeared contained, and probably from the holiday weekend..Vehicles
Notable Wildlife
Nothing unusual, other than a handful of seagulls.
Beached Birds
Total dead birds: 3. Didn't see any leg bands, carcasses were mostly so old as to be unable to tell why they died.
Stranded Marine Mammals
Total stranded mammals: 2. There were two carcasses of dead marine mammals - one was big enough to be a sea lion, did not appear to have a head. Had been there long enough that it was "flat" and had signs of significant scavenging. The second one was small enough to just be a seal, or maybe a sea otter, but it was pretty much just a pelt that someone had laid out on a rock. See photos.
Driftline Content
Seaweeds and seagrass, Shells, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), 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.). Debris was fairly light. Some fireworks remains closer to the Wayside, but we didn't find much of anything to pick up. Several small crab shells, sand shrimp molt - spotted one live sand shrimp that appeared to be on its last legs.
New Development
A couple driftwood structures on the beach - one appeared brand new by Battle Rock, the other 3 on the Hubbard Creek end. One of those was the remains of the surfer camp we reported on in March, the other two were new, and not nearly as elaborate as the surfer camp.
Natural Changes
Landslides/major boulder falls. Checked on the landslide noted in previous report - does not seem to have grown (much) larger, but it does/did go back quite a ways from the beach - farther than I initially thought, though my sister (who saw and reported the slide first, in January) pointed out that I hadn't seen the depth of it during my report in March.
Report Images
All Mile 48 Reports
Mile 48
Beach southeast of Battle Rock, north of Hubbard Creek
A pleasant afternoon at the beginning of the Labor Day weekend.
Elaine Cramer
Mile 48
Beach southeast of Battle Rock, north of Hubbard Creek
I was astounded by the mass of humans on the beach, so I thought I'd report it. Port Orford made plans for beach cleanups of both the dock beach and the Battle Rock beach for July 5th.
Elaine Cramer
Mile 48
Beach southeast of Battle Rock, north of Hubbard Creek
The beach looked good today.
Peggy Grimes
Mile 48
Beach southeast of Battle Rock, north of Hubbard Creek
Seems like cheating to call this a winter report, with the weather conditions being so lovely.
Kristi Cramer
Mile 48
Beach southeast of Battle Rock, north of Hubbard Creek
Holiday weekend with good weather brought out a lot of people.
JaneSkipLegacy
Mile 48
Beach southeast of Battle Rock, north of Hubbard Creek
Beach was remarkably clean.
Skip-Jane-Legacy
Mile 48
Beach southeast of Battle Rock, north of Hubbard Creek
This was an exceptionally warm Saturday so there were more people on the beach than I usually see but everyone was well behaved and loving the rare chance to be on the beach (and even a few brave souls in the water) without multiple layers of coats.
JaneSkipLegacy
Mile 48
Beach southeast of Battle Rock, north of Hubbard Creek
Driftwood 5th graders had a wonderful day at their first observation of their adopted mile.
Curry County Schools