June 8, 2010

Temperature: 50 F. Cloud Cover: Cloudy. Wind Velocity: Moderate. Wind Direction: SW. Tide Level: 5.0 feet.

Number of people: 2. Number of dogs: 1. Walking or running: 3. Just the two of us, Steve Nielsen and myself and my dog LucieAnne (who stayed on the wet sand).Coast Walk, Mile 94 (and 95), Tuesday morning, June 8th, 2010. Steve Nielsen and I started out from my house, the Lonely Plover, at 8:20 AM. It was overcast and the breeze, which I later estimated as ten to fifteen miles an hour, was from the south. We walked down to the dinghy on the Lower Fourmile Creek, and I rowed us over to the west bank of the New River. The current in the river was swift. I estimated it at six to eight miles and hour and the river was higher than I had ever seen it when I was actually on the west bank. Of course, I have seen it higher, but not when I have gone to the beach. We crossed the dunes and walked north. The waves were very small, not more than two feet trough to crest. The driftline was full of sand dollars, and I collected nearly a dozen whole ones, more than on any other visit. There were also little stones up to the size of golf balls, but as we headed north the driftline became empty. We did not see a single bird until we reached the mouth of the New River, where we saw a lone gull flying south. By then we were at what I think is the north end of mile 95. Along the way we saw no signs of other humans except for a lot of shards of plastic (from small up to a few inches across) on the dry sand. Much more than I can recall seeing before. Also a lot of round plastic floats, again perhaps ten or more per mile. There were no vehicle tracks or human footprints in the sand, which is a little unusual as usually the BLM folks leave tracks of ATVs on the weekdays. The sand was warm under foot in spite of the breeze and the overcast and the ocean water was cool but not frigid.On our way north I saw no jellies but did find two, around one to two inches across their long direction, on the way back. There were lots of crab parts here and there along the drift line. When we got back to the south end of what I think is mile 94, six birds, of unidentifiable species, flew a little further south of us and landed on the wet sand. Along our walk we did see a couple of examples of fresh bird tracks in the wet sand but never saw who made them. We were rewarded when we got to the mouth of the New River by the presence of at least four harbor seals (Steve identified them) in the river, at least one or two appeared to study us from the water. Although the amount of large driftwood on the beach was unremarkable until we got up to the north end of mile 95, we did find a lot there. Not as much as on my last visit but much more than any other visit. The other oddities were that the far side of the New River has now a high (ten to fifteen foot) sand bank eroded by the fresh water, and there was another waterway stretching to the north, which Steve identified as the output of Lower Twomile Creek. I had never seen that before. I’m guessing it was the result of the mouth of the New River moving further north and the heavy rains. I was unable to row us up river to the mouth of the Lower Fourmile Creek against the current and the wind, and so, we beached on the east side of the New River and hauled the dinghy overland on the BLM path. We got back to the Plover around noon.

Litter

Total 6 birds, two jellies.

Nearly a dozen whole sand dollar shells, many crab parts, two jellies.

Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), Shells, Small rocks, Wood pieces.

Another gorse bush.

Erosion of vegetated foredune, Evidence of wave overtopping.

I brought back two plastic bottles and a couple of plastic items Steve said are used to hold bait in crab traps, one crab float and one round float.