Tiptoe through the Rubus
We made it down to the beach south of Portage Head, the beach we stayed at back in early July. Eventually. There is no trail down there… some may tell you that there is but do not believe them if they do. Still, it is possible to do it – we did. Through muddy, steep and invisible draws in the slick, gooey slope of the hillside, through dick-high salal and intrusive salmonberry that poked and slapped like some unhappy lover with an attitude problem. We were spat out on the beach after a half-hour (longer?) downhill slog and the beach itself, well… it was like I remembered it to be. The waves were bigger, louder than they had been back then, but the beach was beautiful.
The tide was still too high when we got there for us to work our way around to the pocket beach just to the north. We poked through the grasses above the high tide line, looking for glass balls, and beachcombed along the shell-lines for sea glass… found a lot of it, actually. After walking stooped over for an hour or so, staring at the fine gravel and grains of sand on my quest for the perfect blue glass relic, we had some lunch as the tide fell.
After a while, the water was low enough that we could make it around the rocky point without falling off of our end of the world. We got to the northern beach and, while it was still thick with debris – some of it that I recognized from July – there was less overall than there had been back in the summer. Steve and I figured that at least 1/3 to 1/2 of it had been swept back out to sea again. Hard to say precisely, but it’s still sort of interesting. I thought there would be more, what with the winter storms having already arrived and all, but it wasn’t the case.
I did find a sea lion tooth on the beach, and a great collection of polished beach glass. I brought back two fine nylon ropes from off the larger beach that will find some second-life usefulness in good time as log tie-downs at Salmon Beach…
Tomorrow morning we’re slated to head down to Cape B, going to the beach this time instead of just the overlook. The north end of the beach is where we found the remains of the house back in June and I’m curious to see what changes have been wrought up there since then. If we get up early enough, brew a pot of coffee and get out there at sun-up, we should have plenty of time to explore, do a survey and still make it back to T-town in time to see the Packers play the Giants.
Priorities.
About Ken Campbell
New Release
A story of sea kayaking and science on the rugged coast of Alaska. Coming – Spring 2014.
Follow Us On Instagram
