It was a beautiful day here at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. A bit cool this morning, but it turned out real nice since the sun was out all day. When the tide started to subside this afternoon I was able to get out onto the beach for a few hours in my trusty Mule to look for trash that was left and/or washed up on shore. Probably not too many of these kinds of days left so I am trying to get out and enjoy the beach in the sun while I can.
The tides have been quite high the last few weeks so it has hampered me getting out there as often as I would like to. I want to stay ahead of the debris washing up so the wildlife is safer and it is nice to look at and walk along. Not to mention it is a cool place to be.
With the high tides this past week we have had high surf as well, so that has stirred up a lot of stuff in the water. Most of this comes from the western bluffs towards Port Angeles. This tidal action has shifted the driftwood, debris, and logs around and the direction everything usually moves is east and the high surf moves it faster and farther. The way the Spit is shaped the tides do not hit it square on – they hit at an angle heading easterly – so this means that all the suspended solids work their way from west to east. These deposits are left along the beach on the Strait side and the keep working east until they are deposited by the currents on the end of the Spit behind the lighthouse. The Spit actually grows east in length 13-15 feet per YEAR.
It is really a fascinating place that is in a constant state of motion and change… much like the rest of Earth.
I am trying to set up my recording gear but I guess my cables got left in a box in South Dakota at one of my daughters’ houses. Dammit I say. I cannot find them or my headphones but I will look one more time and see if I overlooked them the first time. If that doesn’t work I will need to figure something out pretty soon – I have ideas I need to get recordings of stat. I hate to buy more if I already have them. It is also a little frustrating because I have a completely different way I need to set up since I sold off my other rig to downsize so I have to figure it all out again.
