September 4 – A pair of child’s pink sneakers left on the sand pierced the grays and tans and blacks of the pebble/sand beach. We had traveled north from our campsite at Alder Dune on the densely vegetated, low dune area of the Oregon coast into the twisty, turney area of basaltic cliffs interspersed with wide expanses of sand beaches. Shards of black basalt stretched from the cliffs into the ocean, forcing the powerful waves of the Pacific to split into confused swirls as they lost power on the long flat beaches. From first level escarpments above the beach (where the road was built) one looked south to see layer after layer of cliffs jutting out into the ocean, skirted by sea level fog created by the spray of waves. Looking west the horizon line was clear and sharp – the grey green ocean touching the cloudless, intense sky.
Sand told the story… sharp ripples from wave action left their undulating marks the whole way to the high tide line… wide sweeping sand contours were deposited by the wind as it took the top off drying wave marks… streaks of light sand blown over the wet dark breaking waves sand… sand that curled around beach boulders and half buried them… footprints… dog prints… marks from sneakers and boots. At Hecete Head Beach three people, bundled against the force of the wind and blown sand, poked around the pebble boulder area next to the first escarpment. They looked among the tumbled rounded rocks for shards of garnet and jasper, loosed from the mountain valleys inland and brought by the rivers to lodge among basaltic boulders. They worked slowly, poking and turning rocks, clearly understanding where to look. The yellow orange of the garnet they found should have been obvious to the casual looker but clearly wasn’t. We admired their finds, shared stories of the joyful day, and moved on, leaving them to their treasure hunting. Our treasures were the sun and sky, the wind and water, the power of the earth and air and waves.
In the end, I was drawn back to the pink sneakers, left abandoned while their owner ran the beach, testing the waves, holding hands with a friend, jumping to keep the cold breaking waves below their waists. A mother, carrying piles of towels and little people clothes, watched, moved into and out of the water mimicking the distance the girls played from shore, guardian of their safety.
Tomorrow Daryle and I travel south from Alder Dune towards Coos Bay and the National Sea Shore. This adventure is amazing!
Sand told the story… sharp ripples from wave action left their undulating marks the whole way to the high tide line… wide sweeping sand contours were deposited by the wind as it took the top off drying wave marks… streaks of light sand blown over the wet dark breaking waves sand… sand that curled around beach boulders and half buried them… footprints… dog prints… marks from sneakers and boots. At Hecete Head Beach three people, bundled against the force of the wind and blown sand, poked around the pebble boulder area next to the first escarpment. They looked among the tumbled rounded rocks for shards of garnet and jasper, loosed from the mountain valleys inland and brought by the rivers to lodge among basaltic boulders. They worked slowly, poking and turning rocks, clearly understanding where to look. The yellow orange of the garnet they found should have been obvious to the casual looker but clearly wasn’t. We admired their finds, shared stories of the joyful day, and moved on, leaving them to their treasure hunting. Our treasures were the sun and sky, the wind and water, the power of the earth and air and waves.In the end, I was drawn back to the pink sneakers, left abandoned while their owner ran the beach, testing the waves, holding hands with a friend, jumping to keep the cold breaking waves below their waists. A mother, carrying piles of towels and little people clothes, watched, moved into and out of the water mimicking the distance the girls played from shore, guardian of their safety.
Tomorrow Daryle and I travel south from Alder Dune towards Coos Bay and the National Sea Shore. This adventure is amazing!
No comments:
Post a Comment