At The Beach

It was 105 inland today, so we set off for Ten Mile Beach.  The most common entry point is at Ward Avenue, north of Fort Bragg, where you park and walk through a large culvert to the dunes and the sea beyond.  But today we headed up to the new Ten Mile River bridge, just finished this summer, and planned to walk in from the parking area as Liz and Laura had said they often did.  As we parked I noticed a sign that said the closest beach access was a mile north or 3.5 miles south at McKerricker.  Hmmm. 

I drew Liz and Laura's attention to the sign, and they said "No problem, there's a short cut just this way."  Well the shortcut was overgrown and we pushed through dense vegetation, much of it three lobed leaves with a slight reddish cast.  Once through this jungle, we came out on the old haul road and walked easily to the dunes across the sand to the beach where I immediately immersed myself in the sea water scrubbing all bare skin parts.  Laura assured me she would find an easier way back without opportunity to hack through more poison oak.

It was balmy and really great weather at the beach--we walked up and back beachcombing, and plopped down with our umbrella and blanket on a nice patch of sand.  No one else was around, although later we saw two couples in the far distance and another couple passed us by within 100 feet--other than that we were all alone on the beach.  I actually fell asleep and dozed on the warm sand for awhile, lulled by the rhythmic crash of the waves while Liz walked down the beach a long ways, and Laura gathered shells and rocks up the beach to the river.

Several hours later we gathered our stuff and began to walk out--reaching the bottom of the bridge and climbing up a near vertical cliff using our hands and feet.  This "short cut" was better than the poison oak path, but a bit more dangerous.

Returning to the house, we learned from my neighbor Sue that it had reached 100 degrees in her chicken coop, and had been 96 on her back deck.  It was quite warm, with no trace of a breeze, so we had chosen the best day of the week to stay cool and comfy at the beach.