The weather in Nantucket now!

Day 8: Surfside to Sconset, August 27, 2008

This is the last leg of my Walk around the Rock. I set off on the well trod south shore, with a long view to Tom Never's Head from Surfside.

Even though it was only 10:00 am, there folks were setting up beach volleyball. I found myself thinking about Misty Mae! And there was also evidence of the creative call with several beach sculptures along the way..







I followed the jeep tracks toward "Preacher Beach," the new name for Nancy Nelson's welcoming beach. I caught a few shots of more flying Nantucket wildlife-- Island Air planes- while I trudged past the airport.





Madequecham is our long time favorite beach. Tom Nevers looks a little closer from here! More erosion...And this time the erosion looks like the "temples" of the Grand Canyon, although on a much smaller scale. The shapes of nature repeat themselves on many scales....





About an hour and a half into this leg of the hike, I reached the marsh before the Navy Station. Soon after the Navy Station, marked by debris on the beach, I could no longer see back to Surfside. So it was only ahead to Tom Nevers.

I trudged past the big rock in the water past the Navy Station, passed Tom Nevers Head, and got to Tom Nevers Pond by about 12:15. It was still time to see a beach pea in bloom!








And now I am starting to get into the fun, home territory. Here are the terns and gull chicks at Low Beach...and one of the dozen seals who hang there. He looks like he is saying "HiYa." Every day I look off the bluff down at the Atlantic, I see these gray seals swimming by.





At about 1 pm I can see Sconset from Low Beach. I am almost home. This has been a journey to explore more of Nantucket..to see what is surprising and what is the same. It was easy for me to see the wearing away of the land and the many different forms of erosion; but it was difficult for me to where the land might have built up. I suppose my optimistic nature wants me to see the building up just as vividly. I saw the new tern chicks and gull chicks, as well as these three, from Low Beach to Flagship on the Sconset Bluff, who have died an immature death. The sanderlings and the herring and black-backed gulls were my most constant companions.





At almost 2 pm, I climbed up the bluff at the Flagship stairs, where the goldenrod and a few last rugosa bloomed. I have to say I was a bit stiff as I took my last steps down Baxter Road home. I have the satisfaction of having made tracks all the way around this island. I have circled it, making it even more my own.

Day Seven: Madaket to Surfside

Monday, August 25, I set out at 9:30 am to continue my hike, entering the beach from the end of Madaket Road. The erosion was evident at the entry to the beach, and shortly thereafter, at a house emperiled by the Atlantic.





Fifteen minutes into my walk, I saw a truly frantic attempt to hold off the sea. And later, rubber trash littered the beach.













An osprey hunted as I walked toward Cisco, and the sanderlings who have accompanied me throughout the walk scurried along the water's edge. I am even learning to tell the age of the Herring and Great Black Back gulls! The eelgrass which was so evident on the North Shore and along the western shore is now gone.



I arrived at Hummock Pond in about an hour. Josh and I had kayaked the entire length of the pond earlier in the month. It was a beautiful kayak, but when we got to this point, there was a family of four and a motor boat, with the mom and dad each talking on separate cell phones! A not-so-new Nantucket mammalian species.



Just before noon I could see the cars at Surfside come into view, and later, the people. Ginger and I arrived at the Lifeguard post and headed home with the faithful Josh, who came to pick us up. As we left the beach, we found that Ginger and I had violated another DOG rule!

Current Weather in Sconset from my Personal Weather Station KMANANTU15

Day 6: 40th Pole to Eel Point to Madaket

I had Josh as a companion for this leg of the trip! Sam dropped us off at the end of Eel Point Road, and we hiked out to 40th Pole and headed west toward Tuckernuck and Eel Point. What a beautiful spot! The shoals were in evidence and many terns and gulls flew back and forth from their nests to the slivers of sand amidst water.

August 16: Brant Point to 40th Pole

Dear reader,
I didn't swim from Coatue Point to Brant Point. Josh was the key to my transportation from the point of Coatue, via jeep through the inside route of Coatue (mosquito rich, with gulls in the ruts out of the wind and the cedars craning) past Coskata and back to Wauwinet and Sconset.

On August 16th, he dropped me at Brant Point Light at 11:30 am, while he and Charlie went out to lunch. Ginger once again did not accompany me on this hike...not because she was an outlaw, but because of the many anticipated groins to be ascended and sea walls to be scaled. Indeed, almost immediately I had to take off my shoes and socks and wade around the wall just after Brant Point light.

At the Jetties Beach, families were arriving to stake out their places for the annual sandcastle contest. Along the beach, the seaweed with slipper shells filled the edge of the beach, and my usual friends, the herring gulls, great black backs and peeps led me and followed me.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with me for this leg of the journey. The sea walls were indeed fascinating....some iron walled, some huge boulders heaped high, some wooden jetty-like constructions. I even saw a coco bag filled with something....but in general the erosion barriers were quite unlike what is being used on the east side of the Island. The northern shore must have suffered as well!

Along the way, I saw my favorite beach sculpture of the trip: a hundred conch shells balanced on top of the posts of a snow fence! These must have been collected and mounted over the years!

Josh and Charlie were waiting for me at 1:30 just past 40th pole beach and we walked through the dunes up to the end of Eel Point Road.

August 9 Continued

This is the vista looking west as I walked to Coatue Point.

At the point, a colony of least terns was calling, flying, diving...yellow beaks ablaze.

I am not going to swim over to Brant Point, but I will resume my walk there.

Day Four: The Galls to Coatue Point

August 9, 2008

Phyllis and Josh dropped me off at the Galls (again without Ginger) for my walk to the tip of Coatue. This seemed like the most remote part of my trek...at other points of the walk I occasionally saw people at their homes, or folks in vehicles near Great Point. During this part of the walk, the people I saw had come ashore from boats with their families to swim and sunbathe. This is the only time I saw a group of over a dozen oystercatchers. Usually I see a pair or perhaps four.

The walking was easier with pebbles and eelgrass to walk on. This was the beginning of my seeing the shiny baubles of shells from Nantucket Sound.

Coatue is wild and I haven't spent time on its north shore. It is a gull rookery and the black backs and herring gulls screeched as I walked by. I was happy not to be inland with the mosquitoes, which are fierce out this way...as is the poison ivy. Many years ago, the sight of prickly pear cactus blooming on Coatue was part of my falling in love with Nantucket. And the wild desert poppies also live on Coatue.

Day Three: The Galls to Great Point to the Galls

August 7, 2008

Well, I am back at it...but without Ginger. This time Marcia and Josh dropped me at the Galls and they went to enjoy the view and the possible fish at the Point. Today's walk in the afternoon started back where I saw the terns diving. A pair of oystercatchers flew with me, as well as the the crowds of the black-backed and herring gulls who fly down the beach when I approach. A single white winged scoter out on the ocean, and a pod of 6 eider a little later on. The semipalmated sandpipers scurry ahead of me.

The end of the point is closed for the plovers...so we can only peer out to the true point.... But I always enjoy the Light House!

...and the seals frolicking. I understand that they are part of the southernmost colony of grey seals, which nests over at Muskeget. We have a smaller group of about a dozen seals at Low Beach in Sconset. I love watching from our house on the Sankaty bluff when the seals regularly swim by.

Day Two- Wauwinet to The Galls

August 5, 2008

Ginger and I started out early, before 7 am, to make our way from Wauwinet to Great Point, where Josh would be doing some fishing. The sun had risen, but the early clouds and light gave us a show.

The herring and great black backed gulls and their young were with us...and as we approached the Galls, a colony of terns.

A truck from the Trustees of Reservations drove up and.... Ginger and I were busted! This year, no dogs are allowed at all on Great Point. The ranger said "I'll have to drive you out." I asked him to take us to Great Point so I could let Josh know...and the ranger said ok, but "then you'll both have to leave. Dogs aren't even allowed in cars. "

That was the end of Day Two!

Before Ginger and I reached Wauwinet, we looked back to see Sankaty Light. Sankaty is not only my familiar beacon when I look out my kitchen window and when I lie in bed at night. It is also my beacon from so many Nantucket vantage points: it is there almost all the way to Great Point, and was an unexpected treat to be seen even from the South Shore. My favorite spot is from the top of Bean Hill, on the Milestone Road on the way to Sconset.

In the stretch near Squam, families keep their kayaks and beach toys out on the beach.

Enroute to Quidnet

Terns are active near the Sesachacha Pond cut. An osprey was hunting over the pond.

Looking toward Quidnet from Hoick's Hollow

Four monarch butterflies cruised past me on the lhike to Wauwinet. A beautiful northwest wind keeping it cool and clear. My companions along the beach are semipalmated sandpipers, great black backed gulls and herring gulls, including many juveniles.

The beach entrance at Hoick's Hollow

August 4, 2008

Even a well known spot seems different when viewed as part of an adventure. Ginger, almost 13, was raring to go. Water and a few snacks were all we needed to go into the beach wilds and head north.