Town Neck: A Ravaged Beach

I finally checked out the storm damage to Town Neck Beach.  I know these pictures probably don't look that bad to people who didn't grow up here, but please be assured that this erosion is extreme and devastating.  

 There used to be dunes and beach grass between that house and the beach.  That, incidentally, is the Dune 1 area, where I sometimes join my friends in the summer.  

Silly little doggie ran up to me to say Hi.

I couldn't find an old pic that I shot of this area, so the below photo is a web image I got off google. This is still eroded, but this is what the beach looked like a couple of years ago.  I didn't not take this.

And this is the photo that I shot of the same place.  Dunes gone.  Grass gone.  Soft sand layer gone.

It was a nice day to walk for a bit though, and listen to the waves.

Stairs also gone.

Just one, huge, wide swath of sand and clay with an unobstructed view all the way across Old Harbor to Spring Hill.

That one clay bank is all that stands between the Bay and the marshes.

Mill Creek.

Dogs must love me.  This cutie also came over to say hi.  I heard his owner call him by name: Finnegan.

Then I left this part of the beach and drove over to the other side.  Loved this cupola and weathervane.

Coolest mailbox ever.

This is Horizons, a seasonal restaurant that's been around for years and years.  Back in the 80s, they'd serve drinks without carding anyone, so it was always fun to have a cocktail with lunch when we took a break from swimming.

Lots and lots and LOTS of rocks washed up on this side of the beach.

That's the Canal entrance and Scusset Beach breakwater.

I'm not really sure what the solution is for the beach damage.  They keep replacing the sand and it gets washed away in every storm; a ton of it has ended up over at Scusset Beach.  THIS is a very good article in the Boston Globe, written last month, with an explanation on how the Canal is contributing to the problem and an illustration of where the sand is going. Sandwich really needs to stop dinking around with studies and meetings and actually do something about it, because it's not going away and only going to get worse.

Beach Day!

That's right, I said it! Beach Day!  We'd gotten 2 inches of snow on Sunday night, but yesterday dawned clear and cold, but by midday the temps were back up to the 40s.  I was in Sandwich and decided to head to the beaches instead of going home to do boring laundry and watch boring TV.  

I started out at Sandy Neck, in E. Sandwich/W. Barnstable.  It was very windy so my attempts at beach combing there were cut short.  I forgot how much I missed the sound of the waves.  Last time I was at the beach was some time in January! 

The erosion has gotten worse.  There never used to be this flat stretch of sand 'back in the day'.  It was more sloped down from the parking lot and there used to be stairs but those are all washed away.

Nice rollers though.

Looking west towards Sandwich

Looking east.

There used to be way more dunes.  I don't have a four wheel drive so I have no idea how the actual Neck part looks.

Then I drove to downtown Sandwich and I had to stop to take a picture of this barn because in all my life, I never once noticed it, till a couple of weeks ago.  I pointed it out to Russell and asked if it was always there and he said that he never noticed it either!  

It makes a pretty pic though.

This is next to the barn.

Stopped at Mill Creek and Boardwalk.  Nice to see it flowing again.  The blizzard at the end of January deposited so much sand at the mouth of the creek that the tides couldn't flow freely to clean out the marshes.  This meant a major threat to the shellfish beds that weren't being washed out with clean salt and fresh water, and possible flooding in town.

This is bad. Very, very bad.  The dunes are all gone and now you can see clearly out to the Bay.  The town keeps trying to replace sand at Town Neck but it's constantly being washed away now. 

After I left Boardwalk, I decided to head to Town Neck Beach to see the devastation for myself.  Stay tuned.