Fort Ord Dunes State Beach to Marina State Beach, California

 Waxing Crescent Moon

Continuing with my mini-goal of walking the shoreline of Monterey Bay, yesterday I added the piece of sand between Fort Ord State Beach (9th Street access in Marina) to Marina State Beach (Reservation Road access). Most of this beach was part of the military training facility at Fort Ord for many years. There are still a few relics of old facilities, but most of them have been removed. 

Possibly a former landing ramp or small wharf-like structure?

The dunes and sandstone cliffs are impressive and the coastline is prime real estate, absolutely beautiful and mostly quite clean. Low tide would be the preferred walking time, but I managed the out and back six mile hike pretty well in deeper sand. There were far fewer birds on hand this time and there was no visible sea mammal activity. One turkey vulture was picking clean an otter carcass. It didn't even bother to fly off as I passed by - perhaps it could sense my lack of appetite.

I did not see a single fisherman or fisherwoman on this walk, which is unusual compared to all my other beach hikes this summer. Normally when the tide is rising, there are people out there casting into the surf. They probably know something I don't know. Or maybe they had the good sense to stay home because it was so goldurn chilly. Come to think of it, I only saw a half dozen other humans the whole time. Whatever, I had a good time and I warmed up pretty fast after I got moving.

I have two more sections of beach to do and then I'll be finished with walking from Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey to Seacliff Beach in Aptos. After that, there will be more populated areas with patchy access I think, but who knows maybe the Universe will surprise me. I mean, anything can happen in Santa Cruz, right?

Peace, Love, and Seacoast,

Jim

#2,022 in 2022