Kalaloch Beach 4

April 23, 2016

Each year for the past 12 or so, with a few exceptions, I volunteer as part of the Coastal Coalition and Washington Coastsavers. Together, on Earth Day weekend, we walk sections of our coastline, removing marine debris. Since this usually also coincides with my birthday, I get to celebrate by spending time in my beloved outdoors, giving back to nature.

This year I chose Beach 4 at Kalaloch for my section of coastline. I love the beaches at Kalaloch, from South beach up to Ruby, they make up the stretch of coastline running 20 miles south of Forks down to the Quinault reservation. Of this stretch, Beaches 3, 4 and 5 (and Ruby, of course) are my favorites and I have dedicated more than a decade to cleaning them.

The trail to access Beach 4 is about a half mile long, steep and beautiful through the windswept coastal forest. You can hear the surf crashing onto a beach of sand and small pebbles, and you can smell the salt in the air. Ah, but the first sight of the ocean through the trees always takes my breath away. From that first peek, I have only a few more steps before I cross a footbridge made primarily of driftwood, then clamor down a large boulder then I am there - on the beach. My grandmother's spirit lives there and I can almost feel her reach out to hold my hand for one of our strolls. 

Zillah playing on the driftwood logs

Beach 4 offers large driftwood logs to climb on, sand and pebble beach (the amount of sand is dependent on how low the tide is) and ... best of all ... Tide Pools! Zillah romped back and forth on the beach for a bit, then we climbed on the driftwood. This is where the bulk of the trash hides, so I picked up as we wandered from log to log. The draw of the tide pools grew stronger as we made our way down the beach, so we left the driftwood and headed in their direction. This wasn't Zillah's first cleanup and I think she is catching on to the 'game' of the event ... she would come across some debris and pick it up, joyfully tossing it in the air then running to me and dropping it at my feet, tail wagging. Of course, I was probably supposed to throw it for her, but she didn't seem too disappointed when I would tuck it into our bag, content instead to romp further down the beach in search of another 'toy' to play with.

Tide pools, for those who have never had the opportunity to explore them, are little marine universes trapped in the rocks between tides. You can see small fishes, crabs, sea stars, anemonies, sea cucumbers ... they are amazing. My mother and grandmother introduced us girls to the communities that exist in tide pools when we were young. I resisted the urge to poke the anemonies and watch them curl up in defense. Instead, I watched in wonder as they fed in full 'bloom'. It was mesmerizing. Until "Sploosh!" ... Zillah would jump in and disturb the whole thing. Oh well. We were there to pick up trash, not play in tide pools. Back up to the driftwood we headed, where we met up with a small group who was also cleaning beach 4.

 

 

Yellow Sea Anemone

 

Large tide pool at Kalaloch Beach 4

We joined this group for the remainder of the day. Together we walked about a mile of the beach, picking up debris along the way. There were a few water bottles, lots of Styrofoam bits, some sections of rope, and crab pots. Oh, how I hate those cursed crab pots. A commercial boat lost his entire load and we've been pulling them off the beaches for over a decade. I kid you not ... over a decade! We found six this year, but were only able to dig two of them out of the sand. They aren't lightweight, so we loaded our trash bags on top of them and started back down the beach.

You have to realize that cleaning the beaches isn't like highway litter duty. You don't just fill your bag and leave it for someone else to pick up. You actually have to haul it back up to the roadside. So it was that we lugged two heavy crab pots, a bundle of rope and our bags of trash back up the steep trail to the parking area. Our job for the day was done. We were a bit weary from the exertion, but felt good about what we accomplished.

Hike 18 of 52.
Distance: approx. 4 miles.