Driftwood Heights

I think this is the appropriate name for this stretch of shoreline along East Camano and Lehman Drives, north of Cavalero Beach and south of the spit at Driftwood Shores, although I suppose it applies better to the homes on top than the beach below.

My goal was to paddle over to Barnum Point and check out Driftwood Shores along the way, which I did and which I'll post about shortly, but first I got distracted by this neat section of forested bluff south of the spit. There are a variety of types and vintages of landslides in the trees, some much more evident than others.

Wood is abundant along here and there's a pretty fuzzy distinction between the driftwood and the wood bulkheads. And in some cases, between the forest and the beach cabins. This shoreline may be a nice example of why counting bulkheads or characterizing shoreline structures is a lot more difficult than some folks think!

The large erratic coincides with a small bump in the shoreline. Like Klootchman Rock near Oak Harbor, the boulder acts like a groin, stabilizing the beach slightly on it's southern side and probably resulting in faster erosion on the north. Where the shoreline is buttressed by a long timber pile bulkhead that extends over many properties (timber bulkheads, or their remains, are so ubiquitous on Port Susan (or were) that this is nothing terribly unusual). On the other hand, one of the often overlooked benefits of these structures is that they are biodegradable.

We're still in catch-up mode - with several more May posts still to come, plus a bunch from a long road trip in June. But at least the computer and the photo library are back up and running, so there's some hope. These pictures were taken on the morning of Saturday, May 9th.