week 14?: Silver strand A: Glorietta bay to Coronado Cays

Sorry folks for the long absence of posts.  It has been a but of a hectic December with travel, Holidays and work for both of us, and thus we only got one beach walk in for the whole month.  So today we begin the new year with a very special oceanographic event:  King tide, when the new moon or full moon occurs closest to the perihelion (the time when earth is closest to the sun).    This gives us a tidal range of nearly 10 feet or 3 meters.  While places like the Gulf of California or Bay of Fundy or other locations boast higher tidal ranges, this is still a special time for us.

source: http://tides.mobilegeographics.com/locations/4770.html?y=2014&m=1&d=1graphic

Glorietta bay park.

We arrived at Glorietta bay somewhat out of the rhythm we'd had back in November.  I was driving the wrong way up one way streets.  We had to make a run to drug store to get some sunblock.  We were overall late and I was anxious.  Still it was nice to be back here for whatever may come.  One of the lovely things about this park is that it seems to look at the San Diego side of the Coronado bridge straight on, such that cars appear almost motionless.  It's not avery big park, but its a nice beginning to the great ring of greens pace surrounding Coronado.  Tide was already getting low when we arrived exposing all sorts of algae and debris normally covered by water.

The Coronado Bay bridge

where we left off last time.

Looking down the bayshore

We could see the bathtub ring left by the morning's high tide and it did seem quite substantial for this area compared to what I've seen before.  Alas we hadn't gone very far before we hit the first "obstacle:"  the Naval amphibious warfare base.  As I've been researching this area and the walk, I have learned that the Navy is actually doing a better job of habitat preservation than the various city, county and state park services around here, in part because the Navy has the ability to keep people like myself out, due to that whole national security thing.  It's an interesting metaphor this linkage between national security and habitat preservation, that I would argue could be extended to the greater world at large.  Environmental catastrophes tend to precipitate national security issues if you think about it a bit . . .  I will however say that the cliche holds that the algae looked greener on the other side of the fence.

Glorietta bay park

yeah, we are not going past this fence!

cool sculpture

this is "the coast" for us civilians

A bit of funny trivia about this base:  this is the site of the now infamous "swastika building"  a series of 4 L-shaped buildings at right angles to one another that appear to resemble a symbol commonly sported by the Nazis.  Needless to say, when this was "discovered" on Google Earth users a few years back it was quite the controversy.  Now they are spending 600K to fix the problem, though last time I checked Gmaps it was still there.  My understanding is that a lot of people join the military specifically because they want to protect the country from folks like the Nazis, so there I leave it at a bit of "what were they thinking and how did this get approved."  Anyway the salt marsh administered by this navy base is one of the nicest salt marshes I've seen, so yeah  . . .

Making our way downcoast.

Yeah we are not going here.

Silver strand bikeway

 With the beaches on both the ocean and bay sides closed to us civilians, we made our way down the Isthmus along the Silver Strand Bikeway.  I have ridden this several times and would say it is a lovely ride, flat, straight, separated from the road, lots of scenery.  It's not bad for walking either, except for the occasional cyclist who thinks it's a freeway and hollers at you for not getting out of their way as if the silver stand highway has a freakin' sidewalk.  It is perhaps a tad boring in places, especially when you're surrounded by walls on either side, but walking still does at times have its rewards.

Our shadows on a fence covered with shellfish.

One of these rewards is all the viewing platforms that most cyclists bypass. Many of them afford nice views of the bay over the fence separating the areas off limits to us non-least terns.  With king tide it looked like the bay had been lapping up almost to the bikeway in places, and indeed I have seen it pretty high in times past.  Now however, the bay was far away, and all sorts of life was visible to us landlubbers.

little channels incised in the mud only visible at low tide.

Thats me on the observation deck

 Another bonus of walking is that eventually you get your own trail to follow.  Although some cyclists also use this they really have no business telling me to get out of the way as I can tell them to go back to the bikeway.  I've actually been trying not to get into these sorts of battles for the new year.  I have found myself lately looking for conflict, preferably one in which i am right.  And I'm sure I could find a few, but often it seems as if I'm just on edge, on guard.  I think there's got to be another way to deal with unfair people in society.

the way ahead

the way we came

 The footpath accesses several sculptures big and small.  Little placards detailing the birds and marine life of the bay, monuments to the least tern and plover, a bit of poetry about the dune life, and even a solar observatory.  Some of these were more resonant than others.

Monument to the least tern.

The pacific Fleet!

It's like this for awhile

Anita is not impressed by the words (they are not very bursting with flavor)

A solar observatory with lines of solstices.

Bus shelter art.

Low tide across the flats

Eventually this gave way to some sort of residences and access was bit tricky,  this was probably the least exciting part of our journey really.  Although we had a the ocean across the highway, it was not so present with us though we tried to capture it anyway.

Lovely neighborhood that we did not enter.

Distant Ship

A monument to all the bus passengers who discarded their chewing gum
in the bus shelter mesh.

Love this wall!

Finally we made it to the state beach, which spans both sides of the isthmus.  We wandered first over to the bay side where things tend to be quieter and we could see the low tides that had now just recently passed (but still low).  The beach here was quiet and empty, waves nearly absent.  We could see the many layers of mud, and sand exposed.   One onf the more remarkable elements of this phase of the journey was how unconsolidated the sand was below the high tide line. Every step I took sunk several inches.

These rabbits were huge.  I found myself wanting the holy hand grenade.

Mouth of the Sweetwater river and Mt, Miguel

It had been my hope to document all the major outflows in San Diego County, however, given that we were not doing the whole bay, I was sad to think we'd miss the Sweetwater River, so it was a pleasant surprise when in fact we found ourselves facing its mouth from the bay side.  Had we stuck to the ocean, treading across the least tern nests, we would not have had this experience.  Indeed the bay side of the silver strand has much to delight us and it was here that the tidal range was most evident with pond's left by the high tide perched far above the present water line.  Much of the bay was now fully exposed and the shoreline quite different from that which we'd have at normal mean low tide.  We Wandered land that had not been exposed for many months feeling the scale of the tidal pull around us, witnessing the ripples left by the retreating currents.

Anita in the sun.

A pool left by high tide, low tide in the background.

King tide at nadir:  Anita for scale.

So much exposed sand at low tide today.

Mud flats

Ripples in 3-D

More ripples in 3-D

Now we could finally rejoin the ocean.  Silver strand State beach has a series of tunnels crossing under Highway 75 to connect the bay and ocean sides of the park and we apologize for not photographing one of these.  On the ocean side we saw an extensive shelf exposed, glistening reflecting.   Point Loma was finally north of us.  Mountains of Mexico were becoming clearer on the horizon.  The golden hour had arrived and we spent some time just mesmerized by the light.

Point loma and a distant ship.

Happy new Year Everyone.

Just in case anyone doubts the seriousness of the conservation efforts afoot here there signs every 5 feet telling you not to go into the Navy reservation and even a guard shack.  Still we saw some scofflaws beyond the barrier.  Being a both a  fan of these wildlife conservation efforts, and wishing not to pick a fight with the Navy on this matter, I was happy to stay south of the here and enjoy the sparkling uncrowded sands before us.

Yeah I think we better heed these signs.
They seem serious about us not going beyond this point.

distant ship on the horizon.

Silver strand state beach:  a little slice of heaven.

No go beyond this point

Anita reflected in the listening sands.

tide starting to come in

endless ripples

walking on water 

Sun so colorful

broad tidal flats 

Although evidence of the extreme low tide was all around us, it was beginning to come in quite fast.  I wanted to savor this magical exposed land as long as it lasted and enjoyed my moments out in the flats.

Taking in the winds.

Bird!

Lovely symmetry of ripples in the sky and on land.

On New Year's Day, many folks like to do a Polar Bear Swim, where they get into the nearest body of open water for a cold dip.  I had never actually done this, so today seemed like a good day to try it out.  Admittedly the water was ~61 degrees (Fahrenheit) which is warmer than summer water temps in much of the US, so I'm not sure if I can call myself a "polar Bear"  I will however declare the experience highly invigorating and recommend it to others.  It's one of my intentions this year to spend more time in nature.  Anita meanwhile caught some lovely shots of the sunset and of my scantily clad form.

There is something about this running off into the sunset deal.

Time to get deep!

I am feeling my mojo here!

Scantily clad me as seen by my lover.

Last gaze down the beach

Alas were once again back to using the public transit for logistics help.  It's cheap, and effective, but on holidays, the 901 runs only once an hour and we were not going to miss the next bus.  Although we could see the stop from where the picture at right was taken, it took a surprising amount of time to get there.  Although a tunnel crosses directly under the bus stop, we had to get around some rather burly looking fences, via an incredibly roundabout way before finally getting there.  Still we made it with time to spare and watch Venus descend over the palms.  Soon were whisked back to Glorietta Bay, where our car was waiting.

While the bus shelter should have been at the end of this tunnel it took us ~ 7 minutes to get there from here.

Waiting for the 901, enjoying the bus shelter art.

Venus above the palms