Eel River bar beach EarthCache
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Eel River bar beach one of mother nature's treasures!
Welcome to Eel River bar beach!
Natural sandbars are formed by deposition. When the energy of motion in water tires out, the water will
deposit the sediments and it will create a sandbar.
They are typically composed of sand, although could be of any granular matter that the moving water has access to and is capable of shifting around (for example, soil, silt, gravel, cobble, shingle, or even boulders). The grain size of the material comprising a bar is related to the size of the waves or the strength of the currents moving the material, but the availability of material to be worked by waves and currents is also important.
Sandbars are characteristically long and narrow and develop where a stream or ocean current promotes deposition of granular material, resulting in localized shallowing of the water. Sandbars can appear in the sea, in a lake, or in a river. Alternatively a bar may separate a lake or a river from the sea, as is the case of Eel River Bar seperating the river Eel from the Bay of Chaleur.
The term bar can apply to landform features spanning a considerable range in size, from a length of a few metres in a small stream to marine depositions stretching for hundreds of kilometres along a coastline.
Considered to be one of the longest natural sand bars in the world this sand bar is very unique because it has fresh water on one side coming from the Eel River and salt water on the other side coming from the Bay of Chaleur. For this reason the Eel River bar beach area is home to many endangered birds such as bald eagles, peregrine falcons, harlequin ducks, and piping plovers. You can also spot many other species such as ospreys, herons and a wide variety of seagulls and ducks. During migration it is also home to many other species such as geese, terns and scoters.
Having grown up here I have always noticed how the very powerful currents from the Bay of Chaleur would wash up some very interesting things onshore. I’ve found many golf balls and marbles, and different seashells and after storms many sea urchins and starfish wash up. And lets not forget that seasonally many slimy jellyfish wash up too.
To claim this earthcache I ask two things of you:
First estimate the lenght of the sand bar from the main road bridge to the canteen/changing room location and email me your answer.
Second as mentioned earlier the size of the deposits depend on the strenght of the curents... What is the size of the deposits that make up the sand bar (is it fine sand, pebbles, boulders, etc) and would that mean that the currents are strong or weak?
Third (and this part is optional due to earthcache requirements) beachglass is one of the things that the currents seem to deposite constantly...find a piece of beach glass, it can be big or small and any color (blue and red are by far the rarest). You will only find beach glass on the bay side so don’t bother looking on the river side of the bar.
Then take a picture of yourself, your gps and your beach glass at the beach with a background that I will recognize and please post it when you log your find. If you find any other “treasures” please be sure to include them in your photo!
Take your time, enjoy the beach and if you spot my Jeep please stop by and say hello!
Hint: Don’t worry about muggles , beach combing is a normal activity around here.
Note: this cache is dedicated to the memory of my father who took his two girls here many times and who never ever let me beat him at rock skimming... lol.
Congratulations to Tracker@230 for being FTF
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Treasures
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