Chéticamp Island Tombolo EarthCache

Chéticamp Island Beach is a beautiful sandy and pebbled beach on the Cape Breton Trail in the community of Chéticamp, Nova Scotia, Canada. The sandy beach measures about 1.5 kilometres long.

Chéticamp Island has a few points of interest that are of value to the community. Both the northern tip and the southern tip are identified as sea bird nesting grounds. Various species of birds nest both in the grassy fields and on the rocky cliffs. Chéticamp’s scenic lighthouse is also located on the northern tip of the island. 

Chéticamp Island is attached to the mainland by a Tombolo on the south-east corner.

A tombolo is a sandbar that connects an island to the mainland. Tombolos are formed when the wave refraction off two landmasses (the island and the mainland) is such that sand and other sediments (solid fragments of organic or inorganic materials that come from weathered rock and transported by wind, water, or ice) are deposited between them and build up faster than they can be removed. Over time, these sediments form a ridge that eventually becomes higher in elevation than sea level and connects the island to the mainland at all tides. Once attached, the island becomes known as a tied island.

Factors to consider are:  Level of bank erosion and bank height  Coastal geology Presence of vegetation, marsh, beach  Wave energy/exposure Fetch (distance over open water over which the wind has blown)

To log this Earthcache visit the viewing location.  Please answer the following questions and send in a timely manner to my geocaching profile or email. Answers not received will result in deleted logs.

Questions:

1 - How long is the tombolo?

2 - How wide it the tombolo?

3 - What is the elevations at the posted coordinates?

4 - Describe the physical characteristics of the east and west sides of
the tombolo? 

5. [REQUIRED] In accordance with the updated guidelines from Geocaching Headquarters published in June 2019, photos are now an acceptable logging requirement and WILL BE REQUIRED TO LOG THIS CACHE. Please provide a photo of yourself or a personal item here to prove you visited the site.