Pollett’s Cove Estuary and Barrier Beach EarthCache

Pollett’s Cove Estuary and Barrier Beach>

Pollett's Cove is a wilderness estuary on the northwest coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.  As part of the  Aspy Fault Wilderness Area which  was designated in 1999. It was expanded by 89 hectares in 2015, primarily with the addition of barrier beach and several islands at Aspy Bay.

This must be one of Nova Scotia's best-kept wilderness secrets!  It is accessible only by boat or on foot via an arduous hike . The hike into Polletts Cove involves a three-hour trek along the hillside from Pleasant Bay heading north, with a couple of 250 m climbs thrown in for good measure. Or an even longer, more difficult trek from Meat Cove, heading south (2 to 4 days).  Pollett's Cove was first inhabited by the Mi'kmaq. The trail to Pollett's Cove is linear, and runs 7.25K along the coast. Saying that, it's a very well built trail that needs no markers.

Geographical

Polletts Cove River drains the Grenville-aged rocks of the Blair River Inlier {an older rock formation isolated among newer rocks} in the northwestern Highlands join forces to then flow into the cove while cutting the beach in half before meeting with the incoming waves. The Cove itself - absolutely STUNNING. Meadow lands, hillside, beach, forest, rocky headlands, with a river estuary.  The deep cut valleys and highland ridges here are the result of being located on a fault line. The cove itself is positioned on the edge of the Aspy Fault Wilderness Area in the far back country of Cape Breton Island.

Estuary

>An estuary is a partially enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean. Estuaries, and their surrounding lands, are places of transition from land to sea. An estuary is brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea.

Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environments known as ecotone. An ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and grassland ecosystems).

Estuarine environments are among the most productive on earth, creating more organic matter each year than comparably-sized areas of forest, grassland or agricultural land. The sheltered waters of estuaries also support unique communities of plants and animals specially adapted for life at the margin of the sea.

The cove features a 500-metre, sandy beach at the base of a spectacular valley formed by the confluence of Pollett's Cove Brook and another smaller stream. After joining about 1,000 metres above the beach, the streams flow down through a grassy meadow to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Definition of Barrier beach

Pollets Cove is where a narrow river valley empties into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Where the river meets the sea is a large, naturally sandy beach with a barrier of thousands of pieces of driftwood running along the back-end of the beach. A sand or shingle bar above high tide, parallel to the coastline and separated from it by a lagoon. The barrier beach complex on Aspy Bay is habitat for endangered piping plover.

Bars and Barrier Beaches (they're the same thing)

Bars are linear ridges of sand/shingle extending across a bay and are connected to land on both sides. It traps a body of seawater behind it, forming a lagoon.

They can form in two ways:

1. On drift-aligned coastlines, when longshore drift extends a spit across the entire width of the bay.

2. When rising sea levels cause constructive waves to drive a ridge of sediment onshore to coastlines with a gently sloping shallow sea bed. (barrier beach)

Another definition of a barrier beach is a ridge of material emerging just offshore to form a chain of beaches parallel to the coast (barrier islands).>

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. Elevation reading at these cords (N46 54.593 W060 41.650) which is where you come out of the trees and can see the cove and start the descent.

2. How wide is the barrier beach and what is it made of, the width and do you think will it ever fill in?

3. How was the barrier beach formed?

4. Post a picture in your log with a personal item or hand in picture to prove you were there.

[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 in the picture to prove you visited the site.