Do you remember?

Do you remember how the beach looked in the spring of 2024? Do you remember the huge log that occupied "our" beach? It looked like this:

This is not how we left the beach in the fall of '23. In the fall of '23 when we took down the shop, all was nice and tidy. We removed all of our fingerprints, and left the beach how we found it so many times in the spring. And this is what we found in the spring of '24. This log, most likely dislodged by the high spring water run off in the early spring from the banks of the Caycuse River, found its place to spend the summer.

As much as we don't like to change the natural flow of nature, having a log with a big root system sticking into "our" prime kiting launch area is... well not OK, and certainly not safe. In the above picture, Mark already cut the log into more manageable pieces, including making a cut very close to the root, but he was not able to complete the cut because of the water. 

The log decided that this beach is its new home, and here is where it will spend the summer and fought every attempt to move it. We tried to pull it off the beach with our jet-skies and our boat, but the log did not budge. Next we hired the big fishing boat from the fishery in an attempt to move it, and yes it budged, but then the rope snapped.

Initially the plan was to try again, maybe with more ropes, maybe use a section of chain eliminating sharp kinks in the rope. Whatever means we had, we were determined to use them to move the log off “our” beach.

Fortunately, nature decided to give us a helping hand. It started to rain. Not just a little rain, I mean real heavy rain, the dreaded atmospheric river poured onto our area, and the lake started to fill up. In fact, the lakes’ water level started to rise so much that the base of our camp was about to be flooded. It rained for three days and three nights. On the third day, when it cleared up just a bit, I took Ella, my dog, for a walk along the beach in the evening. When I passed by the log, I noticed that the high water level lifted the trunk just a bit and made the log float sufficiently so the waves started to rock the log for and back. Sometime in the night the incomplete cut snapped and the root section flipped over and the log section drifted onto the beach.

This is what it looked like before the cut by the trunk snapped:

The root and the trunk section were “rocking all night long” and in the morning, here is what it looked like:

The cut snapped and the trunk separated from the root section. The root section flipped over and the trunk was pushed onto the beach by the waves. This was great news, because thanks to the high water level we were now able to pull both sections into open water.

Pulling the roots and the trunk into open water solved our challenge. The rest, child’s play. Mark cut them into small pieces, and we rolled them away. OK, maybe not child’s play, but something that could be much easier achieved.

Slowly, piece by piece the log disappeared…

And became useful for many other uses, such as a place to sit and plan the day.

After about a month of working on it, the log was gone, and we once again had the use of the entire beach and didn’t have to worry about the hazard… 

This could not have been accomplished if it were not with the help of many, most notably 

Ditidaht Development Corp
Ditidaht First Nation
Mark and Marie
The Elevation Kite and Wing Center Crew
And many, many others.

Thank you all!