I hit the beach at 6:30 a.m. The sun\nwas rising over the Coast Range. Forty degrees felt invigorating.\nGulls and terns sat in a rivulet. The spring’s lowest tide revealed\ntide pools and rocks teeming with life. I walked along the ocean’s\nedge and hunted for treasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In short order, they appeared: a\nkeyhole limpet, then another, the latter the tiniest one I’d ever\nseen. Next was a hairy triton, Oregon’s official sea shell. I then\nscooped up a china hat limpet and a white sliver of sea glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I passed an ancient and titanic root\nwad buried in the sand. It might remain on this beach for the next\n1000 years. Hopefully by then America will have moved well beyond\nAmerica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tracks caught me eye. Not bird tracks.\nCritter tracks. I recognized coyote, raccoon, possibly otter. They\nall led from the creases in the crumbling cliffs to the ocean and I\nsurmised the critters were feasting on mussels. The critters knew\ntheir tides. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I kept walking south. I saw an art\ninstallation dangling from the roots of a massive red tree stripped\nof its bark. The art consisted of crabbing gear washed ashore that\nsome artist saw fit to make art with. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Something green in the sand ahead of me\ncaptured my attention. I pulled it free. It was more crabbing gear\ndetritus and I added it to the installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A steep wall of mud, sand, and rock\nstopped me. I noticed a small log, the perfect size, and I picked it\nup and did my driftwood exercises for fitness of body and mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I finished my exercises and heaved the\nlog into the surf. It made a pleasing splashing sound. I walked and\nwalked until I came to the fort I started building a week ago. I\nworked on the fort for half an hour. As I left, I found an exquisite\npiece of bleached beaverwood the size of a cane. I walked home with\nthe cane, twirling it like the beach dandy I am. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I hit the beach at 6:30 a.m. The sun was rising over the Coast Range. Forty degrees felt invigorating. Gulls and terns sat in a rivulet. The spring’s lowest tide revealed tide pools and rocks teeming with life. I walked along the ocean’s edge and hunted for treasures. In short order, they appeared: a keyhole […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,32],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-5067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-beaches","tag-oregon-beaches","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5067"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5070,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5067\/revisions\/5070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}