Ma-le'l Dunes north

Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge

(Map link.)

I was out to Friends of the Dunes on Saturday for the "Dune Ecosystem Restoration Team" event yanking invasive beach grass from the foredunes, and it made it quite clear the seasons have changed since I was last on the dunes. The shore buckwheat is looking rather stunning and there's lots of other flowers out now too. They're all really enjoying having the room that was once a near monoculture of invasive. (See the calendar here for similar volunteer opportunities.) I decided to visit the north part of the Ma-le'l Dunes once more.

signs at the start — They're not too keen on any fast movement in the conservation area, so no dogs, horses, bicycles, or even running.

I followed Tsoutsgish Trail along the old railroad grade. Trees on one side are slowly falling into the slough and trees on the other slowly getting suffocated by sand. We try to remember that this is alright. This is a land of change. It sits on sands and sands shift.

trees over rusting something — Much of the old railroad grade is clad in rock, but this has a little extra from a wreck.

circle of purple buds with two open — The twinberry honeysuckle occupies a lot of the shifting slopes, but I also found this other honeysuckle.

green tunnel — Where the water edge is buffered by natural sediment buildup and the sand wall has not got close, the path can be quite full of green.

ring of purple flowers — The hedge-nettles coming up now are much taller with bigger flowers.

rows of berries — It is really easy to tell the male silk tassel from the female since one has dried flowers and the other plump berries.

yellow bird with black wings — A little goldfinch stayed still enough to be photographed for once.

supports but no bridge — The end of the line.

I paused briefly before turning back and making my way up the Dap Loop to Viqhul Trail, another that dead ends. The tree that was on the intersection was long gone. I followed it up and back, too.

soft edges for the land — Some of the softer edges the land is meant to have.

forest in the dunes — Where the forest holds the sand tight, there are high ridges and large depressions.

animal tracks in sand — Tracks mark the wall of sand slowly falling over the trees.

Then I headed up Hout Trail to cross the dunes to the beach. The trail sign has fallen and the first marker is almost buried from the shifting sands. My trouble is that first marker starts one going the wrong way. I thought it was probably actually down to the left, but climbed a bit to see what I might see. There's no nearby second marker.

dark ridges and light troughs — Natural patterns in the sand.

What I saw was a post far down the hill, so I went for it. I should have pulled out the electronic map because I was going the wrong way.

dunes drop down — Way down there toward the ocean is something that is not a marker after all.

The wall of sand doesn't look like so much from here.

hill covered in flowers — Lovely sandy hill gardens of verbena and buckwheat.

yellow flower — The verbena seems to be the greater stabilizer of the sand hills.

What I was following turned out to be an old fence post with barbed wire looping off and around it. I retreated to a thick line of footprints and followed it, not finding any trail markers along the way. If I was on the correct trail, I'd have found a few while crossing the foredunes. At least it didn't cross over into Lanphere Dunes.

little ball of pink flowers with a fuzzy bee — Bumble bee resting on the buckwheat.

buckwheats and grasses — The foredunes with no sign post, but a fair amount of natives.

So I walked a bit more of the beach than expected until finding the signs first for Hout Trail, then for Kimuk Trail. They are very close together.

little birds working the beach — A cluster of little birds poking around for food.

So I turned to head up the dunes again, this time past a number of posts. They are variously getting buried or falling out too. This time I managed to follow the trail.

tan case of a bug — A beetle doing its thing.

all those flowers — Flower fields in the sand.

tiny complicated flowers — Owl clover was much more prevalent south of here.

round and with stabs of flowers — Most of these rushes have let go of their flowers already.

grassy top — Over the top and down to the lot once more.

The fog, which I had been hoping was somewhat clear and clearing, had come in thicker while I was there. It was even a little cold with the wind that touched the higher places. Everyone was already gone when I got back to the parking lot. I still got out well ahead of the gate closing at sunset.

*photo album*

©2021 Valerie Norton
Written 24 Jul 2021

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