I hope you're watching out for the Blair Witch up there!

I rode my Specialized Hardrock out to Fire Island to gawk at recent modifications to the scenery made by Hurricane Sandy. It is a very strange sensation, to stand in a place that you know to be familiar, but find it unfamiliar. This sand dune used to stretch a mile or so without a break. Now it is a series of small fragments with nothing between them but clean sand, sometimes with a few roots sticking out at alarming angles. In the background is a large spillover area where the remains of the dune lie over the vegetation. There was an older spillover in that area, mostly overgown by now; now it's fresh again.



The damage is most obvious where something man-made has been moved around. These boardwalks were a nice place to walk among the dunes:


But as you can see, there's not much walking on them now:



The darker sand on the beach is hematite (the black stuff) and garnet (the red stuff). A lot of the hematite, which is really heavy, has been exposed now. I thought I'd be able to ride on it. Hah! There is no way to ride on this beach; it is too soft. It was fun trying, though. Perhaps I'll get some fatter tires and try again next month.