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.
I've yet to spy the Blair witch in Burkittsville, though I'm always on the lookout.
It's interesting to see some of the damage that was wrought by Sandy. It's sort of sad, but there's nothing we can really do about it except clean up afterward. Do you know if the "great portage" was damaged by the storm?