June 22, 2002

Scouting Trip

There is no kayaking in this report - only a scouting trip.

My goal was to find a launch location in the sea port north of Lake Ogawara. I had paddled the ocean from the north tip of Lake Ogawara to the port and back, and I was looking for someplace to continue my northern journey.

It had been raining all week, and with winds forecast for 20-30 mph, I knew I wouldn't be paddling today. But I was unprepared for what I saw when I first caught sight of the sea state.

There were large whitecaps far out to sea. And the large artificial island (sea break) protecting the port had waves spraying 20 feet into the air as they crashed into it. This sea wall is about 20 feet high to start with, so I was impressed with the power in these awesome waves.

On the beach there was wall after wall of green, curling wave sets. There was a strong dumping surf right on the beach, as well as two more lines of curling waves a little further out. The waves crashed with ferocity, violence and a loud roar.

Exploring the port, which is mostly sea walls with a good 10-15 foot drop to the water, I did manage for find a small beach that would be an easy carry from the parking lot. A ship was exiting the port as I was looking around, and I should have paused a moment to watch it navigate out of the port, but my mind was set on exploring.

Back in the car I continued north looking for additional beaches from which I could launch. With surf so big, this wasn't the ideal scouting trip - all the beaches looked too treacherous.

I finally ended my trek north in a little town at the base of the mountains. Here the waves were breaking clean. So large they appeared to be moving in slow motion. As they exploded on the shore and in lines a little further out, the water would shoot up to a height twice the height of the original wave. I wondered if a kayaker could survive such a pounding.

In this little town, the children ran the streets freely - as though they rarely encountered a car. Darting back and forth across the street, often in front of my car - they seemed oblivious to me even being there. Here the seawall protecting the town had water spilling over it.

I headed back south to what has become my ocean `play spot'. I wanted to see how bad the waves were for my own reference.

I was a bit shocked to find most of the beach was gone. Normally it is about 150 feet wide, but today it is less than 50, and in places I actually had to drive in the upper reaches of the wave surge. The beach is strongly eroded, with a steep drop-off to the water.

A small one-lane bridge across the little creek that leads to Ogawara is now open. It has been closed off since I've been coming here. So I venture across and down to the beach to scout the beach south. The beach is steeper than the other side, and the waves crashing harder. The last break is dumping on the beach, and sloshing up the steep shore. When the water rushes back down to the sea, it meets with the next wave crashing and creates what could only be described as `liquid sand'. The mixture of crashing wave, back wash, and churning sand looks deadly. To land a kayak here would be impossible to escape a thrashing.

On the beach it is littered with trash. I decide to drive as far south as I can looking for anything that may be of interest in the piles of trash washed ashore. Light bulbs, oddly enough, are everywhere. Incandescent, fluorescent, and large mercury bulbs seem to be everywhere. I passed probably 4 soccer balls washed ashore (World Cup debris?).

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