OWL-DRAGON

Downna Shore

So after most of March had below average temps, the first seven days of April have been above average. Breezes off the ocean make for cooler temps at the shore, but bright blue skies make for lovely weather. I did two shore runs. Saturday I ran on the beach - first south toward Longport. A strong wind was blowing north to south. I enjoyed the push but knew it would be much harder heading back. It turned out to be one of the more fierce winds I have run into. I tried to run as close to the surf as possible so that there would be less sand blowing on me; fortunately the tide was going out so there was a good swath of wet sand. Probably because of the wind I had the beach mostly to myself. Many of the homes are still boarded up against the winter. Last year I wrote about the beach replenishment project along the Ventnor/Atlantic City beaches. Unfortunetely, along about a ¾ mile stretch of Ventor's beach the replenishment is gone. The photos are below. The dunes held but the sea carved out small cliffs ranging from a couple of feet to 9 or 10 feet high making the beach inaccessible in those areas. With the summer season six weeks away I wonder what the town will do - at high tide the water comes right up to the "cliff" hence no beach.

On Sunday I did a boardwalk run - it is that transitional time of year - many people walking seemed dressed for January whereas I was quite comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts. The Atlantic City portion of the boardwalk seems as tired and run down as ever. Caesars has some new development going that looks as unfinished now as it did last October and Showboat is undergoing some kind of renovation but right now just looks deconstructed. But it was such a beautiful day. On the way back a bicyclist came up beside me and we talked about weather, beaches and how crowded it would soon be. It was nice and I reflected how unlikely that scenario would have been on my normal Sunday route.

Have you seen the new feature on google maps - you can see a satellite image of any location. This is the photo image of part of Absecon Island.

The thin black line closest to the water is the boardwalk. To move up or down the beach just move your cursor. Left is south toward Longport and right is north toward Atlantic City.

It's always fun to get out on ever changing beach.