.03 Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge
I would consider myself a pretty thorough planner. When I’m getting information together for a beachcombing trip, I check the moon phases and events, tide charts, wind speed and direction, weather, and, of course, the best route to get there. And then there are the numerous online forums that I comb through for any tips on the best beaches and access spots, dredging activity, what pier has the best chance of sea glass, etc. BUT - there are just some things you can’t plan for. And a completely empty beach is one of them.
Nothin’ but sand.
It was honestly a little comical. Got up early, packed my stuff up, drove 4 hours, and bundled up in many layers just to come out to an empty beach. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned beachcombing, it’s that the beach is never really empty. You just need to adjust your plans and expectations. The first thing I noticed were some pretty large pieces of plastic trash, and shortly after I spotted a full size 5 gallon bucket and a tire, all washed up onto beach at the wrack line. So I figured if large pieces were being left, today was a day to look for oddities and weird things instead of shells and shark teeth. And sure enough, as soon as I adjusted my expectations for the day and decided to walk that high tide line near the dunes, I found all the things.
I have only ever found one skate egg case before. I left Sunday with over 30. (Yes, they were all empty.) Just one after the other, all either tangled in debris at the wrack line or blown into the grasses at the front of the dunes. I counted 18 total horseshoe crabs, but unfortunately none were still alive. I’ve taken whole horseshoe crab molts before, but the crabs I found today were incredibly heavy since they weren’t molts and still completely intact. I only had my backpack and it was a long walk back to the car, so I left them. I did, however, find a few horseshoe crab tails on my walk so I grabbed them. And the last thing I found a lot of - whelk egg cases, both channeled and knobbed. (Yes, these were all empty as well.) I knew what they were when I saw them, but I haven’t come across any before so cleaning those will be a new adventure for me.
Some honorable mentions - a green crab (an invasive species along the US Atlantic coast), a very large, whole Atlantic surf clam, my very first Atlantic jackknife clam (both halves still attached), a few colorful coquinas, and a small, barnacle-covered channeled whelk.
All in all, not a terrible haul for the day. I did just over 8,000 steps which measured out to about 3.5 miles. While the shelling wasn’t what I was hoping for, it is definitely a beautiful spot and worth a visit if you ever have the opportunity. Since I went in the off-season, parking was free. There were plenty of parking spaces at Little Island Park, and they have public restrooms (open year round) in addition to having a playground. The walk from the parking lot to the beach was short and pretty easy. But prepared to walk if you park at the Back Bay Visitor’s Center. It’s a bit of a hike from the parking lot to the beach but absolutely worth it, even if there are no shells.
The dunes at Back Bay are massive - they look like mini mountains.