Emboldened by my
1st successful forebeach ride a few days ago, I returned to North Ponto Beach at low tide for another run at it with 2 hours to spend.
The "forebeach" is the flattish part near water level. Here I'm parked on a low terrace above the forebeach to the right. The ramp behind my seat is my closest and easiest forebeach access point.
My 2.3" hybrid tires work there only when the sand/gravel ratio (SGR) allows. Low tide seems to be the best time, as I can ride much higher SGRs when the sand's still wet and undisturbed.
Ran into 2 sets of gravel cusps on the initial southbound leg. Walked the bike over this first set, as the gravel was just too deep to ride safely, and the water was too close to ride around to the right. Only willing to get an electric bike so close to saltwater.
That short walk bought me another quarter mile of riding to the south. But lots more gravel at the second set of cusps and even more beyond, so I turned around there.
Terramar Beach was the north turnaround, as the forebeach there just got too narrow for comfort. We get "sneaker waves" here. They don't look any bigger coming in, but they run up the beach a
lot farther than you're expecting. A sneaker up ahead could've put my bike at serious risk.
Terramar has some stunning seaside homes, but nearly all have very expensive cliff stabilization measures in place now. When it comes to property value, the Pacific giveth and the Pacific taketh away.
Note the dark inclusions in this igneous rip-rap boulder. When buoyant magmas push their way upward through the crust, they rip off fragments of the pre-existing rock. The fragments then get trapped when the magma freezes around them underground. These inclusions are said to be "mafic" because they're composed mainly of dark minerals rich in magnesium (Mg) and iron (Fe). The less mafic host rock is probably a tonalite or granodiorite — both of which are more mafic cousins of granite.
Quite surprised that I was able to ride a stretch like this with so little gravel showing (SGR near 100%). The underlying gravel must have been been pretty close to the surface. Got bogged down in stuff like this only twice — likely in pockets where the sand was deeper. No visible warning either time.
Another big surprise was my speed against such high ground resistance. Quite sure I'm the first to break the sound barrier on an ebike — and by a huge margin at that! (Left Terramar without resuming my ride on RideWithGPS. Somehow, this was the result.)
Looking back at Terramar (the nearest point) from the top of the access ramp after leaving the forebeach. Trying to ride through any of those dark gravel patches would have been a recipe for a front-wheel washout. Riding around them wasn't always easy.
Time to go home. Really enjoyed this seaside ride, but it was no stroll on the beach. Even at PAS 3/9, it was physically and mentally taxing — the former because I managed to ride 4.4 miles of forebeach, and the latter because my marginal tires made it rather technical most of the time. Knees weren't thrilled with the low cadences, either.
