Montauk, Long Island Surprises on the Beaches

 

 This is the Montauk Light House at the eastern end of Long Island. It was a fantastic clear, brisk , weekend and there were surprising things to see.

There were stone arrangements everywhere!  Who did this?  And why?  What did they mean?

The first one that I saw was on a log on the beach.

The next one that I saw was down near the jetty.  A memorial.

 So we decided to make one too.  An anchor the natural choice.

We changed it up a bit.  Would it be there the next time we traveled to Montauk?

 Later near the beach in the Light House park, we saw other stacks of rocks.

 A large frog stone carving sat in the hilltop cemetery.

 When we first got to Montauk, I saw an unusual thing, a telephone booth.

 That was just the start of unusual Montauk surprises.  A walkway coming out of the Phragmities in another perk lead to

 a strange boat house that was used for Fire rescue?

Beware.

 Then we explored Camp Hero.

 We saw the only surviving intact example of a large frequency diversity radar unit left in the U.S. and it was huge!

 At the Second House in Montauk, a preserved historic structure we found a dug out canoe.

 But the strange thing was , a face was carved in the inside end of the canoe!

 Because a hurricane blasted Bermuda that week,

 giant waves made their was to Montauk.

 Surfers came out by the dozens.

 and what was odd to me was that unlike other Long Island beaches with their smooth sandy shores, where surfers flock, this beach at Montauk was littered with large rocks, known as Glacial Erratics. 

 These rocks were left over after the glaciers formed Long Island,  and by the erosion of the cliff  over time by harsh tides.

 What drives surfers to test these waters and  dodge large boulders!  Is it the ultimate challenge, and  a demonstration of skill?

There were signs warning surfers and hikers to stay back from the unstable cliffs.

 The waves were so tempting to these daredevils, that they braved rocky trails to get to the surf on beaches, one named Ditch Plains, carrying their boards.

 Getting back to the village of Montauk, all of the lamp posts were decorated for Halloween with creepy figures.

 If you have followed this blog you know that years ago I wrote about plastic wagon wheel debris.  They were released by accident by the millions from of all places a water treatment plant in Mamaroneck, NY.

 Each time I visit a beach on Long Island's north shore, I look for these wheels.

 The first ones I saw were in Sunken Meadow, western Suffolk County.

These were found in Montauk!  That is more than a hundred miles away from the original location.  Sadly somehow they have reached the end of the Island.

As you can see the weekend was crystal clear and probably one of the last warm stretch of days to enjoy Montauk.  So, there were unusual elements to the landscape, and these gave the pre-Halloween weekend a special twist.