Polletts Cove Beach

Photo #1, a telephoto view taken from off the mouth of Wreck Brook, shows Polletts Cove Beach, which runs across most of the width of this photo. It is the subject of this web page, which will consider the beach area in greater detail.

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Photo #2, a wide-angled view taken from off Polletts Cove, shows the coastal plain below “South Foothill” and the beach which runs below the plain. According to the topographical map, that plain rises from 20–40 m (65–130 ft) above the beach. The mouth of the conjoined Blair and Polletts Cove Rivers is about a sixth of the way in from the right edge of the photo, but cannot be easily seen without magnification in the original.

Photo #3, a telephoto view, shows the mouth of the conjoined Blair and Polletts Cove Rivers at the far left of the photo: not much is visible here—the mouth is, like so many, just a narrow path across a sand bar. The course of the conjoined rivers is short, as the Blair River continues on below the coastal plain while the Polletts Cove River crosses directly behind the beach. The considerable deadwood lining the banks on the far side of the beach as it progresses to the right across the photo could be along either—I cannot make out which with any certainty.

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Photo #4, like the remaining photos on this page, is a moderately wide-angled view. In photo #4, the beach runs across the full width of the photo; the mouth of the conjoined rivers is at the left, just outside the scope of this photo. The Polletts Cove River valley is at the right of the photo, making its way around the lower slope of the mountainside descending across much of the photo.

Photo #5 looks further to the south, where the coastal plain begins to rise above the beach on the south side. Those who have hiked the Polletts Cove Trail from the Archies Brook Trailhead will surely recognize this incline as marking the end of their arduous journey, one which is no easier returning than it was coming. Inland of the beach, the forest is mainly deciduous; apparently the surrounding mountains give enough protection for the hardwoods to thrive.

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Photo #6 looks at the southern end of Polletts Cove Beach and at the southern coastal plain which rises, at least for a short distance, above that beach. In the original, it is possible to easily make out the track of the Polletts Cove Trail as it descends the coastal plain to the beach; in this compressed version, it is not so clear, but can just be made out. The trail enters the forest at the upper edge of the coastal plain after passing to the left of the vegetation in the upper middle part of the plain; I can not make out with any certainty its path beyond the plain.

Photo #7 looks further to the south below the mountain, unnamed, across which the Polletts Cove Trail continues to the south towards the Otter Brook valley. That mountain rises above 300 m (985 ft), though Haynes’ map in the second edition shows the trail rising only to 140 m (460 ft) as it passes below the summit. This view shows heavy erosion on the west side of the coastal plain, with a huge, isolated rock structure still standing, well separated from the coastal plain to which it once must have been connected. Notice, too, all of the fallen rocks in the waters along this coast, which also testify to a much larger coastal plain than now exists. While it may act very slowly, erosion is one powerful force!