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Cape Cod Hikes: The Herring River inlet
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The Herring River
The Herring River Inlet opens into Cape Cod Bay at the southern end of First Encounter Beach in Eastham. This inlet represents one avenue of evolution that is often taken by marsh and baymouth systems like Sandy Neck and Barnstable Harbor. Behind the inlet is an extensive marsh system that is filled and drained by the tides. As the marsh grows and fills in the tidal channels, the amount of water that passes through the mouth of the inlet decreases. As a result, more sediments are deposited by the longshore current in the mouth of the inlet than are soured away by tidal currents, and the inlet fills in. Eventually, if man doesn't intervene, the longshore current will completely seal off the Herring River inlet. When this happens the marsh will enter a new stage in its evolution, in which land plants will slowly replace the marsh grasses.
During the February blizzard of 1978 the sand dune ridge that borders the northern mouth of the inlet was dramatically altered. Sand dunes provide the first line of defense for the back-lying marshes and destruction of the dunes means trouble for the marsh. Sand dunes are held in place solely by a vegetative cover of American Beach Grass. Beach grass grows on dunes by spreading out root systems called rhizomes which help to bind sediment and keep the sand dune in place. The leaves of the grasses baffle the wind and trap windblown sand. Dune and grass thus grow together. This why you see all those signs warning you to Keep On The Trails! and Don't Walk On the Dunes! Annoying as they are, they serve to protect this delicate symbiotic relationship.
But the dunes at the mouth of the Herring River inlet were set upon by a different adversary, the fierce waves of the February storm. These waves decimated the dune ridge that fronted the beach at the inlet mouth and arried some of the sand onto the landward marsh. This is called overwash. A second dune was established thirty yards behind the original dune ridge.
Since that storm a new dune has grown along the beach, replacing the dune that was swept away. So if you stand at the mouth of the inlet and look north you can see two shoreline positions--the present day shoreline and that created by the February storm.
This inlet is a good place to compare the texture of sediments that make up a beach and a tidal marsh. A handful of beach sand is made up of large grains, mostly quartz (light colored) and feldspar (dark colored), even some gravel. A handful of marsh sediments yields a fine mud composed of lighter and smalled grains of silt and clay. You will also see the rootlets that hold the marsh sediments in place.
Directions: Follow the signs for First Encounter Beach in Eastham.
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