For the first time in what seems months I found myself back on the Circle Trail in the Wichita Bluff Nature Area on this Friday of 9/11. Commemorating this day I was pleased to see what you see above, a collection of 8 or 9 Hoodoo Towers of varying height.
The past couple days have been of the stormy sort. Constant gray and dripping to varying degrees of magnitude, reminding me of typical winter's days I used to experience whilst living in my old home zone of Western Washington.
Western Washington, along with all of the west coast could use some of the extreme dripping which has dripped on my location of late. I do not remember a time when it seemed like the entire west coast was on fire, with everyone I hear from on the coast, be it from Washington, Oregon or California, all reporting thick smoke and nearby fires.
If only they had listened to our moron president and raked those forests.
When the mountains burn it drives wildlife to seek safety out of the forested zones.
A couple days ago Miss Linda Lou, of Mount Vernon, Washington, called to tell me that the day previous she was driving from Mount Vernon to the nearby town of Sedro Woolley when she spotted what she thought was a giant dog out in a field, lumbering along.
Linda Lou stopped at the side of the road, soon joined by others, since it was quickly realized by all that it was not a big dog, but was instead a big bear.
The bear lumbered its way to the parked vehicles, did some sniffing at Linda Lou's car, and then moved on.
Linda Lou was too flustered to think of getting out her phone and snapping photos documenting this rare event.
While it is a rare event for a bear to make its way to the lowlands of the Skagit Valley, upriver, and in the mountains, one frequently sees bears.
I forgot to mention, this remembering to mention Linda Lou's bear encounter came about when I started my computer this morning and the start up screen is that which you see above, a bear roaming in what looks like the Cascade Mountains.
My most recent Washington bear encounter, actually, encounters, happened soon before I moved to Texas. A group of 8 of my nearest and dearest floated the Lady of the Lake on Lake Chelan to the hamlet of Stehekin, in the North Cascades National Park.
We were barely off the boat and checked into our rooms in the National Park Lodge when we had our first bear encounter. A bear had climbed a tree and was drawing a crowd of bear watchers.
That night, and all the nights which followed, we rode the bus to Courtney Ranch, up valley, for dinner of the sorta buffet sort. On the way the bus driver asked if we would like to see some bears. The question was met with an enthusiastic chorus of yesses. So, the bus driver diverted to a side road which led to an abandoned orchard of Delicious apple trees. Dozens of bears of various sizes were in those trees, and on the ground, harvesting apples.
We had bikes with us and so the day after being shown the bear infested apple orchard we biked there. The bears showed no interest in us. I do recollect being slightly unsettled by the sudden appearance of a couple big bears encountered whilst biking back on the main road to the Stehekin lodge.
Long ago I website chronicled that bearish trip to Stehekin, telling the story in three parts.
Click the above sentence to take a virtual visit to Stehekin...
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