The Quileute Tribe Has Me Thinking About Installing A No Trespassing Sign For The Caddo Nation In Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area

Yesterday Mr. Steve A. caused me to virtually visit a town on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington called Forks.

Forks gets a lot of rain. Something like, on average, 212 days of rain a year. I have moteled, over night, in Forks on two occasions, both dry, but one time cloudy, with the other clear blue sky.

This century Forks became known world-wide due to movies I have never seen which have the word "Twilight" in the title.

Virtually visiting Forks led me to virtually visit the nearby village of La Push. I have gone hiking in the La Push area. The beaches in the La Push zone have some of the iconic Washington Pacific Ocean scenery.

When I Googled for La Push images I came upon the above sign. La Push is the largest village within the Quileute Indian Reservation.

Yesterday I went walking with the Indian ghosts in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area, where the native peoples were forcibly removed from their land.

In Washington, and other states, some native peoples still have their villages intact, and have control over their Tribal lands and so are able to post signs such as you see above.

However, some Pacific Northwest tribes met the same fate as the Village Creek tribes. Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce come to mind

I doubt Arlington's Village Creek Indians had posted any signs informing the incoming Texans they were not authorized to access Village Creek Tribal Lands and if they did so they would be prosecuted and their horses towed.

When you cross the San Juan River, at Mexican Hat, in Utah, into Arizona, you soon come upon a large sign informing you that you are entering the Navajo Nation, where you are required to obey Navajo law, including continuing to wear your seatbelt.

In Texas, near the Mexican border, there is a town called Eagle Pass. Near Eagle Pass the Kickapoo Tribe operates the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino. I have never been to Eagle Pass or the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino, so I don't know if when one visits that area one sees a large sign informing you that you are entering the Kickapoo Nation.

All this Indian talk is making me want to make Navajo fry bread for lunch. If only I knew how...

Getting Cold Walking With The Fosdick Lake Fosducks

The Shivering Fosducks of Fosdick Lake

Yesterday the temperature at my location neared or exceeded 80. Hiking the Tandy Hills yesterday the only outerwear needed were shoes and shorts.

Overnight a new cold front has breezed in, which had the morning starting off with light fog. If I am going to get to experience fog I like it to be of the dense sort. Light fog really is not all that interesting.

Years ago, driving on the Olympic Peninsula, after having hiked to the Pacific from Lake Ozette, heading towards Forks for the night, I found myself in the thickest fog I've ever experienced.

I think the technical term for this type fog is a Pea Soup Fog. This fog was so thick I had to drive really slow. The headlights almost made the visibility worse. Very scary. Eventually made it to an equally scary motel in Forks.

I have not been to Forks since it became famous due to those Twilight movies. I suspect the town has been rejuvenated. Thinking about Forks quickly had me thinking about La Push, which just as quickly had me feeling homesick for some good ocean scenery.

Changing the subject back to the beautiful scenery I see at my current location.

The temperature was in the upper 40s when I drove to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake. Supposedly, according to my computer based weather monitoring device, the wind had it really feeling like it was 27. However, there was no wind blowing making the air feel colder than it was.

Even so, I did not get the right level of outerwear covering me to prevent getting cold whilst walking fast.

I walked around the lake once, and then got back into the climate controlled comfort of my mechanical transportation device.

Even though outside it is cold, I have had no inclination to fire up my interior space's heating device. This place is well insulated. But, I suspect within a few more hours the insulation will no longer be keeping the cold at bay.

Going To Birch Bay In Washington With My Nephew Spencer Jack

Spencer Jack's Sand Castle At Birch Bay

Today I have seen a thing or two that has me a bit homesick for Washington.

One homesickness inducer was reading a Facebook tale, with photos, of hiking last week from Lake Ozette to the Pacific Ocean on the Washington Coast.

I have only done this hike once. Much of it takes place on cedar planks through a cedar forest. It reminded me of where the Ewoks lived in the Empire Strikes Back. I think that is the correct Star Wars movie.

Lake Ozette is near the town of Forks. Forks has become a bigger tourist attraction, in addition to its pre-existing tourist attraction attributes, due to the town now being known as the town where the Twilight movies take place. You know, those vampire/werewolf movies that are inexplicably, to me, popular, with people way younger than me.

The other Washington thing I saw today, that made me homesick for Washington, was my Grand Nephew, Spencer Jack, with a sand castle at Birch Bay.

Birch Bay is a very shallow bay up near the Canadian border, in Whatcom County. In summer the tide goes out, the sun heats up the sand, and then, when the tide comes in, the water gets heated by the HOT sand. Resulting in an awful lot of people having fun in the water.

Birch Bay is a humongous tourist attraction, the likes of which I've not seen since I've been in Texas. I suspect, maybe, the beaches of Galveston may come close on a nice summer day. And maybe South Padre Island.

With Birch Bay you get a lot of Canadians. I don't think you get a lot of Canadians in Galveston. Or South Padre Island.

I like Canadians. They can be a tad annoying, but, for the most part, not. If only they could learn to not end every sentence with "eh". Like they doubt every single thing that comes out of their mouths.

Going to Birch Bay goes back as far as my memory goes. As a kid, more summer weekends were spent at Birch Bay than anywhere else. In my very early years my Grandma Vera had a cabin at Birch Bay. I can vaguely remember one very young birthday at that cabin.

Seeing pictures of Spencer Jack playing in the sand at Birch Bay induced instant melancholy in me.

I actually can not remember the last time I was at Birch Bay. I know I currently have relatives who have moved there since I moved to Texas. I vaguely remember driving up to Birch Bay to meet up with someone a year or two before I moved to Texas.

Birch Bay Driftwood

In all my decades of memory of Birch Bay there is a big piece of driftwood on the beach by Birch Bay State Park that haunts me in dreams. I used to have so much fun climbing on that big chunk of wood.

I must see if I can Google for an image of Birch Bay driftwood.

I think I may have found it. This picture is definitely from the state park part of the south end of Birch Bay.

Right now, at this current point in time, I really am in the mood to move back to Washington. I miss the diversity. And the scenery. And the saltwater.

The weather? Not so much.

Twilight in Forks, Washington

My old home state of Washington has an odd history of TV shows being set in a Washington town and that town then becoming a tourist attraction.

Like when Twin Peaks was a hit. I forget what they called the town on the TV show, but it was set in North Bend, in the shadow of Mount Si and near Snoqualmie Falls and the Snoqualmie Falls Lodge which played major roles as backdrops for the series.

In North Bend there was a coffee shop, I think it used the same name on the TV show as in reality, that being the Mar-T Cafe. On Twin Peaks FBI agent Dale Cooper would go there for the damn fine coffee and cherry pie. Soon, people from all over the world, particularly Japan, were coming to North Bend to go to the Mar-T Cafe for some damn fine coffee and cherry pie.

Even I had to try the cherry pie and the damn fine coffee. After a strenuous hike to the top of Mount Si, we dropped in on the Mar-T Cafe. The coffee was ordinary and my mom's cherry pie is more memorable.

On CBS there was a TV show called Northern Exposure. This show used the eastern Washington town of Roslyn to play the role of Cicely, Alaska. Rosyln was already a tourist town. It being an old mining town with all sorts of things going on. But after Northern Exposure became a hit, Rosyln became super popular with tourists. Rosyln remains a fun place to visit. My last time there was summer of 2001, in July. Lots of tourists. Had good pizza and beer from Rosyln's beer pub.

And now I've learned that some towns on Washington's Olympic Peninsula have become a mecca for tourists due a book and soon to be movie called Twilight. Written by Stephenie Meyer, the series of Twilight books has become the hottest thing since Harry Potter.

Twilight is mainly set in Forks. Forks was a town that had seen better days due to the hit it took from the declining timber industry. Forks has embraced the Twilight thing, with stores all over town selling Twilight memorabilia, like T-shirts. Restaurants have added Twilight themed items like a Bella Burger. Bella is one of Twilight's main characters. Locations have been designated as to where a character works or lives. Totally fabricated.

The fishing village of La Push also figures in Twilight. La Push is the location of some of the stereotypical iconic images of the Washington coast. I don't know how much La Push has embraced the Twilight thing. The bigger town of Port Angeles also figures in Twilight.

Ironically, the author of Twilight had never visited Forks before she wrote her first Twilight book. She has since been to Forks and has said she is amazed at how much it much it matches her imagination. She chose Forks solely due to its reputation as one of the rainiest places on the planet, averaging over 70 inches of the wet stuff a year.

My last time in Forks it was a clear, blue sky, summer day. The time previous was a rainy, gray, misty, foggy winter day. I preferred the latter.