Zeus did a fly-by
I told this story on Facebook but it’s about such a good thing I’m going to post it here too.
So when I realized back in the spring what a fool I’d been not going to the Arboretum I started going there quite often, and one of the first places I went was the trail that goes north and away from the arboish part of the Arbo but is still part of the same big chunk of land. That trail goes underneath a Seattle-East Side freeway to a small island in Lake Washington, and also to a second trail, a spectacular engineered one, that goes over the water to a raised lookout tower and a tiny island called Marsh Island and is just one epic view after another. Part of it is metal grid and part of it is woodchip-packed solid.
So, I went to that trail back in March or April, all bright-eyed and eager for the treat, but what I found when I got there was that it was destroyed. It was underwater. I was CRUSHED. A few weeks later I checked the other end, which is next to the Montlake Bridge of questing tourists fame. I was hoping I could go some distance onto the trail from that end – but no, that end was if anything even worse.
It wasn’t just that I wanted to walk on it, though it was certainly that, but it was also that it was such a great thing and so horrible that it was ruined. (The reason I stopped using it was because I got too irritated about encountering runners thundering over it in defiance of the very clear signage at each end of the trail saying no running on this fragile trail. It was the runners who destroyed it. Fiends.)
But. I had a faint hope that the scorching dry summer we get here might dry it out enough so that I could hop from puddle to puddle for at least part of the trail.
So, you know what’s coming next. After a couple of weeks of not being able to go on many explores I went back to the Arbo today and decided to go to Foster Island and maybe see if the trail was any better, so I did that, and by god it’s battered but NOT DEAD. It’s a little tacky in places, but only a little. I can’t tell you how ecstatic I was.
The lily pads were very much in evidence today.
Updating to add – I forgot! Just as I came around the curve into full view of the open water, the far side of the Bay, the vast sky, etc, a Bald Eagle sailed into view a few yards away, alone in that huge deep blue sky. I suspected it was Zeus in one of his many disguises.
A fair while back I got into bird photography. So I go to the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens when the aloes were flowering, aiming at getting shots of the sunbirds there.
I line up my shot, and galumph, galumph, galumph comes the only runner I’ve ever seen at the place. Bird of course, is startled and flies off.
Sodding runners.
SERIOUSLY.
The eagles definitely seem to have made a comeback… wasn’t too many months back that I saw one of the things perching on a farm fence post like he was a bloody hawk. I’d *never* ever seen one that wasn’t in a zoo or on TV.
They certainly have in Seattle. It never gets old seeing them though, especially very close and against a brilliant deep clear blue sky. “Welcome back to the dear old Waterfront Trail,” said Zeus.
I think I need to make a return visit to Seattle and spend more time there this time. I saw so little while I was there.
It’s an insanely beautiful city.
If you want to see lots of eagles, drive a little bit north of Seattle to the Skagit valley in the autumn as they congregate for the returning salmon. Bald eagles are the most represented, but there are plenty of golds in the bunch, too. There are so many that they have to compete for places to roost in the riverside trees along the Skagit River. (The city of Mt. Vernon is one of the gathering points for eagle-watchers in that area.)
That being said, there’s something to be said for the sight of a lone baldy riding the air currents, anywhere in western Washington, pin feathers curling, as it spies down below for some unlucky varmint!
I’ve done that Skagit Valley trip. It was a few decades ago, so I’m sure the eagle numbers are far bigger now, but even then it was quite a sight.
There are a fair number of eagles in and around the other Washington, too. It’s one of the rare environmental success stories.
(Runners too, alas. And cyclists. There’s a formerly dead-end trail through a marsh where I sometimes go to see the herons and the occasional osprey, but they built a bridge at the end and now cyclists and runners use it as a short cut. Still nice, but not nearly as peaceful.)
There are a few osprey on Lake Washington, several miles south of the trail in this story. A few summers ago three of them (at least I always assumed it was the same bunch) made a habit of coming over here to the western edge of the city every afternoon. I’d be walking home and hear that cry and look up…