8/10ths of a Mile In a Beautiful Forest

Yesterday afternoon, after I left the library, I went up to Sol Duc Falls. Short hike in a beautiful forest (1.6 mi. roundtrip from trailhead), with big reward at the end. I think the trees there are Douglas fir, even after all the years (35!) since I lived on Roundtop Mountain, when a forest feels this familiar I think I know where I am. (Though cones are hard to find on such a busy and wet forest floor, they looked right in a half-rotted sort of way.) Beautiful waterfall, even in relatively low water. I guess I'll have to go back throughout the winter and see it in many levels of flow. Trail goes on to Deer Lake, I think it is, 3 mi. further in.

This was after I went to Salmon Cascades to look for salmon. The newspaper article about the salmon-watching event on Saturday--"Watching the Salmon Come Home"--really made me eager to see them, and want not to wait until the weekend to have an encounter with a new kind of charismatic vertebrate (leaping fish). Which I didn't see a single one of. I watched for quite a while. Nobody leaping. Nobody appearing to be swimming around in the pool below the cascades. Of course, I had needed a passerby's help to spot the pink salmon at Railroad Bridge Park, so maybe my eyes don't know what to look for, but I think they should have been plainly visible. Maybe I'll have to go back regularly 'til I see some; but I'm not sure I'll join the crowd on Saturday, since M. is taking me walking with Mr. Goin the next day.