When: March 2012 (three days shy of exactly nine years ago)
Where: Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River
With: Brian and my partner
What: exploring off-trail
Accompaniment: Hallways by Islands (check out the goofy music video)
Did we have a goal for this day besides wandering? I don’t remember, but wander we did. An unintimate logging road injected us directly into the forest. We delved off it into the woods to see what there was to see.
On a steep hill in a stand of second growth, we found a homemade mountain bike course, complete with wooden ramps and jumps. Tools stashed beneath the boardwalk. I tensed up, waiting for a bike to come careening through the trees. None did. There was no one around, but it felt like we were intruding. This part of the forest was claimed. Someone else’s treasure.
But there was still plenty for us to explore. Signs of the past – the ruin of an old-growth cedar from an earlier age of the forest. Signs of the future – catkins hanging from the spreading branches of a beaked hazelnut, a field of saplings bright in the sunlight. A day at the sharp edge of spring, when the forest is still clinging to the remnants of winter.
What hidden treasures have you stumbled across on your adventures?
Share your story in the comments!
