Christmas Music Still

Inane Christmas music still playing in the stores -- ugh ugh ugh.

A chipmunk ran across the trail halfway up Mt. Peak. Lots of dogs, including tiny ones.

House fire near Mt. Peak on Dec. 23rd. Saw no sign of it.

Herds of 15-30 elk seen recently in the fields.

Mt. Peak gives me a clear head and chest and endorphins that last all day.

Three-Legged Dog on Mt. Peak

Up Mt. Peak Christmas Day -- a 3-legged short-haired lab with a couple near the top. This is the second 3-legged dog I've seen recently on the hill. Think of the able-bodied people who complain they can't climb the hill, or even walk on the level. It's shameful. The elderly and toddlers go up the hill. It brings great health and a powerful sense of well-being. It's one of the best exercises in the area, or anywhere.

Christmas Eve day kind of sunny, dry. Frosty last night. Christmas Day mostly sunny, clear.

As I got to the bottom of Mt. Peak, there was one chipmunk racing around a tree, right next to the parking area.

Think of the 3-legged dogs for inspiration to get and be healthy, a good thought for Christmas.

Quiet on Mt. Peak

Up Mt. Peak today -- pretty quiet, but a fair amount of people there, probably because the sun came out earlier.

Again saw or heard no chipmunks or birds on the hill.

Just crows standing on the fenceposts in the fields along Warner.

Geese & Seagulls

In the fields south of Battersby, one was full of seagulls, another of Canadian geese, showing in this case how birds of a feather flock together.

Another absolutely grey raining day. And it didn't have warmth going for it -- just cold on top of the grey and rain.

The first day of winter.

Oh, now that the sun's going down in 30-40 minutes, we have a weak, puny sunbreak.

Stone Stacking

Recently, on the top of Mt. Peak, someone restarted a tradition from a few years ago: stone-stacking. This is simply the building of small towers or stacks of smooth stones, as a simple art form and landmarker.

The stacks have a charm to them, maybe because of the simplicity of them evoking childhood, and just the fact someone is taking the time to make a little something without real self-reward. They seem to be made for no other reason than to create a little wayside fancy for other hikers' eyes:

Fairy stacks, made from fairy stones.

Wall-to-Wall Stress

Some sun today.

Flock of Canadian geese flew over, honking.

Another downer depressed lonely day.

Wall-to-wall stress.

Rain All Night

Warmer, but with this grey drear, loneliness and depression oozes out of the air.

A lonely, monochrome day.

The market was hopping -- people need to eat.

Rain, rain, all last night, the drips clicking on the leaves, as though someone was working at something outside the window: click; click; click.

Woke up to soaking. Lawns flooding.

Almost Sunny

Sunny this morning, the rays coming in under the clouds. It was almost sunny today, at least in the first part. It was somewhat bright, and not raining, anyway.

In one of the new warehouses on the corner of Garrett and Battersby, there is finally a tenant. Will they make it in this economy? Will the other vacancies fill? And with more warehouses projected for across Battersby, what will become of them?

Enumclaw being largely a farming town, what can we do to build on and encourage farming here? The farms will be vital if we slide into a full-on depression, providing food for trade.

Scrub Jays, Seagulls, & Chipmunks?

I awoke today to the squawk of a scrub jay, and soon after, the cry of a seagull. Both sounds evoked California, seagull cries being the main chorus of San Francisco's soundtrack. It was odd hearing them, since I haven't heard either for a long time. It seemed to have something to do with the warmer weather and morning sun, after the cold and snow and low, grey clouds recently.

Up Mt. Peak today, it was quiet. Usually a chipmunk or two peeps and peeks, but I didn't notice any animals on the hill this time. Were the animals elusive, or was I just distracted and preoccupied?

Mt. Peak Vandalism

Any time a man made structure is placed on Mt. Peak, it usually doesn't take long for it to be defaced or destroyed.

The first obvious instance of this was when a boy scout troop planted signs at intervals along the trail to the top. Each of these was mounted on a 4x4 post, had a hinged cedar cover, and underneath a plaque explaining the flora to be seen along that area of the path.

Almost immediately after these signs were placed, the cedar covers were ripped from their hinges and disappeared. Some of the plaques underneath were destroyed or went missing. And several of the signs were pulled out completely by their posts and thrown downhill on the side of the trail.

Recently a monument was placed at the top of Mt. Peak, commemorating a former regular hiker. It's a large, solid, wooden pillar, set in cement. It has an angled top, where a plaque was attached with a quote and the man's name. This monument lasted about one day intact: The plaque was shattered and removed, and the pillar cracked and gouged, probably in attempts to split it completely.

Recently, the stone sign at the north entrance to the Mt. Peak trail was defaced with a warning in spray paint for those of a certain race to keep out. The Parks Dept. has been unable to completely remove the lettering and restore the sign.

The oddity about the vandalism of the signs along the main path to the top, and of that of the monument at the top, is that why would vandals go to all the trouble to climb Mt. Peak just to destroy these things? Climbing that hill takes a little work, and you would have to pick a time when you wouldn't be seen by other hikers in order to wreck these things. Why go to all that effort?

Building is hard; destroying is easy:

Why would vandals, who don't like hard, but do like easy, do something relatively difficult by climbing Mt. Peak in order to wreak all this damage? Rather than run-of-the-mill vandalism, maybe the motive behind some of the actions is resentment of human alterations to the hill. Maybe not all of the damage is from a human agency.

Rain

And it warms up and snow gives way to rain.

A dreary, soggy day.

Does the grey drear really conduce to loneliness?

Snow

We had the first real snow of the season yesterday, with about an inch on the ground.

Today, with it pushing 40 degrees, it's already slushy.

I wonder how much there is on the top of Mt. Peak.

Canadian Geese

There was a flock of Canadian Geese in a stubbly field along 456th/Warner today, near Mt. Peak. This field had been growing corn. There was no sign of the blue heron today. Toward the end of summer there were several raptors hanging around the bottom of Mt. Peak, and hunting the surrounding fields. I may have seen one today, as it swooped down from a power line into a field and seemed to catch something, but it was too short a glimpse to be sure.

Bigfoot Sighting in Enumclaw

Here is a sighting from 1975, but reported only several years ago:

http://www.oregonbigfoot.com/report_detail.php?id=00426

Can anyone pinpoint which field this was in, southeast of downtown Enumclaw?

Is it right against 410, or closer to Mt. Peak?

Bigfoot Sighting at Mud Mtn. Dam

This sighting was reported recently, but occurred in 2002:

http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=26255

That's getting close to home, isn't it?

I wonder how many other sightings of the odd and uncanny there are in the area, but haven't been reported. How many loggers and outdoors-people have seen strange things, but don't talk about them?

The Judge Bathum Sign-Smasher of 276th

A road sign north of Mt. Peak on 276th, near 456th, saying, "This road is in the care of Judge Bathum & family", or words to that effect, has had a rocky history over the past few years: During that time, every couple of weeks to couple of months, the sign has been ploughed down and snapped off by a truck or car.

Sometimes, you could see skid marks where the vehicle lurched off the road, drove through the sign, and swerved back onto the road. I would see the sign lying on the shoulder, with nothing but a nub of its 4x4 post still in the ground. The sign would disappear for a week or two, then reappear, repaired, in its usual place. Not long after, the sign would be ploughed down again, the sometimes splintered post revealing the ferocity of the vandalism.

I saw this pattern repeated several times over the last few years. Each time the sign was brought down, the City would take it away, and a few days later it would be back in place.

About four months ago, the sign was flattened yet again. It was taken away as usual, but as of this date, it still hasn't returned. It appears the City has finally given up on replacing it.

I wonder what event engendered such sustained, passionate rage in the sign-smasher.

Is this a rare case where an individual has fought city hall, and won?

Blue Heron

The blue heron that used to hunt the fields north of Mt. Peak was back today. I hadn't seen it in those fields for a couple of years, since the construction of the new homes in the area. It was standing in a field, stock still, so still you'd think it was a wooden decoy. The other day it was standing, statue-like, in a little marsh at the bottom of Mt. Peak.

What a shame those townhouses are taking over the farm fields. If you build over the farms, what will we eat?

A field isn't an empty space; a field can feed hundreds of people.

Will we ever see the day when warehouses and other buildings are removed to make way for fields? Progress in reverse? Real progress?

We need farms and fields in order to live. The developers of the new townhouse neighbourhood are trying to turn Enumclaw into Kent. We need fields and space.

Welcome

Welcome to the Enumblog, the web log of rural and out-of-the-way news and observations in Enumclaw, Washington, U.S.A.