Franklin Ghost Town Hike 4-16-2016

Every spring I try to do the Franklin Ghost Town hike while the daffodils are blooming.  I missed last year entirely, and this year the daffodils were gone, but it was a very worthy outing!  The weather was absolutely perfect- sunshine and blue skies.

Once Cedar and I got up to the top of the hill we were dazzled by Mount Rainier, like a huge crystal mountain against the sky.

There is not much left of a mining town that thrived here above the Green River Gorge in the late 1800's.  Just a few foundations and some rusting relics. 

 

The shaft of the mine (I assume there were other shafts, but this is the only one I know of that is open and findable) bores down 1300 feet from the top of the hill to 500 feet below sea level.  Working in this place would not have been the most pleasant of occupations.

Once you pass the mine shaft, you end up on a pleasant trail through the woods, with wildflowers and bird song.  Today there were bald eagles circling the hill too. 

Along this trail to the right, you can view what remains of the rails that once held the water pipe that supplied Franklin with water. 

Where the trees are covered with ivy as wide as your arm, and blue, white and yellow flowers nod sleepily below visiting butterflies, you will find the Franklin cemetery.  This is what really brings me.. the mine shaft and the cemetery.  There is something that feels right about making that connection between the warmth and new life of spring with the long-silent lives of those who have passed on before.  Some of the graves here mark the resting places of miners who were killed in one of the worst mining tragedies in the U.S.  On August 24, 1894 a fire was deliberately set in this mine, and 37 miners suffocated when another shaft was opened by a father attempting to rescue his son.  This is a history that shouldn't be forgotten.
There are also the graves of children.  A very real reminder of just how hard life was back then; when the temperature of your latte was not the most pressing matter. 

And again on a bright note, this is a great hike for wildlife. Not necessarily great big hairy animals that you'd want to frame a photo of, but lots of great little critters that are fun to watch.  Butterflies, garter snakes, snails, millipedes, robins, woodpeckers, and the songs of other birds I couldn't quite glimpse. 

Lovely day for a lovely step back in history.

Cannon Beach OR 04-10-2016

Taking some much needed get away time, Dave and I went to Cannon Beach, OR for the weekend.  Along the way we saw a sign for a covered bridge, so we took a lovely short side trip to this covered bridge.  I got to drive through it!  I noticed there was a rope swing hanging underneath it, but it wasn't warm enough to try it out.

 Cannon Beach is such a pretty mellow town. Lots of shopping, galleries, and of course that huge sandy beach.  We had a pretty view of the ocean out of our hotel window and we could just step outside and go for a wander.  Haystack Rock was a bit south of us, but not too far for a walk.  I spent a lot of my time walking back and forth barefoot over the smooth sand. 

 The weather was cloudy with sunbreaks and warm the whole time. No rain!

I think this was called Tillamook Rock Lighthouse

 I really wanted to see the tufted puffins that are supposed to nest on Haystack Rock. I looked through my zoom until my eyes watered, but only saw the penguin-like common murres, cormorants and gulls. Later when I zoomed in on my photos there were a couple puffins there!  I guess it's kind of cheating to check them off my list since I didn't know I was actually seeing them.  I'll have to go back with something more powerful.

Pair of tufted puffins barely discernable at center

Harlequin Ducks

 There were so many cool things to see on the beach... sand dollars, razor clam and mussel shells, the occasional pretty rock.

Empty Armor

 Another sight along all the tidelines, were these jelly fish.  They are called Velellas and they have a little sail that scoots them all around the ocean.  Sadly sometimes it scoots them up ashore, and they were there by the thousands!  Very pretty and interesting jellies though.

Velella Velella

So many marooned sailor velellas

 The people were interesting too and it was great to see so many of them enjoying such a variety of activities.  Next to sand castle construction, kite flying seemed to be the most popular.

 Here was a different take on sand castles!  I don't know who built it, but later I saw a little kid further down the beach painstakingly trying to construct a cliff dwelling of his own.

 After we left Cannon Beach we went south to check out the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We pulled over first for these pretty views of other rock stacks.

The Tillamook Cheese Factory was not exactly what I expected.  It's basically a huge gift shop/café with a few observation windows from which you can see the cutting and packaging.  It was pretty cool to see so much cheese!  Yum!  And there were samples at the end too.  No savings on cheese in their grocery section either.  I usually pay a couple dollars less by watching for sales at grocery stores.  It wasn't too far out of the way though, and if we had been hungry I've heard the café is excellent.

 To make our way north to Tacoma where we were going to an Iron Maiden concert on our last night, we took some back roads that my phone's map app showed.  What a worthy drive!  We saw tiny little communities up in the hills, gorgeous forests, winding rivers, and these elk that went up the hill when they saw us walking back for photos.  For big animals they moved so quietly- like big ghosts through the trees.  Don't worry- we weren't as close as these photos look and there was a small river in between us.

 There were also pretty wildflowers blooming- trillium and bleeding heart.  I was glad we stopped!