Skagit River 1-1-14

On New Year's Day Dave and I drove up the Skagit River hoping to see bald eagles in large numbers.  As it turns out, we only saw 3 or 4 total, but it was still worth the drive.  The Skagit is such a huge beautiful river. 

There is actually an eagle in this picture.

 

 Let me zoom in... see?

We drove up to Marblemount and went to the fish hatchery.  It wasn't open, but there is a little nature trail there that leads down a stream and to a branch or tributary of the Skagit.  There were coho and another kind of salmon, just the very last stragglers of the run coming up the little stream to the hatchery they were born to spawn.  The coho were bright red on their sides.

 

 Adventure Dog really enjoyed being able to stretch his legs and check out the scenery.

 

 

 So did Adventure Dave!

We talked to a man who was there steelhead fishing and he said the energy companies let their dams on the Skagit hold up too much water last winter and Fish and Wildlife asked them to release some of their water as the river was too low, but they refused until all the red tape had been cut through and they were officially told they had to.  They did, but the river had been too low and froze and thousands upon thousands of salmon eggs were destroyed.  It's reprehensible that knowing better they did nothing to alleviate a terrible situation and thereby made a vast impact on our Northwest ecology and economy that will be felt for years to come.

 

It was a very interesting and scenic trip to make and we were happy with our little adventure even though we didn't see a lot of eagles.

Carkeek Park

Another close-in trail, and perfect for those of us who ate too much for Thanksgiving to tackle a very long trail, is the trail system at Carkeek Park.  There are miles of trails here, but you can meander through all of them (it’s not one continuous loop though), or just do a little bit for the fresh air and scenery.  My youngest son came with for this trip.

Salmon spawn in Piper’s Creek which runs through the gulch there, and in fact yesterday there had been a celebration in their honor.  Hopefully they showed up for their celebration, because we didn’t see any today.  We also didn’t see any bald eagles, but it was still worth the trip. 

We ended up walking some of the South Bluff Trail, beautiful trees although the recent storm had brought quite a few down across the trail. 

From there we walked onto the beach, via a tiny bridge over the railroad track.  The tide was high, but I love walking on any beach any time, so I was happy with the bit of sand, some shiny smooth rocks and various holey twisted driftwood stumps. 

 Leaving the beach, we meandered up past a playground up the north bank, and then back down that bank to Piper’s Creek, looking for salmon again, and back to the car, maybe 2 miles total.