Treasure everywhere
Seattle hikes have an underrated charm in winter and spring. When rain still fills the air, and when the droplets pause at each leaf on the way before they join the streams that race down the slopes from every nook. The only reason we are not shocked by such beauty is that it is so commonplace here. The Saturday hike around the Wilderness Peak was an opportunity to celebrate this beauty.
The time of the year, the short distance and elevation make it an excellent candidate for hiking it at nature's speed. An excellent excuse to stay out longer than needed and soak your eyes in moss drenched green. The summit of Wilderness Peak is covered with trees except for a small circular clearing and a bench that I can only assume is where the local wildlife get together for a beer once the humans have left the area.
From there we took a small detour to visit Long View Peak after descending from Wilderness Peak. (I was thankful I forgot my horse at home when I saw a "No Horses" sign at an intersection). The second half of the hike was slower than the first. We had to stop every ten minutes just to look around. We discussed why one particular tree grew in one direction and another grew in a different one. Do trees "decide" to grow one way or another? We argued why we should call our decision making based available choices and resources as "conscious" but that of the trees as "reactive".
The area around the boardwalk on way down next to the huge rock with an incredibly styled moss-top is right out a story book. The board walk curves around the rock mysteriously and when we looked past the turn, we couldn't decide which direction we should take as our parting view of this area.
Even this gorgeous area still came out second best. The credit for the top surprise goes to a spot that my partner caught and called me back. It looked like a love story that overcame trail building through this forest. The tree on the right loved the tree on the left but this trail in the middle came in the way of connecting with its friend on the left. So, it has sent an offshoot, a portion of itself, to cross the trail, to walk along the trail all the way to its friend on the left and then to grow next to it.
There is a Calvin & Hobbes strip where Hobbes asks Calvin what he has found so far when Hobbes finds out he is digging a hole looking for buried treasure. Calvin has found a few dirty rocks, a weird root and some disgusting grubs. Hobbes is joyous that Calvin has found it on his first try. Calvin responds, "There's treasure everywhere".
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