Blue Goose ~ Day 31

July 1, 2014 ~ Aberdeen, WA to Seaside, OR

Foxglove - very common along the roads in the Pacific Northwest

My first stop not far from Aberdeen was Willapa NWR, near the Columbia River with habitats of an estuary and old growth forest. Students from the University of Washington have made an Art Trail beginning at the main office, and from that, one can access the Cutthroat Trail. It was only 2/3 of a mile, so I figured I could hike that. There was a warning that it was "strenuous" but this is my job.... It wound through old-growth trees with steep steps cut into the trail which were covered with roofing shingles to help the grip, which I appreciated. I definitely paid attention, which I did even more so after reading one of the interpretative signs about mountain lions. The pay-off was a little bird I saw and heard simultaneously, adding to my life list. The day before, at Dungeness, I had read about the Pacific Wren which sings a long, lovely, complicated song. Look for it "on the forest floor" I read, at which point I had to laugh...since the forest floor is totally obscured most of the time by a billion green things. 

But here at Willapa, I saw one, singing its wee heart out. So the sweating and heart pounding was nothing... The sun was shining through these gigantic trees and short brown needles covered the damp trail which helped with traction. There was a small labyrinth and salmon on the trees and

representative sculptures of local birds.

Salmon on the Art Trail at Willapa NWR - WA

I continued on to Julia Butler Hansen NWR, one of 57 refuges maintained specifically for the protection of an endangered species, in this case the Columbian White-tailed Deer, a subspecies of white-tailed deer. I, unfortunately, was getting hot and weary, the deer were lying low and my thoughts were just to keep moving. I made a token 100-foot walk to the fenced-in fields (to keep the elk out) but it was mid-day and in the high 80s and to be truthful I had no interest in seeing a deer whose tail was brown on the top rather than black.  Not that they aren't important, and I should have wanted to see one....So it goes. 

A guy came into the office and loudly asked, "Are there supposed to be deer around here?" Anyway, this is a quiet, less glamorous refuge but with a specific mandate, definitely a place of shelter. Julia Butler Hansen was a politician from the area, serving 14 years in Congress. 

I had intended to cross over into Oregon and go down I5, eventually getting to Eugene, but after cooling down in a Starbucks that just happened to pop up, I adjusted my loose plan and went west to Astoria after crossing the Columbia. The temperature which was in the 90s dropped 10-12 degrees at the coast. I drove slowly through Astoria looking for a place to stay. I thought about going to Fort Stevens SP, but decided it was too early to stop so I went on to Seaside instead, a busy tourist town, and ended up for the night in a Safeway parking lot. I had jambalaya soup and chicken teriyaki from the deli. The soup was good; the teriyaki wasn't.