Lonelilly
Doin' it my way.
June 28, 2009 at 9:51 am
filed under the great outdoors
Yesterday, we managed to take a break from work stuff and went for a hike down to Clayton Beach on Chuckanut Mountain. On our way out the door I asked Evan, “Is it a sandals kind of hike or should I put on shoes?” (we were all in sandals).
“Sandals should be okay,” he said. Famous last words.
We parked off Chuckanut Drive and started into the woods, crossed train tracks, and kept hiking down to the water. The tide was going out, so much of the sculptured sandstone rock-face was exposed. The area is perfect for bouldering, lots of handholds in the rock, and like it or not, bouldering we did. All of us. In sandals. There was no other place to go except into the big drink.
The first time I visited Bellingham 4 years ago, Evan and I did the exact same hike. I was amazed at the Dungeness crabs creeping along the sea floor, giant purple and orange starfish piled in groups, and small jellyfish floating with the current. Colonies of sand dollars and clams are buried in the mud flats south of the cliffs, and geoducks are not an uncommon sight.
But not all that glitters is gold. Sadly, the crab population didn’t look so healthy this time. You can’t go crabbing or collect clams from Clayton Beach because of pollution, and while there are still places where you can do these things, they’ve become increasingly few and far between. Or you have to go out into the San Juan Islands for healthier waters. The Puget Sound is such a thoroughfare for large ships, oil tankers, fishing vessels, and barges that the ecosystem has been really affected by it. Bellingham is lucky because of it’s being situated at the northernmost tip of the Sound (the air is fresher up here, not as much pollution as farther south), but it still has its problems.
In other news, we are still searching for our rent-a-farm. Of course, those idyllic spots out in the county are the hardest to come by, but we’re staying positive.
no comments
RSS / trackback