 We were out on the Spruce Railroad Trail today, and we
couldn't help noticing that the mud is back. That and the salamanders.
You have to keep your eyes open, or you'll step on one of the unique
species of the Olympic Peninsula. These little lizards are a sort
of red gold, and as you can see in the photograph, they rather blend in
to the background. The rain brings them out and it brings out the
slugs, so this is a great time to explore the trails of Olympic
National Park.
On our way west to the trailhead, we heard a cautionary tale about
feeding wild animals. We picked up some gravel at the quarry a bit off
of 101, west of the Elwha. We're retail customers and drive a Honda
Civic. Most of the folks here drive umpty ton gravel trucks, or
diggers, or grinders. It's sort of a grown up Tonka paradise.
Anyway, we stopped in at the office to be sociable, and pay for our
gravel, and we heard the story of cougar.
It had been a hard winter, and the cougar was about as thin as a
housecat. The owner of the quarry had never seen a big cat so skinny,
and having several hundred pounds of hamburger going stale in the
freezer decided to feed the poor thing. Needless to say, he carried his
pistol, and he kept his distance, but the cat went for the beef and not
for him.
As the season progressed, the cougar put on some weight and and started
to flesh out a bit. A few hundred pounds of hamburger will do that to
beast, or man. There's a documentary on this that just came out, which
says something about restating the obvious. Needless to say, having
been fed, the cougar was much more energetic, and the owner of the
quarry was figuring it was time for the creature to return to the wild.
Then, one day, the cougar dropped by a neighbor's place and went for
the ducks and geese right on the front porch. The neighbor shot it. So,
if you do come to the Olympic Peninsula, think twice before feeding the
wild animals. |
