A Favourite Autumn Walk

Day 4: Nisqually-Mashell State Park affords recreational opportunities to a variety of users including dog-walkers, horseback riders, bicyclists and hikers. None of its trails is particularly demanding insofar as altitude gain is concerned, but many are brushy and overgrown and not frequently used. One of my favourite autumn walks takes me down an old dirt road, first through a mixed forest of evergreen and deciduous trees, then opening out into stands of young alder and eventually returning to the mix as the "trail" debouches onto the Nisqually River. The changes of colour are rung through deep greens and golds with occasional accent notes in red when the vine maples are of a mind to put on their best performance. Regardless of the season, it is at this point, roughly halfway to the river, that I invariably pause and say aloud, "...stopping by the woods on a snowy evening..." because it speaks to me of the eastern forests I visited a decade ago. The play of light and shadow changes quickly here, in one moment concealing and in the next revealing the bright caps of mushrooms in their season, or the jewels of salmonberry flowers and fruit in the burgeoning spring. It is not a country whose interior one would care to attempt to penetrate. It is too tangled, too wild, too full of angry sticks and crotchety thorns to offer welcome to a well-intentioned visitor. Yet still, my eyes wander beyond the margins of the road in search of botanical bounty, my adventuresome spirit wondering if a balance could be struck 'twixt pain and gain were I to spot a treasure beyond the reach of my fingers or lens. Not even deer go aside here, passage through the twiggy maze restricted to agile squirrels, nimble bunnies and other small scurrying mammals, a habitat in which they may revel in safety from predators. The human, casual interloper, is contained by Nature.