a walk in the Spokane woods

I had a little time before work at the Museum this morning, so I went for a walk in the woods. The purpose of this walk was two-fold.
1) It seems wise to go outside before the average daily temperature is 16 degrees. 2) We've had a couple good windstorms and I wanted to collect downed branches, pine cones, and other miscellaneous forest treasures for the little nature wreath I'm planning to make. Of course, it started to snow as soon as I put my shoes on, but it didn't last long...and about midway through the walk, I even caught a glimpse of my shadow! Exciting, I know. There haven't been too many shadow-glimpsing days of late.

You have to cross under the T.J. Meenach Bridge (built 1993) to access the trail. The traffic above you makes a nice
 ssshusssh noise when it goes over. This is the Spokane River, by the way. Not too high at the moment.

This picture makes me feel like I'm in a Gothic novel. You know I'm OK with that, right?



You'll encounter this along the trail. Kids come here to break bottles and burn things. Like kids do.
And by kids, I'm guess I mean teenagers.



Graffiti. Another thing kids like.

Look, it's a hook that once held a door. And various fascinating lichen! Kids are probably not so into that.
Not that I know what kids like. Kids these days, am I right?



Anyway, it feels cool and secret, which is probably why kids like it. That's why I like it.
Hey, maybe we're not so different after all! But then, I also like this place because it
 seems like you might get murdered here. Like in 1878, by a woodsman and his brother.



This is when my shadow appeared!

I wish I could have collected some of these for my wreath.
Alas, they would wither away inside my apartment.



There are downed trees all along the trail. Once, there was a tree across the trail, with a
little hatchet attached to the trunk. The hatchet was there so that everyone who walked
or ran the trail could hack away at the tree. Maya and I always took a few swings
before climbing over. This isn't the hatchet tree, you understand.  



By the time I made it back to the truck, the storm clouds had started rolling in.
Although, I don't think it ever really stormed today. My shadow crept back into hiding.

OK, so the other thing I did on this walk was take a lot of pictures of various types of fungus. I mean, a lot. I probably spent more time checking out interesting things in the undergrowth than I actually did walking. This trail is truly mushroom-rich. I love it! And I just checked out a book called The Kingdom Fungi: The Biology of Mushrooms, Molds, and Lichens. Now, I'm going to try to identify some fungi--dream come true!