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Page B-2 - Sheiton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, July 20, 2017
ON THE TRAIL
weet summer! Tourists to the
Northwest don't know their
own good luck. Day after day
of sunshine in the 70s, the parks and
beaches open, live music rising from
resort lawns and wooden bandstands,
restaurants abloom with patio umbrel-
las, festivals and fairs of every theme
and seafood, orange-vested cops and
traffic tie-ups every weekend.
Fingers sticky from fair food, walk
around, walk around, and eat.
THE BIG DEEPER
But woe to thee of the well-
traveled tourist path. For we
of The Secret Wild Society, we
want to lead tourists deeper
into the wild world, beyond
the surface, beyond the shine.
We want them to feel the
butterfly stomach from a sud-
den leap into the lake. We
want them to feel the spray
of thundering waterfalls, to
hear a coyote call, an eagle
cry, the yawning, gargling cough of a
male seal, haunting from the docks at
night.
Sure, we scoop out another salted
caramel cone of local ice cream, pour
another pint of Citrt s Belle, another
taste of Bee's Kneesht the distillery;
we take the orders and bring the
drinks, get you a little more salsa, a
side of dijon, or sell the postcard that
will just have to do -- "Here's Hood
Canal, Morn," -- for the family in the
minivan speeding through.
We make the beds. Hand out bro-
chures. Do what we have to do.
By MARK
WOYTOWICH
But secretly we cast our wilderness
spell.
We of The Secret Wild Society, we
are the appointed guardians at the
edge of the world. We want our tour-
ists to approach our abyss with awe.
We want them to see and do things out
here that forever challenge how they
think about the world.
MAGIC TOKENS, MODERN
TOTEMS
More than entertain you, we want
to change you.
We're hoping maybe you'll
catch the spell while watch-
ing the mossy buckets spill
on the Dalby Waterwheel. Or
hear it in the creek rippling
by as you sip your evening
wine along the back lawn at
Robin Hood.
PerhaPs you'll catch a hint
of wilderness, up front, in the
manmade waterfall at Alder-
brook Resort. Like a tiny wild
animal tamed and displayed on the
resort's spacious grounds, this art-
ful otterfall enchants young children
as it splashes and spills. Yet all the
while it softly whispers to adults
who've just checked in, "Look to the
mountains. Over there. You will find
more of me there."
See? The spell works, ever slowly.
Mason County visitors come back
annually to drink, dine, and chase
thrills, surely, but also to renew. They
lay traps for crab and shrimp. They
catch salmon.
Sometimes it is simply enough
for the week of July 20 through July 27, 20t 7
ALLYN I Case Inlet
20 2:33am 14.621 3:26am 14.622 4:19am 14.623 12:19am 6.7
Thu9:56am -0.7 Fri10:46am -2.6 Sat11:34am -3.1 Sun 5:12am 14.4
5:12pm 13.0 6:05pm 14.0 6:50pm 14.712:22pm -3.3
10:21pm7.2 11:23pm7.1 7:32pm 15.2
24 1:11am 6.3 25 2:02am 5.7 26 2:52am 5.1 27 3:44am 4.5
Mon 6:05am 14.1Tue 6:59am 13.6 Wed7:55am 12.9 Thu 8:53am 12.0~
l:08pm -3.0 1:54pm -2.3 2:39pm -1.2 3:25pm 0.2
8:12pm 15.4 8:51prn 15.4 9:30pm 15.3 lO:08pm 15.1 .~
SH TO -O a ......
20 3:11am 14.6 21 4:04am 14.622 12:29am 6.1 23 1:25am 5.8-~
Thu 11:02am -1.4 Fri11:52am -2.2Sat4:57am 14.6Sun5:50am 14.4
5:50pm 13.0 6:43pm14.0 12:40pm -2.7 1:28pm -2.8
11:27pm 6.2 7:28pm 14.7 8:10pro 15.2
24 2:17am 5.4 25 3:08am 4.9 26 3:58am 4.427 4:50am 3.8
Mon 6:43am 14.1 Tue7: 7am 13.6Wed8:33am 12.9 Thu9:31am 12.0
2:14pm -2.6 3:00pm -2.0 3:45pm -1.0 4:31pm 0.1
8:50pm 15.4 9.'29pm 15.4 lO:08pm 15.3 10:46pm 15.1 ~,
20 1:15am,11:4 21 2:lOam ii5 3:06am 11.4 23 4:03am 11.3
Thu 8:51am -1.7 Fri 9:41am -2.7SatlO:30am -3.3 Sun11:18am -3.4
4:14pm 11.1 5:05pm 12.0 5.'51pm 12.7 6:35pm 13.1
9:11pm 7.1 10:13pm 7.0 11:10pm6.7
24 12:03am 6.225 12:55am 5.6 2Wed6 1:46am 5.1 2u7 2:38am 4.5
Mon 4:59am 11.1 Tue 5:55am 10.6 6:51am 10.0 7:52am9.3
12:04am -3.1 12:49pm -2.3 1:34am -1.1 2:18pm 0.4
7:17pm 13.2 7:59pm 13.1 8:39pm 12.9 9:18pm 12.5
THE SUN and THE MOON
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Sunrise4:38am4:39am4:40am4:41am4:42am4:43am4:44am4:46am
Sunset 8:00pm7:58pm7:57pm7:50pm7:55pm7:54pm7:53pm7:52pm
Moonrise 2:01am2:55am3:57am 5:06am 6:18am 7:30am8:41am 9:50am
Moomet 5:24pm~29pm 7:25pm • 8:12pm 5:52pm9:26pm9:56pm 10:23pm
New moon July 23
Weekly Tide Tables
Sponsored by
~ ~ fr~ Cmp~ ~deor Smmem ~om ~ I~
VERLE'S eJ )
Tidal Information courtesy NO~ I Astronomical Data courtesy U.S. Naval Observatory
Low tide at Twin Rivers Ranch, looking
Oakland Bay.
Journal photo by Mark Woytowich
toward Bayshore Preserve across
to catch the peace of an old family
cabin without TV. Or feel the chill of a
starry night, a silent moment alone on
the deck. Or wait for a sunrise, hands
warm around a mug of coffee, an or-
ange glow in the east, the first birds
building their chorus.
The spell is surely working as hun-
dreds line up once every spring at low
tide, to wander the tidelands beside
the Hamma Hamma River. Here, at a
relatively new ritual called Oystera-
ma, sometimes three or four genera-
tions walk out with pails and shovels
together. Thrusting hands in the sand,
grandparents teach the fingers of their
young to recognize the certain shape
and weight of a manilla clam -- Find-
ing the Prize! -- an experience their
own parents would have wanted to
pass on.
Oakland Bay, once associated with the
Rohde Family. It is conserved, but un-
like neighboring Oakland Bay County
Park and Bayshore Preserve, its
preservation covenants do not include
public access.
Today's work, essentially, is to
weed out the competition ensnaring
the shore pine, Doug fir, Sitka spruce,
Nootka rose and alder planted last
year.
"It's not easy jump-starting forests,"
Mary says matter-of-factly, explaining
that most of the property was wood-
land before becoming a farm.
By acquiring this one property,
however, a full mile of shoreline eased
into conservancy in 2010, protecting a
key salmon-bearing estuary bordered
by Deer and Cranberry creeks.
Indeed, in the seven years since,
the land has gotten wilder; long gone
SPELLHOLDERS: MEET is the footpath to the low tide line, now
STAKEHOLDERS obscured by prairie grasses as high as
Far from the tourists, the restau- my shoulders.
rants, hotels and engines of commerce, Bees rise and begrudgingly part
a small band of volunteers pulls weeds as I push through high grass and
in a vast, sun-blasted field, wildflowers. I am lost in a field of
Both adults and children work the gold. A long, lingering low tide has
edge of large hay field beside state drained the bay until all I can see of
Route 3, a field you see briefly if you the water is a thin sliver of blue below
look toward Oakland Bay as you pass the horizon. Thickly matted marsh
the Chevron Station and the produce grasses fill in where gravel piles used
market just before the intersection to route the creek. I smell salt, rot,
with Agate Road. soil. A single fence on a small knob is
They are weeding wide circles all that remains of the old delineation
around hundreds of young, planted between pasture and tideland. That,
trees, clearing the space around each and a wide boneyard of driftwood logs
plastic, deer-proof sleeve. The work is bleaching silver and crumbling to dust
challenging in the midday sun. beneath my feet.
Following along and taking notes, The handsome, 1940s-era Crafts-
my forearms gleam with sweat. My man home still sits central on the
eyes burn with salt streaking down farm, but the circling driveway is
from my baseball cap. now grown in with chamomile. I must
Despite the heat, the group's efforts follow deep, ankle-twisting tractor
move merrily along. The work party is ruts to reunite with Mary and the
entertained by riddles and games, as others.
well as the sweet appeal and enthu- They wrap up their work session.
siasm of Mary Birchem, AmeriCorps "I love this job," says, brushing
restoration coordinator, dust offher handsi "Socializing out in
Will Blue's three children stay nature, I get to bring people out in the
engaged, yanking weeds and grass, wild and show them ways to make it
thanks to Mary's game of"find the wilder."
snail." 110ok away, careful to not betray
Mary is 24 years old, spent most a puzzling look. It's as if this young
of her life near St. Louis, until earn- woman from the Midwest (working in
ing a degree in environmental science environmental science, not tourism)
from the University of Washington. had seen my first draft of this week's
She now helps organize "stewardship column:
parties" to pro _de habitat restoration Could she, too, be a member of The
on a variety of Puget Sound proper- Secret Wild Society?
ties conserved in partnership with the
Capitol Land Trust. • Mark Woytowich is a writer,
The property with the hay field is photographer and video producer who
called Twin Rivers Ranch, a 125-acre lives in Potlatch. He can be reached at
waterfront parcel at the very head of Woytowichdesign.com.