Observations of Boren Park: A Sensory Experience - Journal Entry 4

It’s October 28^th, 2015 at about 3pm and it has been two weeks since I last documented Boren Park.  I arrive back in the park just after a light rain storm.   The soothing sounds of white noise permeates the forest as falling water droplets crash onto the leaf strewn grown.  As I begin my light trek to my observation spot I notice a moderately sized branch lay out across the trail.  This fallen branch was not there last time, but it reminded me that I should investigate why the trail is closed.  I have two ideas as to why the trail might be out of service.  The first idea that immediately came to mind is landslides.  The steep northeast slopes of Capitol Hill are known to fail periodically.  The second idea that I could come up with was fallen trees.  We will see which one is correct.    Today the temperature seems a bit warmer than usual.  I check my thermometer and notice that it’s about 60 degrees at my site.  While the sun does not shine in the forest today, it seems more alive than any time I have visited before. 

My observation spot has not changed all that much.  The forest canopy continues to open as more and more leaves drop to the ground.  In this part of the park the majority of the all trees are big leaf maple with western red cedar punctuating the spaces in between.  Although  the  park seems wetter than before  the  giant horsetails I saw growing during my last two visits  have started to fall  over from  their  enormous  heights.  Today there are more bird songs than ever before.  I stood still for about ten minutes trying to at least identify how many distinct calls I could hear.  I think this time I hear at least five different calls.  Some may have been from the same birds but I am not certain at this time.  In addition to the numerous birds singing in the forest, I notice that the squirrels were hard at work foraging and hiding their winter sustenance.  As I wrap up my observations I decide to further explore the park.  I want to know why the trail is closed and now I want to know where exactly the trail ends.  I leave my spot and trek up the trail moving up in elevation as I go. 

 

As I continued up the trail I came across two trees that have fallen on top of the trail.  By the appearance of the tree throw, these trees fell no more than a few months ago.  I climb over the obstacle and continue around the bend in the trail.  Here I find a rather curious set of objects.  I came across a very large and heavy iron doughnut shaped weight along with a deep rounded concrete bowl.  It is difficult to tell how long these items have been in the woods since they seem rather clean; however the iron doughnut is very rusty. If I were to guess I would say this is some kind of vessel mooring weight.  It is very odd as to why it is here in the middle of the Seattle’s urban woods.  Continuing onward, I move along the walls of the ravine, while climbing ever higher in elevation.  I come across another fallen tree.  Then I came across another.  After encountering five fallen trees along the trail I come to the conclusion that the trail is closed due to tree fall.  However, given how waterlogged the park already is it would not be hard to imagine a slide happening in the near future.