This is just south of Port Townsend, WA on the Larry Scott Memorial (Rails to Trails). This trail is a section of a future hoped for route for hiking or riding across the US …
This was taken with a Pentax 645N film camera on Kodak Portra 400.
We went out for a bike ride on the Discovery Trail on the section just east of Sequim, Washington. Just as we were about to turn into the parking lot, we saw this flock of 16 quail. We stopped, I got out my phone and took a picture … then slowly drove and they scattered doing their quail dance/run.
About half way through we saw this vulture on a dead tree along the trail. Sorta wondered if it was a commentary on the way some of the bikers looked … struggling along looking like they would fall over at any time. Don’t usually see much wildlife when I’m out biking … too much attention focused on the roadway, I guess.
I have enjoyed bike riding ever since I was a kid. Back in the ’60’s I bought a used French 5-speed bike (sorry I can’t remember the brand) to get to and from my first real job as a teenager. In those days, single speed bikes were the norm and a few enthusiasts had what were called “English Racing bikes” … which were typically 3 speeds. I got many comments from folks: “Why would anyone need more than 3 speeds?” Of course, these days it is more likely to find a bike with 24 speeds …
My current bike has ten speeds and 4 levels of electric assist… which makes 40 choices, I suppose. But, I don’t use that many… some combinations just don’t seem be as useful. But I sure love that electric assist.
Landscape or Portrait is a question that photographers (and others) ask themselves on a regular basis. There often is no “right” answer, as I decided with this sequence. Sometimes there is an obvious preferred orientation. Tall buildings, etc.
While I was thinking of this question, I was reminded of the days (decades ago) when I was painting more than shooting photographs. Oh, I was shooting, but I was caught up in the joy of painting. Sometimes I would go to my favorite art supply and just look at canvas shapes … and one would inspirationally catch my mind’s eye. I “knew” that was the shape of the painting I wanted to do, even when I didn’t know what I was going to paint. So, I suppose, sometimes it’s like that with the camera. Sometimes it just grabs you.
My friend Gary and I rode our bikes up the Olympic Hot Springs Road (also known as the Elwha River Road) … these days this entails a .7 mile bypass trail around a washed out section of the road. After the bypass, there is about 6 miles of road to get to the trailhead … the hot springs are another 2.2 miles of hiking … which we didn’t hike that day.
I have hiked through this area numbers of times over the last 40 years … but this was the first visit up the road since the washout happened several years ago. It brought back memories. The additional distance has had a dramatic impact on the number of people using the area.
The next post will concentrate on the river.
