By now, everyone knows that a record-breaking snowstorm pummeled the area several days ago. The snow on my railing measured five and a half inches. The following day warm air moved in above the freezing air creating an ice storm on top of the snow. I heard the pop, crack, and shuuuush of falling trees and branches almost non-stop for twenty-four hours. Falling trees and branches crushed roofs, carports, and some cars. They took out electrical lines and cable towers throwing tens of thousands of people into the dark. Thousands of people remain without electricity at this time. I don't own a car and the 903 bus does not operate in severe weather, so all I could do was sit on my thumbs and worry about what was happening in the park. Temperatures rose above freezing yesterday and it rained all day long, melting the snow on the roads and allowing metro to restore bus service, so I decided to make a trip to the park today to access the damage. We lost a lot of trees in my apartment complex and, while looking out of the window on the bus I could see almost nothing but fallen trees and branches lining the sides of the road all of the way down the street from my apartment to First Ave SW. The City of Federal Way is going to be very busy cleaning up all of this storm debris. Taking care of the roads and sidewalks will have first priority. Addressing any damage in the park comes way down at the bottom of their list of priorities. My bus doesn't take me all of the way to the park. I have to get off of the bus at First Ave SW and walk the rest of the way. Walking down the slushy sidewalk was very rough going and I had to climb over, under, around, and through two fallen trees that stood between the park and me. I'd received an email from Dana Buck, one of the park grounds-keepers, letting me know that they'd closed the park to the public, but I also knew that Dana did not have a camera and that she had not ventured deeper into the park than the meadow. As the "blog" person, I felt I was obligated to investigate and document the condition of the park. So, armed with my camera, off I went.
See what this sign says? Beleive it! The park is closed until further notice. The trail and the boardwalk are inaccessible and will remain so until further notice. I'll let you know when you can visit the park again.
Problems began long before I reached the boardwalk. After I passed the second bench, at the top of the ess in the trail, where the pussy-willows were getting all soft and pretty, a tree had split and fallen across the trail. This tree blocks the entire trail and is nearly impossible to get around, so please don't try. In between this area and the sign-in kiosk the trail is blocked with fallen branches, at face-level, in at least three places.
The apple tree has split and fallen over the sign-in kiosk and the sign at the head of the trail. There is no access to the sign-in kiosk. Several trees split and fell in the meadow. From the sign-in kiosk to the orchard spur, the trail is completely blocked with fallen tree after fallen tree and is completely inaccessible.
So, if you can't get down the trail from the sign-in kiosk, what about going through the orchard? My first stop was Marlake, which is covered in ice. From the house side of the lake I could clearly see that trees on the opposite side of the lake had splintered and fallen, but I did not go over there to investigate. The duck decoys are frozen into the ice on the lake, one of them upside-down, and are clearly not fooling any of the ducks. If anything, they're flying over, looking down, thinking about what that stupid duck is doing frozen in the ice, and flying on to warmer pastures, so to speak.
The orchard trail was also blocked by fallen trees and branches, but in the orchard you could leave the trail and beat your own trail through the crusty snow, which is what I did.
This tactic gained me access to the boardwalk trail. My plan was to follow the loop trail down the short end of the loop to Brooklake, then from there down the long end of the loop and back to the orchard. That was, if I didn't run into an insurmountable problem. The boardwalk is thoroughly trashed from one end to the other; but, for the most part, the debris is small enough to either pick up and throw over the side of the boardwalk or collect in the garden cart and remove from the park.
Once the weather clears up, the snow melts, and things dry out a bit, some of the debris can be blown away with the leaf blower or swept up.
Although debris that's easy to cope with is the norm, there are exceptions to the rule. This tree has fallen over the boardwalk on the short side of the loop trail, just before the bench where the barred owl was spotted.
The tree-well in front of the bench is full of water.
Unfortunately, just past this tree-well a tree has fallen in such a way that the root-wad tore up a section of the boardwalk. I made a full loop of the boardwalk trail and this is the only section of the trail that was damaged, as far as I could see, and it looks like it should be easy to repair. Maneuvering over this area was very difficult, but I was able to manage it. I do not recommend this to others. It was very slippery, very difficult, and very hazardous.
Just past that area another tree was down over the boardwalk. By this time my photos were getting really bad. My glasses were fogging up, due to the exertion, and so was the lens on my camera. It was spitting raindrops on and off, and that, in addition to the climbing over, under, around, and through the fallen debris, was leaving detritus on my camera-lens. I couldn't see where I was going and I couldn't see what I was trying to photograph and wiping my glasses and camera-lens off wasn't helping.
Just past that tree another tree was down over the boardwalk.
And just past that the boardwalk trail became completely impassable and I had to strike out off-trail in order to get around it. I'm unhappy to have to report that just past this point, another tree splintered off and landed, smack-dab, right in the middle of another one of my favorite tree-wells. It doesn't affect the boardwalk, but will challenge the frogs.
When I got to the bridge on the Brooklake spur, I discovered that another tree has come down over the bridge, requiring me to stoop down, climb over, and once again, struggle my way through. I must admit that, by this time, I was getting very tired. The physical challenges required to get this far down the trail were exhausting. Please, do not try this. It's too dangerous and not worth the effort. By the time I reached Brooklake I was exhausted.
Brooklake was full of water. So full of water that the stump I call the duck flo-tel was underwater. Just it's uppermost branches brushed the air.
At least Brooklake wasn't frozen, allowing some American wigeons free water in which to swim.
Returning down the long side of the loop, I discovered these two trees had fallen over the boardwalk trail. These two have always been leaning over the trail, but now you actually have to climb over them, instead of being able to walk under them.
And, in between that and the Stika spruce, we have this. More fallen trees and branches to maneuver through. By this time I was totally exhausted and these physical challenges were becoming increasingly difficult for me to surmount. All I wanted to do was get out of the park. I did not think that I could climb over, under, around, or through one more tree.
And, thankfully, I did not. Everything in the park wasn't indicative of destruction. Some things were simply gorgeous. Ice surrounded each limb and twig. When the temperature rose and the ice began to fall, it created piles of ice that looked every bit as if it had been produced by an ice-machine.
Caramel-colored fungus poked out of the snow creating beautiful photo-opportunities.
Stumps wore snow-white turbans.
Tiny cones polka-dotted the snow.
False lily of the valley berries looked like marachino cherries scattered in the snow.
Tiny fungi found shelter in moss-lined crevases.
And chunks of fallen wood kissed the snow with magical light.
Please stay home. Be safe. Be owl-wise. This, too, will pass. The park will be returned to order as soon as possible. I'll let you know when it's safe to walk the trails again. Until then, I hope that you and yours are safe and warm. Take care.
Teri I. Lenfest
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