High Park Fire: Our friends were able to go back up to their land today. There is nothing left of the structures (barn, house, and cabin that predated their construction, which only happened a few years ago) except piles of burned remains. Next comes the clearing phase, before the rebuilding can commence.
Right now, our friends are looking for a place to live while they start their lives from the seeds that exist.
How to help people affected by the wildfires in Colorado.
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As a contrast to the charred landscapes back home, I offer some images taken today along the Burke Gilman Trail in Seattle. My sister loaned me her bike, which I used to take my computer to the Apple store for some R&R (fixed; no charge).
On the way to the store, I simply rode, since I wasn't sure how long it would take. On the way back, I stopped frequently to snap a few of the things that caught my attention. This will be in two parts, because I took a lot of pictures.
For friends back home the shiny stuff flowing at the lower part of this photo is water. Amazing. It was just there. Like all the green stuff was just there.
A little farther along the trail, there was a building on the University of Washington campus with something like curtains of water falling in openings—a number of them, with just one shown above. For all I know, it's a new form of wastewater treatment. Whatever: the sound was lovely.
This was just one of several similar scenes, all with different configurations of racks and quantities of bikes.
I couldn't get enough of the green, or of the many colors, sizes, and textures of blossoms.
Stadium.
Along with a line of tall, more normal-looking trees:
Not my best photo: UW Farm. I don't think there was a farm when I was a student at UW. Many things have changed in forty years. The landforms feel the same, but not much else does.
This cool sculptural piece is on the south side of one of the buildings in the university area.
There are multiple intersections of transportation modes along the route.
The part of the trail I used passed under four bridges: Fremont, highway 99, I-5 (below), and University.
The trail is taken seriously as a travel route.
This next phenomenon, which I turned around to photograph from the far side, was odd enough that I had to look up information about it online.
It's called the Wall of Death. It's public art, and it does refer to something real: it apparently concerns barnstorming motorcyclists of the 1920s and 1930s.
I noticed the smooth surface across from the sculpture had been interrupted with precast concrete parking stops, which I guessed, correctly, had been installed to prevent folks from skateboarding there. I was right, although the process has been through more than one iteration.
Some people have bookshelves. Others have boatshelves.
Temporarily ending with a bunch more flowers.
Part 2 of this tour is here.
You brought back some lovely memories of bike rides along the BG trail. Thanks so much!
You're most welcome, Susan! I have walked a very small portion of the trail before. This was my first time there on a bike. (I did bike some north Seattle trails a couple of years ago when I drove here and brought my bike along.) As I come up here to help with Mom's care, I suspect I'll find excuses to try the trail more in the future. It makes the place feel more like home.