On the way we stopped at the Lowell Covered Bridge interpretive center. We saw three other covered bridges (drove across one) still in use on the way back down. There's a piece of the original bridge timber lying on the deck inside the bridge here, that was originally a 400 year old Douglas Fir. I had never seen a single piece of milled wood so large.
NTS walked for the first bit of our hike:
There were lots of little woodland flowers blooming all along the trail. Most of them were trillium:
NOD:
We met a few red newts scittering across the trail, and a bunch of banana slugs:
NOD examines a banana slug:
Afterwards we took the scenic route back, through Lowell, and eventually made our way to the Saturday Market, which opened today. The afternoon music at the Market was a showcase of local youth bands. We caught part of the performance by Tonn Nua, who we saw last fall in their first live performance. They've obviously become more comfortable with performing on stage since then, and they sounded fantastic. On the way back through, after hitting the Farmer's Market and stopping by Sonya's booth (where we got a couple of onesies for an impending niece/nephew), the wonderful marimba music we heard was from Hokoyo, one of whose members is a student of mine. I highly recommend their CD.The weather was beautiful (sunny, with occasional showers). And we're having cake tonight for the House Bean's birthday.
