Wednesday Walk

Wednesday we had a taste of spring in Hoquiam, Wash., and I had a day off work, so I headed out for some photos.

I chose to visit my favorite location along the bay, Dog Marsh, which I've immortalized in photo on numerous occasions (including this earlier post).

Dog Marsh is a 45-acre site on the edge of town, where the Hoquiam River meets the bay. In the old days the land was subject to tidal waters, but now it's been filled and protected with a wall of boulders, or riprap if you want to get technical. There's a nice gravel walk atop the riprap, at the edge of a field of grass and low-standing water (the 'marsh'), where everyone walks their dogs.

I don't have a dog, so the first thing I usually do is scramble down the wall to get as close to the bay or river as I can. Often the water is high enough that I have to stand in the boulders, but on Wednesday I got out there at low tide and walked along the smaller rocks right next to the exposed mudflat.

I started shooting at the mouth of the river. The two photos above show the bank curving away to the bay, with Rennie Island the first bit of land across the water.

Straightaway some old dock pilings caught my eye. I don't know if I've ever seen this row of short ones above water before.

This one looks like a chess piece, a rook, with a bit seaweed on top.

As I photographed the dock pilings, this diving bird, possibly a western grebe, hung out at a safe distance.

I continued walking past the dock pilings, the river became the bay, and the view opened up. At the same time, the clouds cleared for the sun.

From the vantage point of that last shot, I like to think that I can see all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It's about 25 miles away, so I probably can't.

From there, I climbed up the riprap and headed back the way I had come. It wasn't the end of my photoshoot: there was some activity occurring a little ways upriver, but that doesn't fit the theme of this post, so I'll save it.

Before I climbed the riprap, I took a shadow selfie against the side of one of the boulders.

Until next time ... peace!