TROWBRIDGE TREK to SHI SHI BEACH

Every summer I look forward to treks into the Olympic Rain Forest wilderness where Mrs. Trowbridge once lived. My last trip was to Shi Shi Beach, on the Pacific Coast in Washington State, a stretch of coastline considered to be the most rugged and untamed on the West Coast.

The above view from atop the 150-foot high bluff overlooking the beach offers the first glimpse of this fantastical realm. There are more sea stacks here than anywhere on the West Coast





















As we hiked southward along the 2.3-mile long crescent shaped beach toward Point of Arches, I kept an eye out for a patch of forest just off the beach where I could begin sketching, and writing the words you are now reading. I found the perfect spot that you see above. It was almost as if a little patch of pristine forest had been prepared for me. I'm writing this in longhand while sitting on the log in the foreground. The grass in front of me looks almost like the domesticated grass in my back yard. The large-leaf plants growing from the grass are Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridus). The steep high bank begins abruptly, where you see the sword ferns (polystichum munitum) growing. The entire hillside above is an enormous sword fern garden.

There was a purpose for our trek to Shi Shi. I have suspected that Mrs. T and her family visited Shi Shi on their summer treks to the shore over 200 years ago. I have seen a number of her sketches that resemble the features of Shi Shi Beach so I wanted to see the beach for myself to confirm my belief that she was here many years ago.

Shi Shi Beach is not just another beach. One visit is all it takes to realize that this is a very special place. As part of the Olympic National Park, Shi Shi Beach is an Unesco World Heritage Site. The Travel Channel named it the "best nature beach". And it was declard one of the Top Five Wilderness Beaches in the World.

Next episode: Point of Arches at Shi Shi Beach

Have you seen my other blog? It's called Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy

NEW TREND: TATTOOS ON BUTTERFLY WINGS!

This page from Mrs. Trowbridge's journal takes me back to those summer days in the high meadows of the Olympic Mountains, where Mrs. Trowbridge once lived. It brings back memories of a summer skinny-dip swim in Sundown Lake with our son, Brad. Or strolling through the high meadows among the lupine flowers swaying in the summer breeze, while rare endemic butterflies fluttered around us. This page makes me long for summer. It doesn't come to the high meadows until mid or late summer.

You may recall from a previous episode that Madam Lucy opened a tattoo parlor so that ladybugs could get their shells tattooed. Now she's tattooing butterfly wings...

MRS. TROWBRIDGE BECOMES A GRANDMA!

The day before yesterday was a momentous occasion in the Smith household. It was the day that my wife, Jacquie, and I, along with Jacquie's parents, visited our first grandchild. Ellie was born  last Saturday. There were four generations together in the hospital room last Sunday. Jacquie's folks are Ellie's great grandparents.

So it is most appropriate that the current episode from Mrs. Trowbridge's journal involves her experience as a first time grandparent, just as Jacquie and I are now. Thankfully, our daughter-in-law, Carlee, didn't have sextuplets as Mrs.T's daughter did. Congratulations to Brad and Carlee!

SKYLAR'S DEATH

There were times in Mrs. Trowbridge's life when she and her family were hit by one emotional storm after another. One of their family's greatest challenges was the death of their son, Nils' best friend, Skylar. Mrs. T recalls the family's time of grief in her journal entry below. Her seashore painting recalling their times on the beach with Skylar and his family is one of my favorites of all her paintings. It seems that the emotion she was feeling at the time shone through in the glow of Pacific sunset.

Have you seen my other blog? It's called Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy

WOODROW THE ROCK CLIMBER

For those of you who are new to this blog, Violet Trowbridge was a Trowbridge shrew who lived about two centuries ago in the Quinault Rain Forest in Washington State, USA. As a young shrew, her mother taught her the art of calligraphy and watercolor. Using her pen and brush, she recorded life as she saw it through most of her life in the village of Huckleberry Hollow. 

A number of years ago, while hiking up Wild Rose Creek in the Quinault Rain Forest, I found a tiny gold box on a mossy ledge that contained a toad-skin leather cover book, which was titled The Trowbridge Chronicles. I had found a myth-shrouded treasure, which today provides us with a glimpse of life long ago among the small creatures in the rain forest. These journal pages are her story, in her own hand-scribed words. 

Today's story: Woodrow, Violet's husband has taken up rock climbing and has brought his new rock climbing equipment along on their family summer outing in the high meadows. Mrs. Trowbridge has deftly sketched her handsome husband as he enjoys the view from atop a towering five-foot boulder.

Mrs. Trowbridge captures Woodrow in charcoal as he rappels down a boulder. I have spent many days and nights in the high meadows of the Olympic wilderness. I have, in fact, made a number of treks into Wild Rose Creek, where Mrs. T lived with her family. My times in the Olympic Mountains have been among the most special and memorable times of my life. 

Have you seen my other art blog? It's called Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy.