Day Trip – Page 56 – Sequim Daily Photo

People and animals at the fair

It can probably be argued that a county fair is a holdover from the days when agriculture was front and center in most communities across the U.S. and the business of agriculture — showing prized animals, stock auctions — was a community focal point. That’s less the case in many regions today, but the fair still has value. We need to remember — and children need to learn — where our food and fiber comes from. And maybe it’s because I’m an animal lover, but I believe that humans have a natural affinity for animals. Fairs give some of us a fleeting chance to touch skin to fur and feathers and see animals that aren’t part of our daily lives.

People line up to touch. They ooh and aah over softness or texture, snuggle where they can.

Children have a chance to see and learn, often with babies that are just the right size, without the typical “don’t touch!” warnings.

And the interaction goes both ways.

Stock saw competition

Loggers, of course, use chainsaws, so no logging show is complete without firing up a couple of them. At the Clallam County Fair two chainsaws were calibrated with matching RPMs and then competitors were timed at how fast they could blast through equally sized logs. The chainsaws are called “stock” saws because they’re standard, off-the-shelf models. It looks like this fellow is taking a moment to pray before he starts but the competition begins with both hands pressed onto the log.

Ready. Set. Go! Grab the chainsaw and start cutting.

It’s over fast. Pine logs were used. Pine is a soft wood. Douglas fir, a harder wood, is also used but I don’t know where or when.

Easier said than done

Here’s a twist on the classic dart game: it’s the logger’s version. Grab a big axe, stand about 15 feet away from the target, cock back the axe, and give it a mighty throw.

This fellow made it look almost easy, but then he was the winner. Two women were part of the competition but neither had the broad shoulder leverage to pitch with the strength and accuracy this competition demands. I think it’s a Paul Bunyan kind of thing.

The logging show

This weekend is the Clallam County Fair and yesterday was the logging show. For the uninitiated (me, for instance), the show is focused on competitive skills: we watched sawing and axe throwing. What you see here is “Jack and Jill” two person manual sawing. Simply said, the couple is timed as they saw through a log as fast as possible. It’s like an instant snapshot metaphor of marriage in action.

Logging is part of the local history and heritage here. I’ll show you more of the action tomorrow.

The supercarrier

Fort Flagler State Park, on Marrowstone Island, is located adjacent to a U.S. Navy ammunition depot on Indian Island. As we camped last week we saw this aircraft carrier parked at the depot. It caught DH’s attention as it’s one of the few remaining of this type, similar to one he called home long ago.

This is the USS Nimitz on a very rare stop here, its fifth since it was commissioned in 1975. It’s a big ship, over 1,000 feet in length. It offloaded ammunition and conducted crew training while at Indian Island for about five days. It will move next year to Bremerton for maintenance and modernization.

Windplay

Fort Flagler State Park is a beautiful place to camp but it does get windy. Some of the most popular campsites are close to the beach in arguably the most windswept part of the park. Campers in this area celebrate the wind with all manner of flying and twirling color. This is just an assortment. There’s also an entire milieu of forms (flamingos, flags, and mushrooms come to mind) planted closer to the ground.

A perfect summer’s day

What’s better than a warm summer day? A warm summer day on the beach.

We camped last week with some of the nicest weather of the year. One campground we called home featured this beach on the Hood Canal and beautiful views of the Olympic Mountains. Scenic Beach State Park is a short hop from Silverdale, near Seabeck, a beautiful little coastal town.