...but was too busy packing up my mom's old house to make time to go hunting with Sutton. Which was too bad since there were birds everywhere along the I5 corridor.
When I left and headed back up north to get to a plane, I passed through Chehalis. There are several ponds near I5 and some are obviously hunted since you can see the blinds, but there are lots that are not. Just north of Chehalis is the Skookumchuk (sp) river. It was bank full and had flooded several areas. Just south of the river to the west of I5 is a large field planted in something that was green - winter wheat? - and the central area was flooded. A few dozen geese and a few hundred ducks were milling about.
As to the wind damage it was impressive. There was a big clearing north of Chehalis next to I5 with a barrier strip of 24" to 36" fir trees next to the road. Come friday they were laying across the southbound lanes of I5. When I passed the spot on saturday I was wondering why DOT did not bring in a logger rather than chop those trees up into random lengths and haul them in a dump truck. It looked really silly.
Eventually I made it all the way up to Port Orchard to drop off my borrowed truck and get a ride to the airport. There were lines down all over the place. The main roads had the trees off of them but the side roads and drive ways were still blocked if the locals weren't able to cut their own selves out. My friend up there spent the morning helping people their generators running since they never do any maintenance prior to a storm. Why plan ahead when your buddy can show up in the middle of an ordeal and do it all for you?
Lance "Ray" Raymore