On the Trail

PONDERING: We had a busy day, but made time for a one-hour expedition this morning, destination: Discovery Park.

The 534-acre park is just a couple miles to the west of us, and while we've been there several times, we're not anywhere near knowing it inside and out.

Today, we parked in the "north lot," which is the park's biggest lot, and probably where we enter least frequently.

We headed south a bit, and on the way into the woods spied a green coat oddly dropped along the trail. Upon closer examination, we could see a very distinctive patch on the sleeve with a bald eagle and the word "NATURALIST" on it. Odd. We looked around for a naturalist working in the area, but saw not a soul. We hoped the jacket's owner hadn't been eaten by a bear or cougar or ??? I told the kids we'd leave it be, and if was there on our way back out, we'd pick it up and return it to the visitor's center.

We walked a ways south from the lot and chose a random trail on which to enter the forest. It ended up being a good choice.

After just a bit of a downhill hike, we came to a pond which Mr. and Mrs. Mallard made home. We watched them for awhile and then walked a bit more, coming upon a bigger pond. On the far side we saw a pile of sticks which just screamed "Beaver DEN!" to us. 

Walking the perimeter of the pond, there was plenty of evidence beavers are active in the area.

From the beaver haven, we continued westward. After a bit, I could see a large structure beyond the trees and suspected it to be the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. 

We came upon a fire pit and what we supposed to be an altar not too far from the center.

 And then we found a gorgeous terracotta sculpture, "Guardian of the Spirit." It was salvaged from the 1909 White- Henry-Stuart Building when it was demolished in 1976

And soon, we found ourselves at the cultural center. We've actually been here several times, but we'd never seen the back, and these big, bold mural before!

Out front, there was a totem pole that looked like it was being painted/repainted. I noticed that the name John T. Williams was the top most/predominant name on its base. The name was instantly recognizable to me, as he was the woodcarver who was brutally gunned down by a Seattle Police Department officer in a crosswalk a few years back.  Terrible tragedy.

Speaking of police actions, as we were walking back through the woods to our car, in the distance I could hear sirens. SO many sirens, wailing on and on. Reading the headlines tonight, timing-wise, it had to have been in conjunction with a cross-dressing bank robbery suspect SPD caught and shot. 

CANNONBALL:  During the lecture we enjoyed at the University of Washington's Theodor Jacobsen Observatory last night, we were introduced to Sir Isaac Newton's cannon on a mountain thought experiment.  He used it to hypothesize that the force of gravity was universal, and it was the key force for planetary motion.

The thought exercise involves a cannon atop an imaginary mountain, with its top far above the atmosphere.  It fires a cannonball. At low speeds, the cannonball doesn't get far relative to the Earth's size. Gravity gives a parabolic path and it drops down to the Earth. At higher speeds, the cannonball goes far enough that the direction of gravity changes, and so does the shape of the path it travels. 

You abolutely should give it a go: http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/more_stuff/flashlets/NewtMtn/NewtMtn.html

This thought experiment appeared in Newton's 1728 book "A Treatise of the System of the World." It's so significant to science, an image of the page from the System of the World showing Newton's diagram of this experiment was included on the golden record on board Voyager when it was sent to our solar system's outer reaches. 

There's a wonderful Web site will all of the golden record images, sound, etc. files: http://goldenrecord.org/