Spring Activist Velo News

Spring is slowly coming to the Olympia area. We've had a couple days with temperatures in the mid 70's. The past few days have been sunny and "warmish" with highs in the mid 60's. But the change is tentative; those few warm days are interspersed with an equal or greater number of cool, wet days. The change of seasons is subtle, not dramatic.

But change it is. Everything is in bloom: the cherry trees, neighborhood flower gardens, for sale signs. I can still see the capitol dome from my balcony but I have to peer through an increasing amount of foliage. Soon all I will see is a wall of green. The median strip on I-5 now sports a dazzling array of deep orange wildflowers and flowering brush that reminds me of forsythia. It's a glorious time to be sentient.

Yesterday's fine weather was the perfect backdrop for the opening event of Coffee Strong's Stop Loss Campaign outside the gates of Fort Lewis. About 100 of us gathered at Coffee Strong and marched to Freedom Bridge, the I-5 overpass that is the main access to Fort Lewis. We had a marching band, flags, banners and much enthusiasm. We got a lot of friendly waves, a few fingers from interstate travelers. We also go a few wave and a lot of stoic staring straight ahead from vehicles with military ID stickers on their windshields. The local media seem to have totally ignored the event but Olyblog has a good slide show from which I appropriated the following image.



Later in the day I got out for a bike ride. The day was filled with the smells of spring--new mown grass and the fragrance of many blooms. I recently discovered a loop that I can add to the northern end of the Chehalis Western Trail that takes me almost to the tip of the peninsula between Budd and Johnson inlets.

A perfect, if exhausting, day.