Winter is my favorite season, and it’s our custom to celebrate the solstice by being outside on this shortest day of the year. “Somewhere in the woods,” Mr. Adventure requested, so we drove 15 minutes to McLane Creek Nature Trail.
The weather was perfect, clear and cold. Olympia is further north than Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City, and Portland, Maine, which means our winter days are short. On the solstice, that’s about 8.5 hours from sunrise to sunset.
Solstice salmon
The solstice occurred at 2:23pm, and at that moment we were standing on a viewing bridge over McLane Creek, looking at the carnage of spawned-out salmon from the run that peaks in late November. A few stragglers pushed against the current, but most of the fish were dead. They were everywhere, draped artistically over roots, half-buried in gravel bars, even jammed into the end of a fallen tree. We’ve had three pretty fierce windstorms in western Washington over the last week, and the salmon carcasses had clearly been tossed around by high water.
We stood on the bridge and talked about traditions associated with winter solstice. I’ve always liked the practice of celebrating the return of the light, something we do by lighting candles at home during these long nights. And the solstice is a time of rebirth and renewal, something that seemed especially salient as we watched the last few salmon slowing dying even as pale coral eggs were visible up and down the streambed.
McLane Creek
The path follows McLane Creek and goes past several beaver ponds. We extended our walk by following a connector trail to a mile-long loop through working forest. The McLane Creek area is managed by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for multiple uses, including recreation and timber, and it’s interesting to cross timber sale boundary lines and know that some of these trees probably won’t be here much longer.
The shortest day
The sun was sinking by the time we got back to the car an hour later, casting long shadows through the bare trees. This is one of the things I love about winter, how the structure of a forest is revealed.
In a few hours, we’ll head outside again, to walk our neighborhood in the winter solstice dark. Afterward, we’ll sit in our living room, warmed by the glow of flickering candles. We’ll drink glogg, a Scandinavian concoction of wine, fruit juice, and spices, and nibble pepparkakor, Swedish spice cookies. Our Christmas tree, modern iteration of another ancient solstice tradition, sparkles with lights. Winter is here. And that makes me happy.