Yesterday morning, before the annual Independence Day parade with its marching bands and mining machines, Aki and I walked up Perseverance Trail. Cars filled the Mt. Roberts trailhead parking lot but none of their drivers could be seen. They must still have been above the mountain’s tree line where they had watched the annual July 3^rdfireworks display at 11:59 P.M. 

            After we spotted a bufflehead hen and her chick swirling in the turbulent waters of Gold Creek, Aki refused to go further up the trail. Maybe she thought we were celebrating her independence day.  We returned home on a trail that dropped into the Gold Creek valley where ripe fruit hung from salmon berry bushes. If there had been any humans nearby, we could not have heard them over the sound of the creek. 

            A few red columbine flowers lingered on and along a small watercourse a pioneer monkey flower plant was already in full bloom.