OCTOBER - MONTH OF COLOR

This is the month of color -- or rather the month of autumn tints, for most every month on "The Mountain" is colorful. Winter festoons the trees heavily with snow; Spring bursts forth with the new green of early growth; Summer finds the meadows brilliant with a medley of colors -- but now the hills present wide vistas of reds and browns and yellows. All but the upper reaches of Rainier which are barren or ice covered.

Along the trails in the deep woods we find scattered the cone scales of the True Firs. Upon maturity the cones of these trees fall apart and scatter their seeds in this manner but the chances are that these we see now are the remnants of those which have been torn apart by the Douglas Squirrels who are still busy with their harvest. One never ceases to wonder at the industry of these animals. They will not bother with the bread which we have put out for them -- but they will be around again when their work is done. Ptarmigan, in the high country, about timberline, are just beginning to change color. Some are still in summer plumage but the snow flurry a few days ago in Paradise Valley served notice of the coming of winter and soon they will be white. Deer seem to be quit numerous about Longmire. Their tracks are much in evidence on the river bar probably in the sub-alpine meadows seeking out the last of the season's huckleberries in preparation for the winter's hibernation which is not so very far off. The glacial streams seem clearer with the coming of cooler autumn days for the grinding action of these "rivers of ice" is much reduced when the warm summer is a thing of the past. And so we greet a new season.

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