The Salmon Return to Issaquah

Every autumn the salmon return from the sea and swim up the Issaquah Creek. We have a salmon hatchery downtown and the first weekend in October there is a big street festival called Salmon Days. But the salmon have their own schedule and they are already returning. I hopped on my bike this afternoon and snapped a few pictures with my cheapo digital camera.

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The late afternoon light under the Dogwood bridge made the water glow. It took a few tries to get a shot of a salmon swimming in the light.

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The salmon really have to struggle in the shallow waters of the creek.

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The salmon range in size from about 15 to 30 inches long.

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Near the hatchery the salmon pack the creek much like cars pack in on Front Street at rush hour.

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The salmon motif is all over Issaquah. My panniers are made from recycled coroplast campaign signs and here you can see the salmon that was part of last year's campaign.

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This year's slogan is "Born to be Wild" and one of the "Ofishal" Salmon Days T-shirts features a fish on a chopper. Salmon Days is one of those corny small-town things that fills the town with tourists and a lot of us local folks try to lay low until it's over. Soon the tourists leave and the fish all die and the town stinks like hell for a few days. Then the gulls and the rains come in earnest, strip away the last of the carcases and we spend the winter sipping coffee, riding in the rain and watching the mists cloak the mountains.