the fitzgerald & bark explorers' club rides again

When Simon and Garfunkel released the album Bridge Over Troubled Water more than fifty-five years ago, the bridge was, of course, metaphorical (and the songs mostly awesome, even if this particular fan hadn't yet reached the acclaimed status of zygote at the time). When I uploaded our family's most recent photo album--Bridge Under Troubled Water--the bridge in question was perfectly, irrefutably, soggily literal.

We don't have a song about that. (Even if we did, I doubt Paul or Art would be scrambling to record it.)

The Pacific Northwest’s notorious winter rains vacated the region intermittently throughout the last few months, but never on a weekend, at least not on a weekend we were free to get away. Over the last twenty to thirty days, the local precipitation could only be described as a perpetual onslaught of torrential downpours, or what I like to call Jumanji rain--minus the crocodile. So, on Sunday, as Dennie, Maisie, and I headed into the foothills for our first adventure since mid-November, we shouldn't have been surprised to encounter a typically popular, now abandoned, recreation spot with muddied and waterlogged lawns, flooded shores, and a barricaded bridge submerged within the murky waters of a once-clear lake.

Without a couple of paddleboards, an obliging croc, or any less terrifying form of water transport, our ramblings were--by safety-orange-pylon-and-big-glaring-sign mandate--restricted to the beach side of the park. The woodland trails may have been inaccessible, but no amount of flooding could thwart the intrepid trio that is the Fitzgerald & Bark Explorers' Club. We sidestepped puddles like seasoned pros, we skirted around great green goose droppings like munitions experts crossing a minefield; Dennie even conjured commendable courage, lunging over the threshold of the most harrowing of horrors--a public park restroom. Despite every one of these pitfalls, we survived to tell the tale. More to the point, after four-and-a-half months of homebound existence, the Fitzgerald & Bark Explorers' Club has been happily revived with this inaugural expedition of 2025: a lakeside afternoon of soaking in the super-soaked sights, frolicking in the fresh air, and making merry and muddy memories with our fabulously furry founder.