Hole in the Fence

Preface

Before I begin, let me preface a few things. I absolutely LOVE to head out in the middle of the night to take photos. Sometimes I would simply head up to Mount St. Helens (Spirit Highway - before the road closure) or head to downtown Portland and roll the dice and see what I get. And yes…while it’s not the most “Ideal” time to go out, when you constantly travel with your tri-pod and a remote trigger, it’s game over as there’s nothing to prevent me from capturing beautiful imagery. Well…Almost - as I found out that night.

It was mid-February of 2023 and we decided to visit with family up in the Auburn area. As with most quick trips or mini-vacations I was constantly looking at my weather app and to my surprise - No rain was in the forecast. And yes…believe it or not, the Pacific Northwest has its moments and this happened to be one of them. So…10:30 pm hits and with the kids asleep and everyone else calling it a night, I began packing my equipment for a trek into Seattle, WA. Mind you, leading up to my departure I was reminded of just how dangerous the city can be, let alone in the middle of the night. And while I took heed, it’s not very often I get the opportunity to visit Seattle so I intended on making the most of it.

Rather than just drive around and hope I stumble onto something worthy of my time, I began looking up iconic locations around the city and I found 3 locations that just blew me away. The above image is an absolute iconic view of the city that can be found in everything from websites to travel-books and when I saw the image, I knew it was going to be my first location. So off I went.

If you search: Dr. Jose Rizal Park, in Seattle, WA - (look it up on a map) and below you’ll see where 12th Avenue turns into St. Charles street. Down below is the ‘Mountains to Sound Greenway Trail.’ That’s where you want to get to. To be quite honest, the description I found online was much more confusing. Anyways, from the direction I came, I saw two photographers sitting up on the Bridge taking photos of the city, but I could tell from the scenery, that wasn’t the correct location.

Going back to what I found…it said: There’s a park there -

Just follow the steps down to the trail and you’ll come across a fence with a hole cut-out.

Sounds easy enough. Right? So…I go to the park and scouted around (without my gear) to first locate it then I would come back and hammer out the shot. I found a set of stairs at the north entrance of that little park that appeared to be taking me into the thicket of trees, brush, and who knows what else down below. I mean - It looked like what the online description described it as. So, I grabbed my gear and began heading down. Mind you, it’s around 11:30 pm…and with as many cars that were pulling up and rushing off in the parking lot, it was a little sketchy to say the least. At one point some guy got out of his car…looked around a few times…and began walking along the cement pathway. I would say he was gone for about a minute then came walking back to his car and left.

It’s a public area. He has the right to be there as much as I do. Well, a few minutes later I saw someone pull up and walk exactly to where the previous guy disappeared to and then rushed back to their vehicle and take off. Yeah…. Anyways, that happened multiple times and here I am all gear’d up about to descend down this pathway just to find this one spot I read about online.

I began descending and the further I continued the canopy of trees and brush just began to swallow up the light. (No pun intended) And before you knew it, I had my phone out trying to light up the pathway but even then it wasn’t doing much to help. It was DARK in there. The stone steps turned into dirt steps with pieces of wood anchored to the edge to provide some stability, but eventually that turned into just downhill type walking. At this point I kinda figured I was in the wrong location, but I can be pretty dense when i’m on the hunt for something. It’s like my reptilian brain kicks in and continues to nudge me forward and I lose all awareness of my surroundings. It’s bad.

To be honest, I would’ve continued on. I didn’t go all that way just to turn back around. In that moment, I began hearing something move through the brush. It sounded like it was about 20-30 feet away and I came to a cold stop. I pulled out my actual flashlight ( It burns battery quickly so I was preserving it by using my phone’s flashlight) and as I pointed it into the direction - whatever it was stopped moving. I slowly began to back up, keeping the light on that area and I heard more movement, but coming from a different direction. Let’s just say - I high-tailed out of there. It probably was coyote or deer, but that area is also known for having homeless people camping out in there.

Now…I’m back at the top of the stairs where the playground is at. I figured it was time to let this be and move on the location #2.

Remember those other photographers that were on the bridge? Well, I decided to take off, but I wanted to swing by where they were at and see if I could get something. As I drove down 12th Ave…those photographers were no longer on the bridge, but were now down on the trail looking through a fence.

And it hit me like ton of bricks. I was completely in the wrong spot.

I turned around and parked closer to the bridge. As I got off my car, I noticed there was a dog park down below and low and behold - there’s the stairway I read about. I grabbed my stuff and descended down and made my way towards the trail.

When I watch movies where the story is being told in a big city (New York, L.A.) every now and again they’ll show people playing cards on the sidewalk or whatever that game is where you have to find the card as they’re swapping them from left to right. No joke…I get down to the trail and there must have been 3-4 people (homeless by the looks of them) playing cards on the top of a small wagon/cart and as I walked by, we all met eyes and I just simply gave them a small head nod. They did so in return and continued with their game. Up ahead I could see the two photographers stooped over in the one location along the fence and I knew I had found the spot.

I could tell the two gentlemen were a little relieved to have another photographer appear. I assumed they were as spooked about being there as I was. Anyways, we chatted…exchanged info and off they went. Now, I was back to a solo mission. I spent a little time getting my tripod setup and pulled my camera out at the absolute last minute. Mind you…it’s late and dark. For the shot I took, each image was roughly 2-3 minutes…maybe longer, but being on-edge, the time seemed to both stop and rush forward at the same time. As I was waiting for the camera to finish, there were people constantly walking through the brush from what appeared to be another pathway further down below. At one point a lady stopped and asked what I was doing and in the middle of my response she shook her head, swore loudly, and walked off. lol.

I was there for like maybe 20 mins. I took multiple shots and then packed up and left. When the other photographers left, they walked under the bridge, across the street to where the overpass was in order to get back up to their vehicles. I decided to just head back up the stairs. I walked by people playing cards and a moment later someone came thru brush holding a bike. By then I started ascending the stairs but noticed that guy with the bike kept staring at me. Next thing I knew he set the bike down and started in my direction. Having walked through the dogpark to get to the fence, I knew the ground was quite soggy in several areas so I maneuvered around the puddles and soft mud and flew up the stairs. My legs were on fire when I reached the top. Looking back, I could see the guy out of breath and about 1/2 ways up to where I was. I hopped in my vehicle and took off.

Once my nerves settled, I pulled out my camera and took a look. I got the shot.

I was absolutely ecstatic and decided to head to location #2. I thought the crazy was now behind me…boy was I wrong!

That’s another story.

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