Amidst all the fake but almost believable videos and AI slop floating around cyberspace, I was truly delighted by a few true moments captured and shared online this week.
One was a bighorn sheep swimming across the Grande Ronde River in Asotin County. The ram — an absolute unit of muscles and horns — paddles across the rushing river, leaps out of the water, then shakes his giant frame like a shaggy sheepdog after making it up to dry land.
It was great video work by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife’s manager of the Chief Joseph Wildlife Area. What an excellent way to share the glories of our natural world with the public.
“While it's more common to see bighorns in steep mountainous terrain, they will swim when needed to get where they want to go or to get away from threats," WDFW said in sharing the video.
An equally excellent video this week showed another top ruminant showing its elevated qualities — mountain goats climbing atop the Johnston Ridge Observatory near Mount St. Helens.
Holly Weiss-Racine, a geologist with the Cascades Volcano Observatory, captured the charming video. Johnston Ridge has been inaccessible to vehicles since a landslide three and a half years ago. The only visitors now have to come on foot. That means people have to hike in. Some hoof it — and so do some goats, apparently emboldened by the all-but complete absence of humans.
“The 1980 eruption killed the few resident mountain goats around Mount St. Helens,” USGS wrote. “However, 46 years later, the blasted rocky hillsides are full of shrubs and wildflowers, creating the perfect mountain goat habitat. The population is thriving! Scientists were recently up at JRO and were startled to see five goats watching them from the roof of the building. Don't worry, mountain goats are very good at balancing on high ledges.”
The Greatest
Speaking of goats, the kids these days use that term to describe the best of the best — the Greatest Of All Time.
It’s become a term of admiration and praise — if you’re the finest, you’re the GOAT.
I thought of that term after seeing a Chronicle story this week about Jerry and Eileen Owens, who helped found the Napavine Funtime Festival more than 50 years ago and have been the Greatest Of All Time in keeping it thriving for more than half a century. The pair have formally passed the torch of this great event to the Napavine Newaukum Lions Club. (The public is invited to help out. Visit napavinefuntimefestival.com or contact the Lions at 360-827-0891 or napavinelions@gmail.com.)
Folks like Jerry and Eileen, and the countless volunteers who have joined them to put on this event and its associated celebrations over the decades, deserve great thanks and acknowledgement for their selfless service to the community.
I’ve enjoyed this parade for years with my family, as have countless thousands of other people in Napavine and beyond.
It’s easy to criticize something like this if the event falls short of our expectations, but hard to make it happen. Folks like Jerry and Eileen, with their merry band of fun-loving Napaviners, are the reason we can have nice things. They are the mountain GOATs of the hilltop community of Napavine. Thank you both!
And along those lines, huge thanks to the Napavine Newaukum Lions Club for taking over this project. I encourage everyone who lives in or near Napavine, or who has ever enjoyed the Funtime Festival, or who has ever critiqued aspects of it that you didn’t fully enjoy, to join the Lions in making the 2027 festival the best one yet. I don’t think Jerry and Eileen would mind someone managing to elevate this festival they love.
The only thing a goat likes better than getting the highest point ever is discovering an even greater spire to attain.
Lighting the Way
Oh, and we don’t have to wait for next summer to have fun in Napavine. On Saturday, Dec. 5, the Napavine Funtime Festival committee is putting on a lighted Christmas Parade at 6 p.m. There will be pictures with Santa and cookies at the old fire hall afterward.
Join up and make merry.
More Light
Young goats are known as kids, and the kids are alright in Winlock, where the Winlock Youth Leadership Club just successfully asked the city for permission to host their own lighted Christmas parade in the Egg City on Dec. 19.
“We are a group of 10 kids who are learning two very important skills,” Georgia Sayler told the council. “One, how to organize a group of individuals with differing ideas efficiently, so that we can work together to accomplish a common goal. And, two, to bring some community spirit to Winlock.”
Huge cheers and congratulations to this group for loving their community and working to bring something new, joyful and fun to their town.
There’s no limit to how high the GOATs of Lewis County can climb. Onward and upward!
Brian Mittge is a community enthusiast who has written for The Chronicle since 2000 as a reporter, editor and columnist. He can be reached at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
