Spruce Forest Surprise!

Here's the story: we are walking on the Gwynn Creek trail beneath the towering Sitka Spruce. We are stopping to admire nurse logs, and wet ferns, the bark of these ancient giants and the small cones that give rise to them. Kendall is on the trail ahead of me a few yards and I've just passed a bend on the wet trail. I turn at the sound of something falling from high above and behind me a few yards on the trail. A whooshing sound and I look up. Falling from high above a very large ball of vegetation, mosses, branches, and living matter is making its way through the forest canopy. It crashes on the trail we have just passed by!! In the photo I'm holding a small example of the lichen and moss interwoven into a living carpet that had been high above just moments before. Grateful that it did not land on our heads!!