Arts & Entertainment Community

Day Tripper: The Roads to the Final Four (trolls)

Gas prices are sky high, and a night in a hotel is approaching astronomically expensive.  So, for the foreseeable future, I imagine many of you are going to find yourselves taking day trips rather than the road trip vacations we’ve grown to love. 

This beautiful region in which we live is ripe with opportunities to explore new places, see new things, and learn a little something at the same time. I promise to keep the longest journeys to a one-way distance of under 200 miles. Whether you want to make it an overnight trip, a weekend, or just a very long day trip, we should be able to pull it off.   

We will also check out some places that tourists flock to see in our beautiful community but most of us either take for granted or have never heard of.  If a staycation is on your horizon, I’m here to help you make the most of it.

I hope you’ll grant me the honor of your virtual company as we travel these roads together.  Happy trails!

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Final Four? No, we’re not thinking about March Madness already.

Instead, we’re following the roads that lead to the final four giant trolls that have been erected to complete Thomas Dambo’s project: Northwest Trolls: Way of The Bird King.

Ye Ole trolls

In August, we introduced you to Ole-Bolle, who resides at the Nordic Northwest Campus in Portland, and to Pia the Peacekeeper, the first troll erected in Washington state. Pia can be found in Sakai Park on Bainbridge Island. They, like their Puget Sound siblings, are constructed entirely of recycled materials, with the idea of turning trash into treasure.

The trolls are “protectors of natural life here to help humans reconnect with nature,” says Danish artist and environmentalist Dambo, who created them.

In Nordic mythology and folklore, trolls are known to be fierce protectors of nature. The Northwest Trolls tell a tale. In order to enhance the story-telling element of the project, Dambo also created a unique poem to serve as the theme for each of the characters.

At each location, as you search for the troll, you will find birdhouse towers marking the way. When you see the birdhouse, you’ll know that the troll is nearby.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Dambo and his cadre of volunteers turned the final troll, Frankie Feetsplinters, over to the National Nordic Museum in Ballard. That completed the series of six trolls funded by the Scan Design Foundation and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and constructed on traditional Coast Salish land.

But first things first. Before we introduce you to Frankie, we’d like you to meet his three additional Puget Sound based siblings.

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Bruun Idun

Location: West Seattle

Poem

In the night there was a storm.

There at the beach where she was born.

And Idun felt a feeling wrong and so she walked there in the dawn.

And in a flute, the magic horn, a tune so passionate and strong.

She played for them an orca song.

To ask them where they all have gone.

Getting there

Option 1: Take Highway 16 to I-5, I-5 to Fauntleroy, Follow Directions to Colman Pool
(47 miles plus a bridge toll)

Option 2: Take Highway 16 to Sedgwick Road in Port Orchard, then follow Sedgwick to the Southworth Ferry. Once you arrive in Fauntleroy, proceed up hill to the first Lincoln Park parking Lot. (27 miles plus a ferry toll)

Access to Bruun Idun is the most difficult of all the trolls. Parking is in the lot nearest the pool. With a disabled parking permit, you can drive down to a restricted parking lot at sea level. Once parked, it is still a one-third mile flat walk to where Bruun Idun waits for you.

What you’ll see

As part of the cultural exchange that brought the Dambo Project here, Muckleshoot award-winning artist John Halliday, aka Coyote, and his wife traveled to Denmark to consult with Dambo and his team. Dambo asked him to use Northwest Coast Native American formline art to paint a mural of an orca on the side of one of his buildings.

In turn, he pledged to incorporate orcas into the story of one of the trolls. We now know that troll is Bruun Idun. She is located just off the walking path behind the Colman Swimming Pool in West Seattle’s Lincoln Park, where she sits watching the ferries arrive and depart from the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal. She holds a recorder that she uses to play tunes to attract the orcas as they swim by.

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Jakob Two Trees

Location: Issaquah

Poem

A thousand circle suns not old.

Time will stretch and loop and fold.

So stop breathe out, breathe in, behold.

The trees have sung, a story told.

Getting there

Take Highway 16 to I-5, I-5 to Highway 18, Highway to Issaquah Hobart Road, then proceed west to 2nd Avenue. Jakob is just off 2nd St. between Olde Town and Issaquah High School (52 miles)

What you’ll see

Fourteen-foot-tall Jakob sits alongside the Rainier Trail. A long ponytail made from natural materials extends down his back and is secured by a band made by the Snoqualmie Tribe. He wears a necklace of birdhouses, inviting forest creatures to stop to rest for a few minutes and enjoy part of the day. Standing erect, he welcomes children to play around his feet.

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Oscar, the Bird King

Location: Vashon Island

Poem

He swam here from the island, where his mother once had birthed him

he walked across the mountains till his giant feet started hurting

He spoke a crow, a little girl, the orcas heard him sing

he used to be a little troll, now Oscar is The Bird King

Getting there

Oscar is located near the overlook above the Point Robinson Lighthouse on Vashon Island. You can take either the Southworth-Vashon ferry or the Point Defiance-Tahlequah ferry. The toll for car and driver is $27.25 car for both routes. Use of the Point Defiance terminal requires a bridge toll. From Gig Harbor through Southworth is 35 miles; from Gig Harbor through Point Defiance and Tahlequah is 22 miles. A circular route is 57 miles total.

What you’ll see

Once a young troll, Oscar is now the Bird King. He wears a crown of bird houses and sits on a regal throne which is surrounded by birdhouse towers. Locally sourced rope strands were used to string his birdhouse crown and also hang from the towers. Oscar is located on the cliff overlooking the Point Robinson Lighthouse.

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Frankie Feetsplinters

Location: Ballard

Poem

Frankie don’t like slimy fish, cause fishes are all so dumb

And Frankie don’t like little humans, humans are so dumb

Frankie don’t even like trolls, cause trolls are also dumb

But Frankie’s mouth’s the only one that says the word of dumb

Getting there

From I-5, take exit 167/Mercer Avenue; then follow take Elliott Avenue, 15th Avenue and Shilshole Avenue to 28th Ave NW. The National Nordic Museum is on your left. (51 miles)

What you’ll see

Frankie is allegedly the youngest and angriest of the trolls. Instead of in the forest or near a stream, he finds himself on a busy city street in front of the National Nordic Museum. He can be seen stomping on and smashing a wooden bench that has the misfortune to find itself underfoot.

While you’re visiting Frankie, you may want to take a couple of hours and visit the museum itself. Also nearby are the famous Hiram M. Chittenden locks, a salmon education center and fish ladder, and renowned botanical gardens.