A VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER hoses down a hot spot near the ladies' room at Up the Creek, which burned down Sunday morning. Fire Marshal Dave Salzer thinks the blaze might have started there.

THIS SHOT OF the smoldering Up the Creek restaurant at Mill Creek was taken Sunday morning from Highway 3 by Nick Earsley of Shelton. No cause has been pinpointed in the $400,000 fire.

WORKING ON THE NEW headquarters for Exceptional Foresters, Incorporated are, from left, Richard Houseman, Bob Phillips and foreman Bill Jones of Christensen, Incorporated. The building is going up at the west end of Railroad Avenue in Shelton.

Classroom by the creek

Students at Southside Middle School on Monday release coho salmon into Goldsborough Creek. The youngsters raised the fingerlings from eggs in their classroom as part of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Salmon in the Classroom program. The students are in Roy Conover's science and language arts class and have studied and written about the small fish since winter break. Students watched the fingerlings develop from eggs to yolk or sac fry and finally to the fingerling stage. Conover said he hopes the students' efforts at restocking the creek will help coho return in greater numbers. They released the fish at the old mill dam site.

CAUGHT IN A RARE moment of inactivity (top) before rousing the hometown faithful Friday at the University of Washington's state-of-the-art indoor track facility are exClimber twins Andy (left) and Alex McClary. That's the former (#401) paring a remarkable seven seconds off his mile PR in the inset on the left, and inset next to him is brother Alex in postrace conference with some of his Cal teammates. In various throes of anticipation during Andy's mile prelim, near, are girlfriend Kati Fox and mom and dad Judy and Cam McClary. Andy went on to help his Cal medley-relay team finish third overall in the battle for Pac-10 and Big West Conference bragging rights, and brother Alex wound up third overall in the open 800 meters. The 2004 prep All-American stopped the clock at 1:51.71, putting to rest once and for all the early-season talk of injury woes. Yeah, the knee problem that dogged him all last year is history, said Alex, chalking it up to the successful application of a stretching regimen there at Cal. "They said I was the least flexible athlete they'd ever seen," he intoned, laughing. As for the Huskies' indoor facility, built last year as a practice getaway for pro football's Seattle Seahawks, its 307-meter track is being touted as the fastest in the nation, and runners are seeking it out for world-record bids.

FLAPPERS AT THE FORE, Shelton's "Synergy" competition flag team strikes a pose at the conclusion of its "Chicago Censored" routine during halftime of a recent Climber home game. Performed to music from the Broadway hit Chicago, the routine features rifles as well and runs fully four minutes the length specified by competition rules, says instructor Susan Peters, aka Climber band director, noting that the team hits the road for just such competitive purposes three or four times a year on average. It'll be at Ingraham High School the end of the month and in the annual All-Northwest showdown in Oregon shortly thereafter. Its next local performance will be during the Climber band's March 23 concert that starts at 7 p.m. in the SHS Auditorium. As for the above pose, it features Valerie Close and Caitlin Sutter up front, left to right. Behind them are Melissa Wood, Tim Penoyar, Heather Dahman, Sarah Gates and Tim Donnell. Partially obscured at right is Amanda Jensen. And just out of the picture are Beth Luedtke, Brita Fosse, Michael MacFarlane and Gabe Lawson. Peters' mentoring colleague is veteran coach Mary Kay Anderson.

Scout does good turn,
reimburses Theler

Local scout Ian Carpenter, second from right, tackled the task of trail restoration at the Theler Wetlands for his recent Eagle Scout project. In the process, he used quite a bit of equipment and materials to get all of the work done. He recently visited the wetlands to pay back all of the costs associated with the project. He is seen here with, from left, Mary E. Theler Organization board member Pam Daroff, AmeriCorps supervisor Walt Harper and assistant scoutmaster Dan Lancaster.