6 years after the previous image was made I returned to Second Beach. One great curiosity was wondering if the shrine still existed - or had it been a temporary anomaly since dismantled by the Park Service or reclaimed by the forest, fading into history.

Descending the trail trying to remember approximately where - I knew certainly it was on the left side heading toward the beach -but given the mass and tangle and lack light in the forest, and time that had passed, I held little hope.

Others passed by on the narrow, stepped terraced trail as I walked slowly to one side, scanning the woods.

Then my eyes landed on what they were searching for - a large, rounded burl - looking like a big marble lodged halfway down a straw - emerging from an ancient Sitka Spruce. The assemblage of odds and ends was not only still present in the burl's hollow center - but had grown, expanding to the surrounding structure of the tree.

Over the past 6 years it appears many others noticed the shrine and carried small trinkets and keepsakes up from Second Beach, depositing them on the altar, creating what to me became a fascinating sanctorium; a hallowed place to the travelers of this trail.

I must have spent over an hour examining the site, trying to maneuver myself and camera into suitable positions along the narrow, damp, slipper and dark confines of the muddy trail as others passed by - some ignoring it and me all together; other casting curious glances at what the lens was focused on.

Some travelers whipped out their cell phones and unceremoniously snapped a photo, not breaking stride.