Two days later, I pull an enormous dungeness crab out of our last wire trap. I'm grabbing him from the back and I've picked up crabs this way a dozen times before, but this guy didn't get to be this size through timidity. He reaches back with his whopper of a claw and latches on to my right middle finger.
Photo taken by Cameron MacPhail.
Read MoreA hand goes up at the front of the line. Fingers count down from five. Breathless, buzzing, the four of us trailing the lead scatter off the trail, crouching, slinking into the trees. Mere feet away an enormous upturned tree has left a ten foot deep pit in the ground where its roots used to be. I sink into the depression, poking my head above the rim cautiously.
Photo taken by Laura at Nehalem Bay.