The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

You know it’s a dangerous world when driftwood becomes a deadly predator, but I suppose it’s best to stay on guard at all times. You just never know what lurks around the corner! Beach logs lurk around my corner this morning. Seemingly benign but … waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting.

Kalaloch. No doubt a Hoh tribal word for Killer Dead Trees. Fortunately it’s pouring down rain this morning, no chance we’re venturing down to the beach where the logs are piled high. We watched a sea otter hump out of the tide and directly into the waiting maw of those logs, last we’ll see of it, I bet. Let his demise be a cautionary tale for us visiting humans. No wonder the sea otters nearly went extinct, they’re obviously slow learners.

Kalaloch beaches are strewn with dead razor clams, crabs, sand dollars — all no doubt victims of beach log attacks if my scientific acumen is accurate. And I think you know by now it is. Of course there are other warnings on the National Park kiosks. Sneaker waves. Rip tides. The dangers are plenty. Falls off the bluffs. Slugs the size of pythons. Antibiotic resistant mildew. Maybe we made a mistake coming here. It was supposed to be a mellow vacation, not a jungle safari.

If we’re smart, we’ll play it safe and stay put, forget venturing down onto the sandpits. Although coming in, I did notice the signs warning about tsunamis. Evacuation Route, they said. Maybe we should just start now….

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