August '24 Canlife Correspondence -- Sublime Parks, Starlink, Sales, & Summits
The upper left coast of the contiguous 48 states is a moody place. Wedged in between the Salish Sea (Puget Sound) and the north Pacific Ocean, the Olympic Peninsula famously offers a dysfunctional interchange of fog, drizzle, and downpour, interrupted with fleeting moments of sunshine that recharges both our spiritual and physical batteries. But, the rain returns. It's this rain that gives the park so much incredible life, and biomass, both in the forest and along the shores. We've seen massive trees that contain multitudes (one study showed that a single Bigleaf maple contained over 2,500 pounds of lichen and moss -- when dried!!). In Olympic National Park , we've also seen browsing Roosevelt elk in the Hoh Rainforest, Northern sea lions barking from the ledges, Ochre sea stars clinging to rocks below the tideline, the elusive Olympic marmot high up on Hurricane Ridge, Grey whales feeding near Cape Alava, and even my spirit animal, a river otter, swam right in front