Near the foggy heart of Hoh Rain Forest in northwest Jefferson County snakes a trail called the Hall of Mosses where the branches of bigleaf maples wear clubmoss like beards, flying squirrels nestle in canopy 20 stories high, and cougars and elk make tracks with barely a sound. 

Though only three-quarters of a mile long, the Hall of Mosses is biologically rich from forest crown to forest floor, a place where life and death, and youth and age, are entwined, and where nature leaves nothing to waste. I spent three hours there on a sunny Saturday in early October. These are my shorthand notes verbatim:

Hoh vits cnter: Hoh RF 922,651 acres. “One of the most spectacular examples of temperate rain forest in the world.” Trail basalt rocks glisten against damp dirt. A thicket @ 90 paces to place biologist Pat asks vits stay back. 1 LG elk, 2 SM chew Sitka spruce shoots.

Pat into radio: “They were born a few months ago & I barely recognize them — they’ve grown so much!” Gushing. Lively eyes. I ask & he sez approx 2,500 elk in ONP [Olympic National Park]. Sez had been 5k.

Teen shows Pat phone. Photo pugmark in mud 4 miles up trail. “That’s from a black bear,” Pat sez, “maybe a 300-pounder!!” Sez BB w/ 2 cubs been seen “wandering around.” Child in Pat clearly thrives.

Trail Xs salmon creek. I see none. Sword ferns, mossy trunks, salal shrubs w/ shamrock-grn egg-shaped leaves abound. Fog ghosts forest 10-15 seconds. A shiver. Brow & T-shirt sweaty dspite cool air. Humid. Unseen pileated woodpecker “cuk cuk cuk cuk cuk.” 

Walk beneath trunk overpass. Photog w/ [film-based] Nikon F5 on ‘pod. Old school!! Kudos 2 U. Light’s exlnt. Sun rays lance down b/n trees. Some foliage glows, some hides in shadows.

To mind Nina Simone sings “Feeling good.” Birds flying high…

Trail forks. Pridefully carved sign on 4by4: Hall of Mosses lft. Spruce Trail & Hoh River Trail rght.

Now in HOM: once-jagged stumps spruce, maples, firs & redcedars jut frm ground, edges softened by decay. Mny conifers & deciduous alike snapped by blowdowns, lightning, falling trees’ karate-chops. Most trunks hallow, mny burnt post-death.

Shelf fungi on trunks luk like lasagna, gnome heads, rooster wattles, burnt mozzarella balls, orange caps topped w/ rock salt. Truffles too; flying squirrels risk death by owl to reach ‘em. Rocky [the Flying Squirrel] disperses truffle spores. Baby truffles.     

Maple leaves blanket forest flr, sum Frisbee wide. Tree seeds that can’t penetrate leaf mat die. Trail sign: “Nurselogs When a big tree falls it can provide a stage of new life. Hemlock and spruce seedlings, unable to survive on the tangled forest floor, absorb minerals, moisture and warmth from the decaying trunk.”

Trunks w/ “legs” like crumpled black widow’s appear to reach down to ground from single trunk. Ringed by clusters sword ferns in fall colors. Vits blast by, most stop only 4 snpshts. Miss mucho.

I spy dime-size fragile magic shroom in tiny grotto of thick-mossed cedar trunk. Big me tiny white cap. Feels...intimate.

Close luk @ trunks. Where missing bark shiny wet like sweating. Several dead, a “bullet hole” every inch b/c of industrious/diligent woodpeckers hunting bugs. Impressive!!

Mosses. In shaggy clumps on trunks & draped over branches. Old man beards, not moving. Wind pushing tree tops around but stillness at forest floor. Mny mosses, mny shades of green: lightsaber, lime, chartreuse, crocodile, olive, pickle. Some yellow: butter, honey, Dijon, blonde. Sky: b/n cornflower & cyan. Lovely!!

A few paces. Faint crackle to rght. Solitary blacktail deer eating blackberries on vine sweet delicious yummy. Gentle. Focused. No rush. Tail up. Poop out. Tourist: “now there’s an action shot.”

Banana slug seeks nutrients frm leaf litter, dead animals, poop, living leaves. Enriches soil w/ own waste. Millipedes, snails too. Forest’s cleanup & recycle crew.

Wishing I cud see little brown bats & Marbled murrelets overhead [I described both in previous columns]. An LBB can catch 1800 skeeters b/n dusk & dawn. A MM lays 1 egg/yr, lives near top of tallest old-growth trees, flies to/frm ocean to catch fish for chick. So sweet it is!!

Tree trunk “w/ legs” child cud crwl thru but no den for animals b/c no wind protection. Nearby tight triangle of 30” firs. Cozy needles form mat middle. Gud place 4 blk bear 2 hibernate. [Unlike brn bears, blk bears don’t go into torpor. They can wake whenever. A blk bear sometimes hibernates in open and awakes under 2 feet of snow! Brn bears need dens.]

Cedar trunk twice my hght standing, Lego-size chunks of interior decays a lovely orange-brn. Bark smoothish w/ weaving grooves like overlapping ski tracks. Not chunky & patchy w/ deeply furrowed grooves like a fir’s nor resmbling a pole covered in brown-grey moths like Sitka spruce trunk nor vertical race of snakes staying in their lanes like Western hemlock’s trunk. 

So many talking tourists!!! When alone forest, so quiet. No suggestion of mighty Hoh River 1(?) / 2(?) miles near. Smelling? Forest air like compost, other times blossoms, sometimes smells...green/grass.

Sign in vit cntr sed 140” rain/yr. 100” more than Seattle--that ugly jungle. Cars, graffiti, litter, noise, rudeness. Here a death-defying calm. & so many Irish-luck clovers. Cute!!

Long strand of spider web linking trees like tight rope snags light & reflects electric colors lavender, cyan, lime.

Loop trail ends. Time 4 home. Put buds in. Hit Music Artists Nina Simone “Feeling Good” Play.

Birds flying high

You know how I feel

Sun in the sky

You know how I feel

Breeze driftin’ on by

You know how I feel

It’s a new dawn

It’s a new day

It’s a new life

For me

And I’m feeling good

Scott Doggett is a former staff writer for the Outdoors section of the Los Angeles Times. He and his wife, Susan Englen, live in Port Townsend.