Jacqueline Brennan

To say that everything on the Peninsula west of the Olympic Range was wilder than the Neighborhood of Hood Canal felt like a gross understatement. It felt disingenuous, too, to describe something as wild just because it more closely resembled what it looked like before white settlement, which had always been far more disruptive than anything that occurred naturally. All the counterpoints—volcanic eruptions, fires, floods, earthquakes—worked within processes with a prehistoric…

“MacKenzie, I need your help in this game.” The voice came from the table, where I could hear people had gathered to play cards. And though the permanent law enforcement guy, Adam, was not there as far as I knew, his golden retrievers named Friday and Elaine were. I had been upstairs since getting back from Pete’s late that afternoon. I didn’t know how many life forms had made it into…

It was out of character for Ian to forget the key to the cabin. Largely because it was on the same keyring he had, like, nine other keys on, all of which he used almost daily. I guess he’d forgotten it in his rush to start his hitch a day early—hiking in on a Sunday so he could be back late Thursday and make a dentist appointment early Friday morning. He…

Beginning the first full week of August, our assessment schedule dropped from weekly to a bi-weekly. From that point in the season forward, all our assessments were conducted in pairs until the trailhead we used to access the second-growth area opened to wider public permit use in early October. After Ian took a turn in mid-July, Bridger had taken the week after to give me one more week off from backcountry…

I was against being seen in public with my coworkers when alcohol was involved for one obvious reason: They were animals. At the Rain Shadow, the lack of propriety felt acceptable, but I wondered how much of that owed to the backdrop of dense coastal forests that constantly gave it the effect of an extended camping trip. In the end, Bridger and Ben somehow convinced me that venturing into society would…