Today’s light rain has chased away everyone from the rainforest trail but Aki, my adult daughter and me. We find the forest green, its foliage still intact, yet to be wounded by hungry insects, deer, and bears. The broadleaf skunk cabbage plants are still spring supple. At the forest edge, Aki looks for someone to throw her frisbee so she can chase after it down the beach.She has to settle for the daughter skipping rocks over salt water. We walk out a spit of land that will disappear under an incoming tide to where good flat rocks are plentiful. The path is still two feet above water so I don’t worry about whether the tide is ebb or flood. Aki wades chest deep to better watch the rocks skip five, six, sometimes ten times before sinking. I watch too and remember how I watched her skip rocks on beaches here and in Ketchikan for more than 20 summers. Distracted, I don’t notice the tide cover our escape route until it maroons us. We have to wade through ankle deep water to reach dry land.

Two days of flat, grey light has diminished some of the joy of walking with Aki across this mountain meadow. Thoughts of a woman lost while hiking on a cross channel mountain doesn’t help. Not even the explosion of pink and magenta wildflowers (bog rosemary and dwarf rhododendron) lifts my spirits for the muskeg meadow they grow in is in drought. Ponds, where the reflections of mountains and British buckbean flowers can be broken by skittering water bugs are now dry. I can walk anywhere without soaking my boots.

Aki takes advantage of the freedom to roam from dried pond to dried pond, then rolls on her back on the meadow. The look of bliss on her furry grey face lifts my mood.

We walk down to where the trail crosses a diminished Fish Creek and turn back to the car. As the creek noise fades, I start to hear thrush song and here and there a robin making the most out of this summer day. We pass an odd pair—one purple violet and a yellow skunk cabbage flower—standing side by side, but a discrete distance apart. They could be strangers waiting for a bus or new kids killing time before school orientation begins.