The coast can be a madhouse sometimes, especially during good weather and a holiday weekend. Like now. The air is already smokey with beach fires this afternoon. We’re not supposed to leave fires untended even in damp weather, our dogs are supposed to be leashed, and most of our footprints in the sand should be gone by morning. All of us are visitors here.

Gary and I walk out around 6am. We are not always the first on the sand. We look for Tammy, Tom, and Larry who are after the same things we are: a good long walk, good empty sand, and a few birds. We see the footprints of raccoons and coyotes and deer, and many birds. They tread all lightly.

During a holiday weekend, it is especially important to arrive home early from our walk and before the “herd” comes out, so sometimes we cut our walks short. Other times we soldier on regardless of weather, loose dogs, and authorities.

This morning, a parks official sent packing two people illegally camping on the shore. Maybe those young men walked back the half mile to use the park toilets instead of pissing on the creek, maybe they got a ticket.

The other day a huge marine mammal was onshore. We avoided getting close enough for a good look, but I argued it was the wrong color for a sea lion and far too big for a seal. I thought it might be a female northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris). Gary has conceded I am probably right. Someone came and posted a sign warning people off and when the tide knocked the sign away, I put it back up. A few days later Gary was sure the animal had died, but when he got within about fifty feet, it raised its head and hissed at him. A day or two later we saw the tracks left in the sand when she went back into the ocean.

All marine mammals are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Some are also protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. 

—NOAA

When people ask “is the weather good?” they mostly mean sunshine and blue skies. We like those days too and sometimes we sit out in the west garden, in the “front yard” during such weather. But we agree with Alfred Wainwright: “There is no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.”

We are only visitors here, even those of us who consider where we are home. From many years ago, I recall a court case from the 1800s established that our nation owns the land, not us individually. Someone tried to sell Astoria back to the Brits, but private ownership can not be transferred to a foreign power because at most we own the use of the land, not the land itself. It is also because of this I cannot open a chemical plant in my residential neighborhood, keep a dozen hogs, or open a fast food restaurant. Even bought and paid for, I cannot “do whatever I want with my property” because ultimately it is mine only to use in accordance with the law.

Perhaps, we’ll all memorialize the weekend and consider that none of us is here forever, that no one of us has forever-use. We borrow this land, this space, this air, this life for a time. We might promise to be good stewards while it is under our care. Happy Memorial Day!

Agreed.

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