May 05, 2024 | Mossters of the Forest

This is one of the best times to hike in the Pacific Northwest. What I especially love is how many of the lowland hikes are tours through moss-covered forests. The moss covers absolutely everything. It is a vibrant green that nourishes the eyes. The air is fresh and thick with the smell of life.

On a recent and particularly wet and cool morning, I hiked on the foot of a small mountain - down where the water collects in to a river and a trail accompanies it to no particular destination. Although I took pictures of flowers, wildlife, and more, it was my mind's conjuring of moss-monsters that I wanted to share. Each of the below looked slightly like it could be a large creature covered in moss - ready to come alive and make other things living in the forest not:

The many appendages of a creature burrowed slightly under the ground reaching out

The multi-armed bandits of the forest

A lumbering insect

I could imagine any of these moss-monsters being terrifying in the right (wrong) lighting. They would even make excellent movie or video game creatures to antagonize wayward pedestrians. Or perhaps, these mossters are the victims, and the stories they would tell would be scarier than otherwise.

Either way, the story can't be known by looking at the pictures. It must be told by experiencing it directly - and it is quite the story.