Get Out

Growing up surrounded by fishing families, I regarded the local waterways not as playgrounds but as parts of a great wilderness in which some people risked their lives. And so I scoffed at the idea of taking a recreational sailing class through Humboldt State University’s Center Activities. But my husband is far more adventurous. He […]

It’s windy out and the clouds are a bruised, luminous purple not found anywhere, really, except the sky. Thunder rumbles across the bay from Eureka and Greta de la Montagne emerges from the car with eyes to the ground. She promptly spots a clump of plantain. Smashing a leaf between her thumb and fingers she […]

I grew up in the home of a marathon runner: My father was always training for a race — or recovering from one. My mother, too, cultivated a steady habit of running. As a result, our family vacations coincided with grueling races. I would hang out at the finish line and watch the runners approach […]

Last weekend my dad and I got out for his birthday. We launched our old inflatable boat, powered by a small outboard motor, and took off out of the bay armed with box traps and hoop nets. Our goal was to bring in some of California’s tastiest crustaceans — Dungeness crabs. Every year since I […]

Most of the sky has darkened but for an apricot streak of sunset over the mouth of Humboldt Bay. Alex Service stands with her back to the water at the foot of F Street, her brown, oilcloth duster flared out behind her as she sets the scene for a crowd of 30. She asks them […]

My hands squeeze tight on the wheel. Other parts of my anatomy are following suit. Tunnel vision has limited my focus to a half-mile strip of blackened concrete running north into the Samoa dunes. The smell is a funky mix of sea air and car exhaust. My race face is a quivering attempt at motorized […]

The surf scene up here is unique. There is so much more that goes into a session in Humboldt County than in a daily check of different beaches along the California coast. The water is colder, the ocean angrier, and the sea life much more abundant and a little less friendly. If you want to […]

The sun is shining as I tuck my Subaru into the row of jumbo pick-up trucks inhabiting the parking lot of the Humboldt Trap and Skeet Range. A distant slice of ocean reclines beyond the airport runway, and the noisy crack of shots fired smacks against the mountains that hem McKinleyville to the coast. Staffed […]

We launched from the beach in Trinidad in a motley assortment of watercrafts. Twelve-year-old Nate Ferguson was paddling his sit-on-top fishing kayak and 14-year-old Cory Soll was in a touring kayak. Leading the group was Jason Self, the boys’ coach and surrogate uncle, who owns Kayak Trinidad. He paddled a white-water kayak and my friend […]