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"The Sea Runners"


Fog and Seastack, Olympic National Park, Washington CoastPelicans near mouth of Hoh River, Oil City, Washington

Rounding a headland north of Oil City

Recently, I read an excellent book, Ivan Doig's "The Sea Runners". It's a sort of historical fiction, following four indentured servants who escape from the Russian outpost of New Archangel (now Sitka, Alaska) in a canoe and travel down the coast towards Astoria, Oregon. Doig tells the story wonderfully, making it difficult to put the book down, and bringing the perils that the four men face to life. The book also invokes the Pacific coastline of the northwest, a place I love and know well. For most of my childhood, we went camping out on the beach on the Washington Coast in Olympic National Park. We played on the sand, roasted hot dogs and tried to keep raccoons and bears away from our food. We also endured hailstorms in July, caught a glimpse a rare gray whale breaching right off a rocky point, and dodged waves while rounding craggy headlands. The Northwest Coast is a perilous place, and the waters of the Pacific always inspired awe and fear, even during summer from the safe vantage point of (mostly) dry land. One of the most striking aspects of Doig's adventurers is that they travel during the winter months, when fierce storms often pound the coast. "The Sea Runners" was in fact based on a real escape made out of Sitka, and its' characters based on real men who fled bondage in Russian America for freedom in the United States. A recommended read for anyone, and especially for me, the book brought to life a coastline that holds a special place in my life.

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