Brush a hand along the trail's edge here and you're touching the canyon's pantry. The shoulder-high shrubs crowding in feed half the gorge: big fuzzy maple-shaped leaves mark thimbleberry, whose flat red fruit falls apart the second you pick it; arching prickled canes are salmonberry, the earliest fruit in these woods. Lower down, glossy salal hangs inky blue-black berries that dry sweet and chewy, and spiny holly-shaped Oregon-grape carries sour purple fruit the birds clean out by fall. This stop turns the trailside into a lesson in the edible forest, naming what's safe and what feeds the wildlife, and flagging the one plant to leave strictly alone: devil's club, a thick green stalk armored in pale spines, big as a parasol, that'll make you remember the lesson for a week. Pick one leaf shape to track as you walk, because the canyon is about to get loud.
Brush your hand along the trail's edge here and you're touching the pantry. All these shoulder-high shrubs crowding in on you — this layer feeds half the canyon. The big maple-shaped leaves with the soft fuzz? That's thimbleberry. Come July it'll hand you a flat red berry that falls apart the second you pick it, sweet and a little tart, gone in one bite. Beside it, those arching canes with the prickles — salmonberry. Earliest fruit in these woods, glowing orange to deep red, and an early-summer prize if you beat the birds to it. Now look lower, at the glossy leathery leaves down near your knees. Two dark-berry plants share that floor. Salal, with the round leaves and the inky blue-black fruit that dries down sweet and chewy, good trail food if you know it. And Oregon-grape — holly-shaped, spiny-edged, hung with sour purple berries the birds clean out by fall. One you do not touch: if you see a thick green stalk armored in pale spines, big as a parasol, that's devil's club. Leave it be. Brush past it and you'll remember the lesson for a week. Pick one leaf shape to keep your eye on as you walk. The canyon's about to get loud — let your hands do the noticing first.
