This was the most dangerous photoshoot of my life. I spied this decaying, mushroom-covered trunk from atop the clay cliffs of Point Defiance. It was all the way down on the beach, but the number of mushrooms and the color I was seeing was evident, especially with the binoculars. But, the nearest stairs down to the beach were a far walk back. So, what does this crow do? He resolves to scale down the steep cliff.

Man that was exhilarating. I felt like a kid again. All those skills I developed scaling steep dirt hills as a child came back. I may have lost a lil skin on my pinky finger, but as you can see, it was worth it! I felt like a snowboarder.

To get that topside angle, I had to crawl over a toppled trunk. It bowed under my weight and it was quite narrow. I had to creative with my legs and foot work to achieve this perspective. Why, I felt like monkey haha.

The climb back up was the biggest challenge of them all. I practically slid down the half the cliff because of how soft the soil was. I fashioned climbing spikes out of a pair of hammer-sized sticks. With them, I climbed, tooth and nail, up the vertical traverse, each step sliding out from under me as I begin to use my knees to reach intermediate purchases. I follow a deer path up the slope, where vegetation still clung; I used their branches and roots to pull myself ever upward. My body went to WORK. I felt like an adventurer.