For me, July 5 marks the real start of summer on the south Washington coast.

Walking up one of Cape Disappointment’s lesser-used trails a couple days ago — the one from McKenzie Head to North Head — it was good to see several groups of young people deftly navigating its obstacle course of tree roots, twists and turns. I took a spill on one such root and was grateful nobody saw.

I share my grandfather’s interest in strangers, with interactions about our dogs sometimes granting a brief opportunity to ask simple questions. Although Cape Disappointment State Park currently resembles a cheerful refugee camp with its crowd of tents and scurrying children, for urban people camped there it is a wilderness experience, one that transports them to a time when walking was the only way to navigate these old forests. They speak not of crowds but of the lack of them, reveling in pure air and birdsong.

A pair of owls — rivals, lovers, neighbors? — called back and forth high in an isolated area, and I was glad for them that Washington State Parks leaves many such places without trails. Leaving big places untouched is a luxury many advanced nations can only dream of.

July 5 also marks the annual summer beach cleanup, when scores of volunteers scour the beaches to pick up the shameful piles of debris left over from the previous night’s cacophony of fireworks. While many who indulge in fireworks are responsible about them, others deserve tickets for littering and other misbehavior. If consumer fireworks are banned here in the next couple years, this mess will be part of the reason. Noise is a parallel issue, with the night of July 4 sounding like the distant rumble of the Battle of Waterloo from my house above Baker Bay.

These next 10 or so weeks mark the heart of summer, the time when locals often travel on backstreets and get our grocery shopping finished before the crowds arrive. I have maintenance chores to accomplish around the house, including cutting up dead elderberry bushes and holly trees with my big old Husqvarna chainsaw that has served me well for 30 years thanks to Bailey’s Saw Shop in Long Beach. Buy good tools and take care of them.

We enjoy covering the newsy storms of winter, when the trails I travel are almost devoid of other walkers. But summer on the coast will always be our favorite time, with its festivals, markets, salmon fishing and happy visitors who appreciate the beauty we are able to take for granted. For all the news that arises, look here in the Chinook Observer.

Thanks as always for your support. Without you, there would be no news.