Just another Monday morning
I should have slept in. I’m probably going to need my energy later.
It’s raining, of course, but it’s an otherwise perfect day for a paddle. Warm enough, for here, but falling somewhat short of summer. I’m leaving later this morning from Salmon Beach for the 25-mile stretch to Olympia, a lone sea kayaking day right at the beginning of the trip, before the canoeing starts in earnest.
I won’t be going solo on the first leg: Adam, a fellow beacher and former employee of Backpacker’s Supply is coming with me and I’m grateful for the company. I think I’m going to enjoy easing into the expedition this way and I don’t mind if it keeps right on raining.
Day trips. That’s all any expedition is, really, a collection of days, strung together to create a whole that is often turns out to equal more than the sum of its parts. But any long trip is still a matter of putting the days together. The days come and go, are placed end to end and counted up. Twenty-five miles, fifty, one hundred. And then, somewhere up near Cape Flattery, I’ll reach the half-way mark and begin to count down.
I have expectations for the next 23 days (or whatever the final count turns out as.) I have a picture in my mind of every day that is yet to be, and for the majority of it I can draw from personal experience as I sketch out how I think it’s going to unfold. I’ve been to most of the places before – with the exception of the swamp, the Chehalis and some of the lower peninsula coast. Even so, I know very little. Which is why I’m going.
That the Olympic Peninsula is an island is a fact that still grabs at my mind. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because, as big and diverse as it is, as different as it seems to be from region to region, the watery border defines it as a separate entity, a place apart. This definition is what allows a trip like mine to happen at all. Like any other island, the Olympic Peninsula stands alone. The way to understand its different faces and to start to get a handle on the soul of the place is to view it from different angles, different perspectives. It is only technically an “island,” I know, but technicalities have their value. The entire notion serves as a reminder that there are many such islands among us, and the more perspective we can get, the closer we’ll come to understanding them, as well as ourselves.
About Ken Campbell
New Release
A story of sea kayaking and science on the rugged coast of Alaska. Coming – Spring 2014.
Follow Us On Instagram
