Ken Campbell, Author at The Last Wilderness

A matter of time

Posted by Ken Campbell October 7, 2008 0 Comment 832 views

Timing is everything. For example, I just thought of the ideal day in the mountains. I would start with a drive on the road up to Hurricane Ridge where I’d drop the shuttle bike (Orange Crush) at the Mount Angeles trailhead. Turn around and drive back down to the Heart o’ the Hills Campground. Park […]

Falling water

Posted by Ken Campbell October 4, 2008 0 Comment 1128 views

It is raining again. Still. In these pre-dawn hours, with the sound of the drops falling on the tin roof above the deck, the rain begins to reclaim her place in the local weather cycle. The days of summer have faded, those sticky hot afternoons when the fan was humming in the bedroom and the […]

September’s gone

Posted by Ken Campbell October 2, 2008 0 Comment 742 views

The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley… Don’t I know it, Rob. I wasn’t able to get to the mountains today. I stayed home because of a combination of bad weather, little sleep and a very late night in the Emerald City. Tough break.

On Mount Angeles

Posted by Ken Campbell September 30, 2008 0 Comment 758 views

It was a long time ago but I remember the day quite clearly. I was working for the Tacoma Metro Parks outdoor program and on this blustery winter day, I had driven a group of people from Tacoma to Hurricane Ridge. Some of them were going snowshoeing, others skiing. My job was simply to drive […]

Hood’s Channel

Posted by Ken Campbell September 25, 2008 0 Comment 870 views

Hood Canal extends for about 65 miles from its entrance near Foulweather Bluff to its terminus in the muddy tidelands of Lynch Cove. Over this great length, its width seldom exceeds 1.5 miles. Shaped a little bit like a giant letter “L,” Hood Canal defines the eastern side of the Olympic peninsula. Technically, it is […]

Tapestry

Posted by Ken Campbell September 23, 2008 0 Comment 834 views

I was reading an article the other day that described the pattern of watersheds in the Olympic peninsula as a “mandala of rivers.” Author Tim McNulty goes on to say that this tapestry “embodies the long and lovely story of the evolution of life,” and that it “Maintains its rich biological diversity in a wilderness […]

Sunday morning coming down

Posted by Ken Campbell September 22, 2008 0 Comment 789 views

I’m sitting in the kitchen of our house in Fort Worden, one of the fine old haunted mansions on Officer’s Row. It’s still an hour or two until sunrise, but I can see that we are in line for another gray day. There are years when the weather has been perfect for a symposium, when […]

Stillness

Posted by Ken Campbell September 18, 2008 0 Comment 730 views

“A quiet hour is worth more to you than anything you can do in it.” Willa Cather According to Jochen Sacht of the University of Michegan’s Kresge Hearing Research Institute, our ears, “are not made for a noisy world. They’re made for spoken communication, which occurs at a level far below what we experience in […]

Third weekend in September

Posted by Ken Campbell September 12, 2008 0 Comment 767 views

In a few days, just over a week, I’ll be heading to the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium. The symposium is the largest gathering of sea kayak manufacturers, vendors and participants in the world, and takes place at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. Numbers vary from year to year, and I think the […]

First crossing

Posted by Ken Campbell September 4, 2008 0 Comment 715 views

Crossing open water is always a challenge. Regardless of whether you’re in a kayak or a cabin cruiser, there is something about the stretch of blue between one shore and another that gives every waterman pause. Maybe it’s the fetch, the reality of being exposed to changing elements. Maybe it’s the lack of ready landmarks […]