Ken Campbell, Author at The Last Wilderness

Ch, ch, ch, changes

Posted by Ken Campbell April 4, 2012 0 Comment 1200 views

I sound old when I talk like this, older than I am even, which is saying something. Coming back to SB has its bittersweet moments, which is probably how anyone feels when they go back to their old home town. The changes that the years have brought, a cheaper veneer of newness laid atop the […]

Santa Barbara

Posted by Ken Campbell April 2, 2012 0 Comment 1134 views

The boy and I are leaving this morning, flying down to Santa Barbara to see my father for a few days, then driving his car back up to Tacoma. He’s recently moved into a retirement community and doesn’t particularly want a car anymore. (It’s quite possible that he never really “wanted” a car anyway, but […]

Speaking for those who have no voice

Posted by Ken Campbell April 1, 2012 1 Comment 1104 views

It’s an elusive creature, seldom seen and little understood. Studies should be done, to be sure, but the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus is destined to remain an enigma, no matter how much study comes along. This quiet forest denizen is native to the Olympic Peninsula and typically finds its mate in the waters of Hood […]

Time marches on

Posted by Ken Campbell March 31, 2012 0 Comment 1154 views

I don’t know why it always catches me by surprise. The last day of a particular month, the idea that the year is already a quarter of the way into the history books. I never feel like I’ve done enough, regardless of what I’ve done. The “unforgiving minute,” Kipling called it, and it never quite […]

Web update

Posted by Ken Campbell March 30, 2012 0 Comment 1281 views

The new Azimuth Expeditions site is up. As with any web site, it is a work in progress but I’m happy with the progress that’s been made so far. As a business venture, Azimuth has gone through some changes over the past ten years, with each new incarnation bringing a change in emphasis and slight […]

Chuckanut daydreams

Posted by Ken Campbell March 29, 2012 1 Comment 1256 views

It’s like Sucia Island, but closer. The shoreline is like sculpture, sweeps of sandstone carved into swirls and accents by the years of water and wind. I haven’t been there for a while… I’d like to go back soon. A day of bumping along the exquisite shore, followed by a few rounds in the Boundary […]

The Cape

Posted by Ken Campbell March 28, 2012 1 Comment 1335 views

Cape Flattery, as I have told many of my students through the years, is a great place to kayak. It is not, however, a great place to learn to kayak. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty to learn from paddling the waters at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca; there is. […]

Autopilot

Posted by Ken Campbell March 27, 2012 0 Comment 1433 views

Some of the largest single pieces of floating debris from last year’s Japanese tsunami will be the boats. Fishing boats, most of them, and although some of them will not have survived intact, others will. The first such drifting relic has almost completed its trans-Pacific voyage, and is slowly being driven eastward by the wind […]

Hand candy

Posted by Ken Campbell March 25, 2012 0 Comment 1229 views

Working in paddle sports retail, I’ve seen it happen more than once. A person will spend extra money – sometimes a wad of extra money – to get a kayak that’s a few pounds lighter. It makes sense, sort of. A lighter boat is easier to huck on and off the car, easier to carry […]

Unplugged

Posted by Ken Campbell March 23, 2012 2 Comments 1203 views

I once wrote an entry about a prominent sea kayak expeditionatrix in which I broached the subject of being out there, really out there, and yet still being electronically linked to the world back home. With satphones, remote internet connections, cellular links of one sort or another… are these modern conveniences worth the price? Can […]