Ken Campbell, Author at The Last Wilderness

Cleansing the sinuses

Posted by Ken Campbell March 26, 2011 0 Comment 1158 views

I went out to the pool last night for some roll practice. In the nick of time, I’d have to say… I am apparently well off my skills. I’ve done some combat rolls in the last couple of years – surf-induced, for the most part – and all has gone well. I have not, however, […]

Up that Rainier

Posted by Ken Campbell March 23, 2011 2 Comments 1136 views

Here’s the latest in the Mount Rainier series I’m working on for visitrainier.com. The climbing date is fast approaching and the operation has already gone through some changes. More to follow…

Treading water

Posted by Ken Campbell March 22, 2011 2 Comments 1365 views

Here, in no particular order, are some photos from last weekend at the memorial for Ellen DeBondt. It was a privilege to be a part of the celebration of Ellen’s life, and looking around at the others that she had brought together that day on Crescent Bay, I was reminded of how powerful one person […]

Simple

Posted by Ken Campbell March 21, 2011 1 Comment 1185 views

In 1925, an exploring party took a two-way radio with them into the jungles of the Amazon. In what was hailed as an historic achievement, they remained in daily contact with the media and the thousands of readers who were following along with their progress. (If that doesn’t sound like Facebook 1.0, I don’t know […]

Thoughts on death and surfing, part 3

Posted by Ken Campbell March 18, 2011 1 Comment 1126 views

Sometimes I feel like I could just follow the grooves in the pavement from our house to Port Angeles, I go there that often. (So often that at some point, I should probably figure out why I don’t live in Port Angeles). I’m going up today for a hearing involving Amber Steim, the enormously drunk […]

Duvalin

Posted by Ken Campbell March 17, 2011 0 Comment 4035 views

I had a quick meeting with our insurance agent the other morning, the annual joust over how much for how little. I had the boy with me and my agent asked if he’d like a piece of candy. She had a bowl of Mexican sweets, a variety of individually wrapped sugar bombs, and I didn’t […]

Storm in the Narrows

Posted by Ken Campbell March 16, 2011 0 Comment 1008 views

I am sitting at the kitchen table, looking out at a squall whipping through the Narrows. What was calm water 2 hours ago is a frothy mix of wind waves and whitecaps, strafed by large caliber rain drops. I can feel the waves breaking against the house pilings. Looking over to the other side, I […]

Rambling through a mine field

Posted by Ken Campbell March 15, 2011 3 Comments 1956 views

I went to a kayak club meeting the other night. Of the people in the room – about a dozen, more or less – I was, by my reckoning, one of the two youngest there. I will be 50 next year. This is not really a reflection on the others who were at the meeting; […]

Conflicts

Posted by Ken Campbell March 14, 2011 0 Comment 1128 views

Sometimes I wish there were two of me. Sunday is both the memorial for Ellen DeBondt up at Crescent Bay as well as the 2nd Annual Great Place Paddle Race, here at Point Defiance. I am going to Crescent… which is a pretty easy decision, really. And it’s probably for the best that there’s not […]

Don’t forget to change your clocks

Posted by Ken Campbell March 12, 2011 0 Comment 1981 views

I’m worried I may be turning into Andy Rooney, the iconic reporter who used to round out each broadcast of 60 Minutes with questions that always began, “Didja ever wonder why…” And then he’d go on to offer curmudgeonly insights about one non-story after another in that old-man-on-the-bench-in-front-of-the-barbershop kind of way. While I couldn’t say […]