All Posts Written by "ken"
Reasoning with winter
This is the time of year when I normally hunker down. I’ve always liked to use the long nights to plan for those trips that are loosely scheduled for next year, for when the sun comes back, when the weather and the psyche are ready for them. This is not to say I don’t go […]
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Protection Island
I have been to Protection Island. Have actually stood on the beach, which any kayaker knows is not allowed. It’s a wildlife refuge, after all, off-limits. Protected Island. A place hidden in plain sight, close enough to touch but just out of reach. I can explain, of course, and I will in good time. But […]
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Carpe Diem
It never ceases to throw me, to befuddle my sense of all that is right and natural, this indecisiveness of climate that is so common here in western Washington. By that, I mean, the way that summer turns to fall, then back to summer for a while, then immediately to winter. Icy mornings, then back […]
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A Commercial interlude
The Last Wilderness is a collection of ramblings, more than anything else. It is not, and has never been, part of a focused marketing effort. I wanted it to be interesting, for me as well as for others; it was never designed to make money. As readership has increased, however, I have started to get […]
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Hot flashes and Kleenex
I remember one February, in the middle of a blowy, rainy afternoon, when I was dropped off in Neah Bay to begin what I hoped would be a solo winter kayak trip down the Olympic peninsula’s roadless coast. I packed the boat and headed out into the gale, eventually making it as far as Cape […]
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Uphill
I’ve got a date with Mount Rainier. Well, I actually don’t have a date yet, but late June is looking likely for the attempt. I have an assignment to write a series of articles, not only on the climb, but also on the preparations, equipment and training that are all parts of any successful summit […]
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A Winter coat
Yesterday morning dawned clear and cold. I could see the Olympics from the deck, for the first time in a while. The last time, maybe a week or ten days ago, they were dark in color, late summer alpine rock. On this day, a fresh coat of white covered all the peaks that I could […]
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Blake Island – An introduction
Blake Island sits at the top of Colvos Passage, between Southworth and the northern tip of Vashon Island. It is a State Park, about 475 acres, with excellent camping and kayaking opportunities. The island was used by the Suquamish tribe as a fishing camp. It is widely held that Chief Sealth, the great native leader […]
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Anemomania, just a touch
For the last three days, I have listened to the wind and willed it to stop. Forced it, by the power of my psychic imperative, to back down, to subside. All that focus, all that resolve, for nothing. The wind still blows. And then, for no more than ten minutes, I look elsewhere, am occupied […]
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Opacity
A couple of days ago, at about 3 in the afternoon, the Coast Guard got a report of an overturned sailboat in the Tacoma Narrows. A driver called in as he crossed the bridge, describing a blue-and-white boat, inverted, being swept along by the wind and current. Rescuers were on the scene quickly and searched […]
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A story of sea kayaking and science on the rugged coast of Alaska. Coming – Spring 2014.
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