Ken Campbell, Author at The Last Wilderness

Gone surfing

Posted by Ken Campbell October 1, 2010 0 Comment 1247 views

What is this? The 4th Annual Hobuck Hoedown? Why, I believe it is, starting tomorrow out in the Makah Nation, at the edge of the world. I’m there.

Looking for an envelope

Posted by Ken Campbell September 30, 2010 0 Comment 1274 views

H. W. Tilman, adventurer and author of fifteen mountaineering and sailing books, had a saying: “Any worthwhile expedition can be planned on the back of an envelope.”

Blind

Posted by Ken Campbell September 29, 2010 0 Comment 1189 views

Paddling in fog. What gut feelings does that phrase raise up for you? If you are a kayaker or a paddleboarder, perhaps a canoeist or a rower… think of it as being blind. Paddling blind. If you have a compass, you’re ok. If you know how to use it. Even then, you’ll notice that queasy […]

Never believe it’s not so

Posted by Ken Campbell September 28, 2010 0 Comment 1024 views

Long ago, a place such as this would have been thought to contain great magic. There was a time when powerful spirits lived in the forest and streams, and whispered to one another among the weeping boughs of the cedar. The water falling over rocks and flowing through the pools on the river was part […]

Carbon River update

Posted by Ken Campbell September 27, 2010 0 Comment 2277 views

I was up before the sun on Saturday morning, on the road to Mount Rainier early, and at the end of the Carbon River Road by 7:00. First things first: it’s about 18 miles round-trip from the Carbon River Ranger Station to the glacier, more than half of which is the old river road, which […]

US Route 12, anyone?

Posted by Ken Campbell September 24, 2010 0 Comment 2129 views

At some point during this past August’s family vacation, I got to looking at a map of Washington (mostly to try to figure out where we were supposed to be going.) Our route took us down a portion of US Route 12 – near the Tri-cities area – and I remember being taken by how […]

A Guide’s life (Part 2)

Posted by Ken Campbell September 23, 2010 0 Comment 1349 views

On these past couple of excursions in the San Juans, the pair of private trips to Sucia Island and vicinity that just concluded last week, I got to thinking about guiding again, and what it really means to be a guide. I wrote a long dissertation about that topic on this site a few months […]

Turn, turn, turn

Posted by Ken Campbell September 22, 2010 0 Comment 1035 views

Well, that’s that. Summer, I mean. It’s officially done gotten over today. It’s fall now, autumn. Truth be told, it seemed like summer checked out a few weeks ago. There have been a few warm afternoons lately but the nights are getting cold. Mornings too. Fall is, without a doubt, the shortest of all the […]

The Carbon River Wilderness Path (maybe)

Posted by Ken Campbell September 21, 2010 0 Comment 1425 views

The ghost roads are back in the news again. Mount Rainier’s Carbon River Road, closed because of flooding since 2006, is going to stay that way permanently, if the current National Park Service plan holds. It’s been a while since you could drive to Ipsut Creek, and there are those who want the road back, […]

A Glowing

Posted by Ken Campbell September 20, 2010 0 Comment 1675 views

In the darkest hours of the morning, just before another gray and misty Northwest dawn, the lights that are most visible come from the water. That’s where you’ll find the tiny green dinoflagellates, microscopic organisms that emit a phosphorescent chemical light when they are disturbed, like with my paddle. As droplets fall from the blade, […]