Ken Campbell, Author at The Last Wilderness

Summer? Why yes, yes it is

Posted by Ken Campbell July 7, 2010 0 Comment 970 views

When I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Tonight: Clear. Lows in the 50s. North wind to 10 mph. Lo: 55°F Hi: 85°F Wednesday: Sunny. Highs in the 80s…Except locally in the lower 90s away from puget sound. North wind to 10 mph. Lo: 55°F Hi: 86°F Thursday: Sunny. Highs in the 80s to lower 90s. Northwest wind […]

Everything is solar powered

Posted by Ken Campbell July 5, 2010 0 Comment 1080 views

Way back in the day, 1993 to be precise, I worked for a sea kayaking outfitter in Tacoma. Tahoma Outdoor Pursuits had a deal worked out with Metro Parks to do hourly rentals of kayaks and canoes on Ruston Way for the summer. It’s an area that gets thousands of people walking by on a […]

Vampire lite

Posted by Ken Campbell July 2, 2010 0 Comment 1358 views

Apparently the bedazzled undead are crawling all over Forks. New Twilight movie, you see. Big premiere the other night out there, at the scene of the crime, as it were. I suppose I should be happy for Forks, now that most of the timber has been extracted, now that the streams and creeks have been […]

Fireworks tonight in the northern sky

Posted by Ken Campbell July 1, 2010 0 Comment 991 views

I really need to paddle the Straits again soon. PA Point to Race Rocks is a little over 10 miles, a sporty crossing, filled with navigational considerations and dancing the shipping lane two-step. It’s a little like playing a big, wet interactive game of Frogger. My schedule opens up a bit in August. I’ll have […]

Hump day

Posted by Ken Campbell June 30, 2010 0 Comment 1059 views

Over the hump and into the slump. Don’t look now but, as of today, 2010 is half over. It hardly seems possible, but there it is. I feel like there are still so many things I had hoped to do this year that I have not yet gotten around to doing. I don’t think I’ve […]

Something fishy in Denmark

Posted by Ken Campbell June 29, 2010 1 Comment 1027 views

I’ve heard, and told, my share of shaggy dog stories, but I haven’t seen one this obvious in the news since that boy in Colorado with the weather balloon. The one where, as it turned out, his idiot parents faked their son’s accidental and uncontrolled flight in a saucer-shaped bag borne upward to the stratosphere […]

What else you got?

Posted by Ken Campbell June 28, 2010 0 Comment 1144 views

I was standing in the coffee shop yesterday morning after my dawn patrol paddle on the Foss. (Once a week, more or less, I’ll stop there on my way home, get a “picnic” for Mary and the boy. Nothing like coffee and chocolate milk in bed, along with a slice of cinnamon swirl coffee cake […]

Swan Lake

Posted by Ken Campbell June 27, 2010 0 Comment 1150 views

Of all the people who have made their mark on the Olympic peninsula over the past couple of centuries, none casts a longer shadow than James Swan. His story is a classic 19th-century tale of a man who needed more space, more elbow-room, than was available back east. He left his home, booked passage on […]

Bowing to reality

Posted by Ken Campbell June 25, 2010 2 Comments 1159 views

I have moved past the age where I require instant gratification. Mostly. I can accept the notion of delayed value, and I enjoy the planning process, of any endeavor, for what it is. With that said, there is nothing more frustrating, more ill-fitting on my soul, than a job half done. I have spent much […]

Don’t forget to floss

Posted by Ken Campbell June 22, 2010 0 Comment 1291 views

Peter Roose (pronounced “rose”) was a Swedish Immigrant who settled on a patch of land near Lake Ozette in the early 1900’s. A cousin of Lars Ahlstrom, another well-known settler in the area, Pete was what you might call a “loner.” He kept his little cabin by himself, raising sheep and strawberries to make ends […]