All Posts Written by "ken"

Signs of the times

Put it down to greed, poor organization, a lack of vision, an inability to articulate the benefits of kayaking… hard to say. It’s maybe a little of all of these things that has brought us to the point where we’ve lost the two largest sea kayak symposiums in western Washington in the same year. Not […]

A Bug

It’s been such a mild winter that I’d almost forgotten the colds and flu that circulate at this time of year. It hardly seems like winter anyway, more like a chilly spring. I was reminded yesterday of how bad it can get, and I am hopeful (though less than confident), that I am on the […]

Get your bids in…

The National Park Service is getting ready to put the Elwha dam removal project out for bid, with the contract to be awarded by the end of September. According to the Associated Press, proposal requests will go out around the end of March and the timeline on the job calls for the project to take […]

I’m doing a couple of presentations at the WWTA event tomorrow in South Seattle. The first kayak-related event of the spring. Many more to follow – tis the season, after all. This morning’s paddle was a beaut… calm as glass and easy gliding on strong and steady strokes. Like ice skating, smooth and natural. About […]

Cha-latt River

According to Smitty Parratt, author of the definitive Gods and Goblins; A Field Guide to Place Names of Olympic National Park, Mosquito Creek is probably so named because the area is a “first-rate breeding ground for mosquitos.” It would seem to make sense, eh? For a time, the coastal creek was referred to as the […]

In plain view

During the course of learning about SUP touring, I have hemmed and hawed over several different choices for hauling gear. The thing about long-distance travel by SUP is that there aren’t many resources for learning about the finer points of the endeavor. There aren’t that many people out there who are doing it and the […]

Winter morning musings

What with all this working-for-a-living and all these everyday obligations, my winter trips to the Olympic peninsula have been few and far between. Add to these factors the unfortunate reality that the van (the Hotel Westfalia) is long-term busted, and it has been a more sedentary season than I would have otherwise hoped. Don’t get […]

Surge

I had read about the predictions of high water before this weekend’s Matelót trip to AndersonIsland, so I wasn’t completely unprepared. I’m still a bit fuzzy about the precise causes, but this article may help clear it up a little. The high tides during this first week in February are supposed to be monsters. Tie […]

The Curious case of Harry Fisher, Part III

On October 18, 1891, a mere three days after his second dishonorable discharge, James Hanmore headed back to the Olympic peninsula. For some strange reason, habit maybe, he still traveled under the name “H. Fisher,” and he was accompanied by two other men, Franklin Yates (also a member of the O’Neil expedition), and a Mr. […]

Gig Harbor interlude

I went for a paddle yesterday, during daylight hours, from Gig Harbor out into the Narrows and on up into Colvos Passage. There was nary a breath of wind and the water was like glass, not a disturbance on the surface and no other craft out there with me. I put in at the boat […]