Ken Campbell, Author at The Last Wilderness

Boxing Day

Posted by Ken Campbell December 28, 2009 0 Comment 1117 views

The sun was out this afternoon and I took advantage of a couple hours of down time to get a daylight paddle in. Launching from Steilacoom and heading south down the shore, I made it quickly down to the old Steilacoom Marina. All that’s left is a pile of rubble now, after a fire completely […]

Stirring it up

Posted by Ken Campbell December 26, 2009 0 Comment 1085 views

I am rethinking plastic. Specifically plastic kayaks, but one thing is always connected to another, isn’t it – who knows where it will all end? It’s convenient and so damned practical, after all, this plastic. The problem is that polycarbonates and polyethylenes (along with an alphabet soup of multi-syllabic related compounds), are the guest who […]

The Grand Circles

Posted by Ken Campbell December 24, 2009 0 Comment 1173 views

When I was a kid, my wild country was Lake Los Carneros, just a quarter-mile from our house in Goleta, California. I rode my bike down the trails beneath the eucalyptus, down to the swampy northern shore, where some of the older kids had built jumps and forts and stashed their dirty magazines. I hiked […]

Here’s to the tilt

Posted by Ken Campbell December 23, 2009 0 Comment 1090 views

Is it warmer out there? Does it seem warmer to you? Maybe it’s just that it’s not as cold as it was last week, when it was in the teens and twenties. It’s not as cold as all that, so in comparison, conditions today seem almost spring-like. Or, you know, maybe it’s all because we’ve […]

First

Posted by Ken Campbell December 17, 2009 0 Comment 1157 views

Have you heard the one about the real first ascent of Mount Olympus? The tale begins with the July 1907 issue of Steel Points magazine, in its own words, “a wee bit of a magazine, published at Portland, Oregon, occasionally by William Gladstone Steel, a crank who doesn’t know any better than to love the […]

Only eight shopping days left…

Posted by Ken Campbell December 16, 2009 0 Comment 938 views

… and less than a week to go until the solstice, until the pendulum of daylight begins to swing in the other direction. Toward the light.

Look at the size of that…

Posted by Ken Campbell December 16, 2009 0 Comment 927 views

Mark the calendar:La Push Surf Pummel 2010Feb 19-21, 2010 For more information on the actual event, get in touch with Ken and Ellen DeBondt Speaking for myself, I have already reserved lodging… you can’t be first, but you can be next. Click here to get yours.

Toxic water

Posted by Ken Campbell December 13, 2009 0 Comment 1018 views

Maybe, just maybe the planet wants to get rid of us. According to the front page of the Sunday paper, October and November saw a massive algae bloom off the Northwest coast that killed up to 10,000 birds (“at least 10,000 birds,” in another article I found online.) The single-cell, saltwater algae species responsible for […]

Three new routes

Posted by Ken Campbell December 13, 2009 1 Comment 1061 views

I didn’t make it to the Deception Pass Dash yesterday. It was a combination of different forces that kept me in Tacoma rather than drive up to the race: sick kid, broken vehicle, family obligations and my own cough and runny nose, for starters. Then again, it may be that I’m just not much of […]

Country roads

Posted by Ken Campbell December 11, 2009 0 Comment 1063 views

The road between Sappho and Clallam Bay, SR 113, twists and winds through the valleys and, at a few places, touches the mountains as well. The route of the two-lane blacktop has varied a bit since it was first constructed but, for the most part, it follows the original course. Cut through deep stands of […]