All Posts Written by "ken"
Up & around
In climbing, it’s all about the summit. (That’s not completely true, of course, and most climbing literature acknowledges the journey as being the true reward, but the reality is that the summit is the cherry on top of the alpine sundae.) It is easy to envision the goals of climbing, even for those who are […]
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On the nightstand
I’ve been reading climbing books lately. My reading list goes through its varied phases and right now, I’m in the middle of a re-read of the Burgess Book of Lies, a vintage collection of mountaineering tales written by a pair of delightful British climbing hooligans, twins Alan and Adrian Burgess. They mix intense climbing narratives […]
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I miss the light
I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for more than 20 years now, longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. Longer than Newfoundland, longer than southern California. The Air Force brought me here back in 1987 and I must like it, because I’ve never seriously entertained the idea of moving since I got here. I got […]
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La Playa del Muerto
Not far from the site of the Norwegian disaster sits another memorial, similar in some ways to the first. The deal went down in November of 1920, when a Chilean ship, the W.J. Pirrie, was being towed by another vessel, the Santa Rita, near Cape Flattery. Upon rounding the tip, the ships were hit with […]
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Prince Arthur’s lament
It was a dark and stormy night. (Stories that begin in this manner rarely end well.) On January 2nd, 1903, a winter gale was raging along the Olympic coast, roiling the waters and obscuring the vision of the crew on board the three-masted Norwegian vessel, the “Prince Arthur.” At some point, Captain Hans Markusson saw […]
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Turned to stone
One other thing about Sekiu. There’s a rock formation along the shore known as the Three Sisters. Apparently, according to a native legend I have yet to track down, three sisters from the village that once stood here were turned into pillars of stone for… I don’t know, but it must have been something awful. […]
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Quiet Waters
I’ve been looking over the route for next summer’s trip around the peninsula, and as my eyes trace the shoreline, I can’t help but pause at a few places along the way. More than a few, actually. I’ve spent enough time out there now to have formed a connection with some spots; memories of times […]
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The Spirit is willing, but…
My Air Force career, such as it was, ended a couple of years shy of retirement. I was medically discharged because of my back, which had been injured a number of times during the course of 17-plus years of flying. It got to the point that I could no longer pass a flight physical due […]
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Watching the river flow
Not much rain today, at least not yet. That’s got to be good news for those who live in the Skokomish basin, what with the flood warnings that were issued on Saturday. This break in precipitation should drop the river level back down to something reasonable. It just seems like a matter of time though, […]
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Preachers
I ran into someone yesterday who I had not seen for a while. Not a friend exactly… more of an acquaintance, a fellow paddleboarder, who wanted to know if I’d been getting more people into the sport, if I’d been preaching the joys of SUP and recruiting new converts. He was insistent, going on and […]
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A story of sea kayaking and science on the rugged coast of Alaska. Coming – Spring 2014.
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