Blog Archives

Earth 2.0

Posted by Ken Campbell April 18, 2014 12 Comments 5954 views

There are no Hallmark cards for Earth Day. At least, I don’t think there are. (It sounded authoritative, so I went with it.) Even so, it would be a good day to sit back and reflect a bit, maybe take stock of the health of the planet, if we had the time. We could learn […]

Dangers of the job

Posted by Ken Campbell April 14, 2014 2 Comments 5016 views

I just read that the number of environmental activists being murdered is on the rise around the world. Corroborating evidence that the most dangerous place to stand is between a fool and his money. There are a lot of intensely stupid people out there and many of them have guns. Keep your heads down, folks.

In and out of touch

Posted by Ken Campbell April 12, 2014 2 Comments 5136 views

Today is the first day of the voyage of the Hyas yiem. I built this “kayak” out of old 2-liter bottles and I’m paddling it from Olympia to Bellingham – the length of Puget Sound – in an effort to raise awareness about the problem of marine plastic debris. It promises to be a unique […]

Sliding into home

Posted by Ken Campbell April 1, 2014 0 Comment 5206 views

Lots of driving over the past couple weeks. Santa Barbara was beautiful (surprise, surprise), but it feels good to be back in the home loop again, even if it’s only for a few days. Micah and I will be flying back to SB on Saturday to see Grandpa and I hope that goes well. We’ll […]

New world order

Posted by Ken Campbell March 29, 2014 2 Comments 4742 views

I’ve been doing some depressing reading lately, most notably Eaarth, by Bill McKibben. The basic premise of the book – and my recent train of thought – is that the world we once knew is gone and will not be coming back and the underlying causes are human in origin. “Global warming,” if you like, […]

Shrinkage

Posted by Ken Campbell March 28, 2014 0 Comment 3210 views

I’ve been going to Lake Los Carneros in the mornings before I go to visit my father in the rehab hospital. (He’s doing better, by the way. Thank you.) The trails are soft dirt paths through the tall grasses – already brown, even this early in the year – and the calm of the early […]

Kellogg’s

Posted by Ken Campbell March 25, 2014 1 Comment 3227 views

I don’t remember the year for sure, but it had to be 1976 or 1977. This place was one of the hot stops on the Goleta Valley Drainage Ditch and Empty Pools Tour back then and all of us who had aspirations of being the next Tony Alva or Stacey Peralta spent a good many […]

More Mesa

Posted by Ken Campbell March 24, 2014 2 Comments 3023 views

He can’t stand up unassisted anymore, and when he does get the help to stand, he is unable to take a step. And this is a man for whom walking is a sacrament, an integral part of who he is. I remember him walking to work in the Newfoundland snow as much as in the […]

Tumbling home

Posted by Ken Campbell March 19, 2014 1 Comment 2560 views

“Before you cross the street take my hand. Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” John Lennon With three weeks to go before the new film is premiered and this year’s expedition gets underway, I am experiencing a priority shift. I leave tomorrow for Santa Barbara where my father has […]

Will

Posted by Ken Campbell March 16, 2014 0 Comment 3377 views

In the world of alpine mountaineering, the real estate located above 8000 meters is known as the “Death Zone.” It doesn’t mean that climbers hit the 26,000-foot level on a particular peak and then keel over dead; it simply means that, above this line, their bodies are unable to acclimatize and physical wear-and-tear becomes acute […]