Talking Story Archives - Page 104 of 114

Goin’ back to Cali

Posted by Ken Campbell November 30, 2008 0 Comment 824 views

I’m home again now. The road voyage with the boy went well, but it all seems a little blurry in my memory already. It was a busy time. The slide presentation in Portland was outstanding, a great turn-out and enthusiastic people. (I’ll be doing another presentation in the Rose City in March at the OOPS […]

Road trip

Posted by Ken Campbell November 17, 2008 0 Comment 819 views

Sometimes it’s good just to take a drive. Last Friday, I made the trip from Tacoma to Westport to go surfing with a friend. The surfing ended up not being all that inspiring; the drive was better. The highway between Olympia and Aberdeen wound through brackle fields and trees that were already bare. There was […]

First to flood

Posted by Ken Campbell November 10, 2008 0 Comment 746 views

It’s been raining on and off (mostly on), for the past week and all that water falling from the sky has effects here on the ground. Some are good – my lawn is green again – but some are not so desirable, like those along the Skokomish River. First to flood and the last to […]

Kennedy Creek

Posted by Ken Campbell November 6, 2008 0 Comment 750 views

There are five species of salmon that call the Northwest home: chinoook, coho, sockeye, pink and chum. Most of these species are in decline – some of them at historically low levels – and it’s hard to be optimistic about their long-term chances. One of them, however, the chum, is actually doing quite well, due […]

Falling back

Posted by Ken Campbell November 2, 2008 0 Comment 728 views

Now is not the time for bold adventure. For wild runs in the country and high country quests, this is poor timing. Now is most certainly not the time to spring forward. Instead we fall back. Regroup. Hunker down somewhere safe, where it’s warm and dry and comfortable. It’s always been this way.

The Return of the native

Posted by Ken Campbell November 1, 2008 0 Comment 685 views

“Salmon are heading up the Satsop and Wynoochee” That was the headline in a story in the local paper this past week. I am not a fisherman – not often anyway – but I look forward to the return of the salmon as much as any angler. And the Satsop is one of my favorite […]

The Olympic ride of FDR

Posted by Ken Campbell October 30, 2008 0 Comment 899 views

Great wealth seems always to inspire much conflict. On the Olympic peninsula, the wealth was the timber. There were those who saw the mighty trees of this most virgin of forests as treasure to be taken, a prize to be won with determination and the misery whip. There were others who saw the value of […]

Midnight Rambler

Posted by Ken Campbell October 27, 2008 0 Comment 884 views

It is the middle of the night. Or more like morning, I suppose. I don’t know. It’s dark and a little cold, and although the wind is crashing through the tops of the trees behind me, the air is calm here where I am, standing on a little strip of grass above the sandy beach. […]

A Tidewater concerto

Posted by Ken Campbell October 21, 2008 0 Comment 973 views

It is the sound, the sounds, that I will remember best. The entire mix of noise and noises. The muffled wingbeats of a merganser, flying low along the water. Almost audible whirling vortices slice off his wing tips, casting ripples on the surface. Clicks of some insect, I don’t know what, but they sound like […]

Mats Mats Bay

Posted by Ken Campbell October 18, 2008 0 Comment 3547 views

It was still dark when I got on the road, another couple of hours before daybreak. Of course, this is the time of year when that’s more likely, days getting shorter and the sunlight, which always feels rationed here in the Pacific Northwest, is even less of a factor. The dark season. I got to […]