Talking Story Archives - Page 106 of 114

Hood’s Channel

Posted by Ken Campbell September 25, 2008 0 Comment 870 views

Hood Canal extends for about 65 miles from its entrance near Foulweather Bluff to its terminus in the muddy tidelands of Lynch Cove. Over this great length, its width seldom exceeds 1.5 miles. Shaped a little bit like a giant letter “L,” Hood Canal defines the eastern side of the Olympic peninsula. Technically, it is […]

Tapestry

Posted by Ken Campbell September 23, 2008 0 Comment 834 views

I was reading an article the other day that described the pattern of watersheds in the Olympic peninsula as a “mandala of rivers.” Author Tim McNulty goes on to say that this tapestry “embodies the long and lovely story of the evolution of life,” and that it “Maintains its rich biological diversity in a wilderness […]

Sunday morning coming down

Posted by Ken Campbell September 22, 2008 0 Comment 789 views

I’m sitting in the kitchen of our house in Fort Worden, one of the fine old haunted mansions on Officer’s Row. It’s still an hour or two until sunrise, but I can see that we are in line for another gray day. There are years when the weather has been perfect for a symposium, when […]

Stillness

Posted by Ken Campbell September 18, 2008 0 Comment 730 views

“A quiet hour is worth more to you than anything you can do in it.” Willa Cather According to Jochen Sacht of the University of Michegan’s Kresge Hearing Research Institute, our ears, “are not made for a noisy world. They’re made for spoken communication, which occurs at a level far below what we experience in […]

Third weekend in September

Posted by Ken Campbell September 12, 2008 0 Comment 767 views

In a few days, just over a week, I’ll be heading to the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium. The symposium is the largest gathering of sea kayak manufacturers, vendors and participants in the world, and takes place at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. Numbers vary from year to year, and I think the […]

First crossing

Posted by Ken Campbell September 4, 2008 0 Comment 715 views

Crossing open water is always a challenge. Regardless of whether you’re in a kayak or a cabin cruiser, there is something about the stretch of blue between one shore and another that gives every waterman pause. Maybe it’s the fetch, the reality of being exposed to changing elements. Maybe it’s the lack of ready landmarks […]

Slip-sliding away

Posted by Ken Campbell September 1, 2008 0 Comment 732 views

I’m not sure if it because it’s September, and it is perhaps a bit early in the year, but I have been thinking about the coming snow. More specifically, I’ve been thinking of skiing. This is odd, for a number of reasons. Mainly it’s odd because I don’t ski. It’s been years since I strapped […]

Wheel in the sky

Posted by Ken Campbell August 31, 2008 0 Comment 758 views

As I write this, Hurricane Gustav is taking a bead on the gulf coast. It has been downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane at the moment, but it’s expected to gain strength once it gets north of Cuba. Where it’s going to make landfall in the US is still guesswork, but it’s not looking good […]

An Olympic expedition, done

Posted by Ken Campbell August 30, 2008 0 Comment 1143 views

The row is done. The O.A.R. Northwest crew that started their row around the Olympic Peninsula on August 4th wrapped it up the other day in Gig Harbor, where they began. The trip went well overall, a little hardship in the swamps near Black Lake, but ultimately they proved that the peninsula is, in reality, […]

Coasting, Part IV

Posted by Ken Campbell August 27, 2008 0 Comment 885 views

When a stream or a river enters the sea, it forms a series of sand bars at the confluence. Because the flow of the river varies, and because it brings gravel, wood and silt with it as it makes its way to sea level, river mouths are of a type, really. Some are larger than […]