Posts filed under "Talking Story"
Death on the trail
I took these photos last year on the trail that leads from Hurricane Ridge to Lake Angeles. An extended family of goats making their way along the trail, with a stout billy up front, some kids and an older female near the end made up the group. I got off the trail, stood in the […]
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Back to Highway 12
I was thinking yesterday about going to Mima Mounds, down south of Olympia. Maybe take the boy and a picnic lunch, walk around the weird, egg-carton prairie for a while while the weather’s still decent. We ended up doing other things instead, but it got me to thinking again about Route 12. Specifically, where to […]
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Seasonally affected
It is sometime around now, just about Halloween time, when our weather here becomes more trick than treat. It’s cold at 4:00 am; a month ago, it wasn’t. This is an observation more than it is a complaint. To carp about the weather is a pointless hobby and one that brings no satisfaction. Better to […]
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Facing backward, moving forward
The crew over at O.A.R. Northwest took the rowboat out to play yesterday. They left the dock at Point Defiance at about 6pm, attempting to row from Tacoma to Victoria, a trip they figured would probably take about 30 hours. They are preparing for next year’s cross-Atlantic race, which they hope will take them something […]
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Lions of winter
OK, so it’s not winter yet, but it is surely coming our way. In southern Puget Sound, one of the most impressive harbingers of the season is the California sea lion, who makes his appearance about this time every year. Although it’s possible to see sea lions during the summer – there may be some […]
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Retired
When a climbing rope gets old and worn, taken out of service, there are several options besides the dumpster. Dog leashes are popular. Clotheslines, utility rope, maybe even nautical applications. When a line is retired after years of exposure to sun and salt water, on the other hand, after tying down thousands of kayaks and […]
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Thinning
During the warmer months, the kelp beds in the Narrows get bigger. These are nowhere near the extensive gardens you can find in the Straits or out along the coast, but the water here flows fast enough, and there are sufficient nutrients, so the kelp grows well. Bull kelp, or Nereocystis luetkeana for those addicted […]
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Up the mountain with Edward Abbey – III
I often have difficulty getting to sleep at altitude, a combination of over-exhaustion and anxiety, and the night spent at Camp Schurmann is no exception. What keeps me awake on this occasion, however, is the wind. It begins shortly after we crawl into bed, just small puffs of a breeze at first, but it doesn’t […]
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Up the mountain with Edward Abbey – II
I am first out of the sack in the morning, lighting the stove and getting the water started on its way to the boil. In this regard I am very much like Abbey. In all his stories, whether he was floating down a river or hiking in the desert southwest, he was always the first […]
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Up the mountain with Edward Abbey – I
It is a two-hour drive from my house to the mountain. From Tacoma, east through the cookie-cutter suburbs and bedroom towns, past the farmer’s fields and the gravel pits, through the country, or what passes for country, in these gray and frantic, post-industrial days. Through the sleepy shires of Buckley and Greenwater, tiny burgs waiting […]
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A story of sea kayaking and science on the rugged coast of Alaska. Coming – Spring 2014.
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