Talking Story Archives - Page 72 of 114

It surfs

Posted by Ken Campbell April 24, 2010 0 Comment 1095 views

I liked the Bark 14 on the flat water and it really rocked the downwind runs. Now I needed to know if it was worth surfing it. After all, it’s 14 feet long. There are some big guns out there but 14 feet? I had three long sessions on it last week, in waves that […]

Oooh, the colors

Posted by Ken Campbell April 22, 2010 0 Comment 1070 views

There are a few new ferries being built around these parts. An embarrassment of oxidization doomed a bunch of them a couple years ago… four were pulled at once and I can’t remember how many ferries were taken out in total. Most of them are bobbing at dockside up in Winslow, or were last year, […]

Changes in gravity

Posted by Ken Campbell April 22, 2010 0 Comment 1142 views

I found a walking stick the other day, wrapped some spare line around one end of it, as a sort-of handle, and used it on a couple of short hikes last week. It got me thinking about how I never used to use sticks or poles while hiking, back when I was, you know, younger. […]

The silent waters of Lake Crescent

Posted by Ken Campbell April 20, 2010 0 Comment 1103 views

I have driven past this lake hundreds of times, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before. Not really. It’s always been a place I pass on my way to somewhere else, background in the whirr outside my windows. The highway runs along the southern shore and there are houses along the banks almost […]

The melt is on

Posted by Ken Campbell April 18, 2010 0 Comment 1148 views

The Olympic high country is one of the few places in Washington that experienced above-average snowfall this past winter. There’s still a fair bit of snow pack up there, but it’s starting to break loose now that the temperatures have started upward. The Elwha, with its extensive watershed, is flowing fast and strong in its […]

Do I choose the wave?

Posted by Ken Campbell April 17, 2010 0 Comment 1288 views

Do I choose the wave, or does the wave choose me? What is it that draws me to one wave and not the others? Why is it that sometimes, even when I’ve committed to a wave and paddle furiously to catch its power, it can slip on below me without allowing me a ride? Why […]

This year’s edition

Posted by Ken Campbell April 16, 2010 0 Comment 1068 views

After a few quick days of surfing and hiking, I rolled down the mountain and into Port Angeles this morning. Had breakfast at Shirley’s, the kind of place where the rusty pickups in the parking lot have bumper stickers like “What would Scooby Do?” and “Screw Tibet – Free the Elwha.” Breakfast was delicious. Continued […]

Here and there

Posted by Ken Campbell April 13, 2010 0 Comment 1145 views

Going to Taholah on Wednesday. In order for non tribal members to access the beach on the Quinault reservation, they have to get a permit from tribal authorities in Taholah. I figured it might be smart to advise them of my trip this July, and find out exactly what the access limitations are and how […]

PA state of mind

Posted by Ken Campbell April 12, 2010 0 Comment 1117 views

I don’t know exactly why I look forward to the Port Angeles Sea Kayak Symposium each year. It has its down sides, after all. It’s small, out of the way, and weather-dependent in a way that other events, offered later in the summer, are not. Even when the weather is perfect, as it was last […]

That modern glow

Posted by Ken Campbell April 10, 2010 0 Comment 1058 views

I had no idea that today was the last day of International Dark Sky Week. (I don’t think Hallmark even has a card for that.) Light pollution is a major issue here in the first part of the 21st century, although it rarely gets the attention and effort that is regularly put into combating other […]