Posts filed under "Talking Story"
A Change in the weather
It’s snowing. In the Cascades, it’s coming down thick and fast – Crystal Mountain ski area, not far from Seattle, is planning on opening tomorrow – and it’s starting to accumulate out on the peninsula as well. The forecast for the next few days is calling for a mix of rain and snow almost everywhere […]
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Return of the native
The boy and I went out to Kennedy Creek yesterday to see the salmon. The rain had been dumping at times over the previous 24 hours and I figured it wouldn’t be great for fish-watching, what with the swollen creek and the silty water. We’d been talking about it for a few days though, and […]
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Cowabunga
In case you were thinking about heading to the coast tomorrow… NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA 319 PM PST FRI NOV 6 2009 NORTH COAST-CENTRAL COAST- A HIGH SURF WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM PST SATURDAY. A LONG SERIES OF GIANT WAVES BEGAN TO REACH THE WASHINGTON COAST THIS MORNING AND WILL CONTINUE […]
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Shiver weather
With the wintery wind blowing outside my window and the rain falling in sheets against the glass, next summer seems far away indeed. Other than my morning paddles, I’m not getting out all that much and when it comes to spending time in the Olympic wilderness, let’s just say I’m going through a dry spell. […]
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Let ’em spawn
The Elwha River is one of the largest on the Olympic Peninsula. Its history suggests that it was once among the most productive salmon rivers in western Washington with some of the largest Chinook in the state. Then they built the dams. I haven’t heard much lately about when the dams are coming down…
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What’s in a name?
Native tribes used to call it Whulge. George Vancouver scribed the name of his lieutenant, Peter Puget, on maps that he was making as he traveled through the area. Now the waters that dominate western Washington and British Columbia have a new name, a new official designation: the Salish Sea. The move is being done […]
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Up & around
In climbing, it’s all about the summit. (That’s not completely true, of course, and most climbing literature acknowledges the journey as being the true reward, but the reality is that the summit is the cherry on top of the alpine sundae.) It is easy to envision the goals of climbing, even for those who are […]
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On the nightstand
I’ve been reading climbing books lately. My reading list goes through its varied phases and right now, I’m in the middle of a re-read of the Burgess Book of Lies, a vintage collection of mountaineering tales written by a pair of delightful British climbing hooligans, twins Alan and Adrian Burgess. They mix intense climbing narratives […]
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I miss the light
I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for more than 20 years now, longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. Longer than Newfoundland, longer than southern California. The Air Force brought me here back in 1987 and I must like it, because I’ve never seriously entertained the idea of moving since I got here. I got […]
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La Playa del Muerto
Not far from the site of the Norwegian disaster sits another memorial, similar in some ways to the first. The deal went down in November of 1920, when a Chilean ship, the W.J. Pirrie, was being towed by another vessel, the Santa Rita, near Cape Flattery. Upon rounding the tip, the ships were hit with […]
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A story of sea kayaking and science on the rugged coast of Alaska. Coming – Spring 2014.
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