Ken Campbell is no stranger to long kayak trips. In 2000, he paddled three months on a 1,750-mile circumnavigation of Newfoundland.

He begins his latest quest Friday, a solo paddle around Vancouver Island. If he is successful, Campbell believes he would be the first person to do so during winter.

“As far as I know, it hasn’t been done before. Until something is done, you don’t know if it is possible,” he said.

Campbell is giving himself nine weeks to complete the 750-mile voyage, but expects it to take seven.

From his starting point in Bellingham, Campbell will head north into the Strait of Georgia, traveling around the island counterclockwise.

“I’m doing that for a couple of different reasons,” he said. “You get in better shape on the trip. Although I’m in shape, I’ve been home eating the turkey at Thanksgiving and things like that. Also, I know the weather is going to be worse on the (west side of the island), so the later I’m there, the better. As bad as it may be in February and March, it would be worse in January.”

Campbell said he has paddled the Vancouver Island coast in spots before. Its beauty is one of the attractions of spending two months at sea.

“We have very little in Washington that is as wild and unspoiled as Vancouver Island,” he said. “It has so much unspoiled coastline. Once you get to Johnstone Strait and Brooks Peninsula, it’s an amazingly wild trip.”

Paddling an 18-foot Dagger Sitka – just 22 inches wide – Campbell will have nearly 140 pounds of food, safety gear and camping items on board.

“My sea kayak will hold about four backpacks worth of stuff. The difference is, I don’t have to carry it.”

For safety, he’ll don a Kokatat dry suit and a life vest, and he’ll carry a marine VHF radio and a personal locator beacon.

As for staying in touch with his wife, Mary, in Tacoma, Campbell will rely on telephones where he stops. He opted to carry extra batteries for his camera rather than for a cell phone.

And he plans to see her on President’s Day weekend in February. She’ll bring a box of food and fuel. Campbell also plans to buy supplies when he stops in towns along the coast.

As we discussed his plans, Campbell and I kept coming back to why he was making this trip.

Campbell first cited the response George Mallory gave when asked why climb Mount Everest: “Because it’s there.”

Yet Campbell’s desire to tackle this adventure isn’t far from that simplistic view.

“Why do people golf? It’s what I like to do. There is a certain adventure quotient I like to keep in my life. I enjoy the physical challenge of it, the mental challenge of it,” he said.

“There is a sense of accomplishment of achieving something you set out to do that I think is pretty cool.”

That’s a perspective that impressed me.

Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640

jeff.mayor@thenewstribune.com

On the Net

You can find a link to Ken Campbell’s blog on The Adventure Guys blog at blogs.thenewstribune.com/adventure.