We wrap up the year 2023 here at Rainshadow with a quick look back. First of all, I’m incredibly grateful for all the contributors to this online journal along with all the readers that have made it worthwhile. We have struggled a bit this year, with the changeover from Ross Anderson handing off to me as the year began. But we kept at it and returned a decent year given the small number of writers currently producing our content.
- Posts – 55- We closed out the year to this date with 55 posts. Not as many as we would have liked, but enough to keep us energized.
- Visitors – 31,132 – This is really gratifying. Far more visitors than we ever could hope for. Some come for new stories, some for old.
- Views – 51,578 – Again, super gratifying.
- Story of the Year, all content – The ongoing love affair with “So Long, Pygmy Kayaks”. Given that folks all over the world have searched for information on Pygmy, we seem to have been the last best article on the web about it’s demise.
- Story of the Year, new content – “Where’s my glass of wine? And what does housing have to do with it?” Corky Parker nailed the current housing crisis.
We are looking towards the new year with the hopes that some of you readers will come forward with short articles you would like to contribute. Be sure to read articles we’ve done like what you want to do. We will send your work around internally first to see if it fits our teams’ tastes. We would like regional work, but are open to fiction as well as documentary. Photography also is welcome.
Photo by hk11419. Used under Creative Commons 2.0 License. No changes were made to this photo.
CC BY-NC 2.0 Deed | Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic | Creative Commons
A huge shout out to all the writers of Rainshadow Journal!
And another to Ross Anderson for his years at the helm!
And another to Al Bergstein for stepping up!
We enjoy the unique, informative, and quirky articles and the community based perspective you all bring!
Huzzah for all of you and for our incredible community!!! Here’s to 2024!!!
Thanks for the kind words Carla!
Thanks, Ross, for providing the history and context of the lovely, lithe, efficient pygmy kayak. In the 90s, I was an avid sit-upon kayaker living in Hawaii. There were few opportunities to kayak when we moved back to SoCal. So, my first objective in moving to PT in 2006, was to resume my kayaking. Sit-upon kayaks usually launch directly into the surf and require a different degree of agility, and serious monitoring of weather conditions. Even though Hawaii’s water was warmer, it could be difficult getting into the kayak in serious surf conditions.
My last PNW kayak adventure was just prior to the pandemic. A friend who curates the PTMSC Aquarium where I am a docent, and I took a kayaking tour on Orcas Island. The water conditions were perfect. We enjoyed identifying the invertebrates we found in the near-shore inlets. We weren’t as fortunate as Wendy Feltham in finding unique species and we didn’t even have a camera, but we enjoyed the little adventure close to home.
Hopefully, I will find a partner to kayak with in the “summer” of 2024. (I no longer trust myself in a single.) It probably won’t be in a pygmy, but a sturdy fiberglass rental from the beach at Fort Worden or the John Wayne Marina.