The Boys on the Boat is the story about the University of Washington rowing team who, against all odds, wins the 1936 Olympic gold.  The story has a special connection to Sequim, as the main character of the story, Joe Rantz, spent much of his childhood here in Sequim.  

When you’re driving into town, you can see the road sign calling out the two Olympic champions from Sunny Sequim.  Joe Rantz is one of them.  In this passage, we’ll hear the author, Daniel James Brown’s description of what was then a sleepy farming town on the Olympic Peninsula in the 1920s.   

Actor George Clooney is reportedly working on a movie adaptation of the book, which would be interesting.  If you want more information about the book, you can visit the author’s website, www.danieljamesbrown.com.  

Thanks to Connie Furr for her  excellent reading. 

This final episode of The Good Rain finds Egan on the western most part of the Olympic Peninsula, in La Push.  The seemingly constant winds from the Pacific form the landscape, the trees, and the people of the area, all the way down to their breath.  

 You can read about that book, or others by this great PNW author by visiting his website, www.timothyeganbooks.com.   Thanks to Connie Furr for her reading.  

NW Passages is the new series features passages from books with a connection to the Pacific Northwest, and this month, we will feature selections from Timothy Egan’s classic book about the PNW, The Good Rain.  

In this passage, Egan describes the remoteness of the Northern Cascades, where, until 1972, no proper roads transverse the lands.  He goes on to quote a trapper who described the region as a land so wild, I cannot find words.  

The reference to Winthrop in Egan’s passage may sound familiar.  Winthrop was the east coast traveler who chronicled his journeys in the Washington Territory in 1853, in the book The Canoe and the Saddle, which were the first four episodes of NW Passages.  So  Egan’s story, and that from 150 years earlier, come together in this passage. 

Thanks to Connie Furr  of Sequim for her reading.  

NW Passages features passages from books or poetry with a PNW connection.

Timothy Egan has written several books about the PNW, and this 1990 is considered to contain some of the finest writing about our natural environment.  In this passage, Egan tells a story about a random encounter with a herd of Roosevelt elk on the Olympic Peninsula in a dark and damp canopy of fir trees.  

NW Passages features passages from books or poetry with a PNW connection.

This is the first episode from Timothy Egan’s classic book about the Pacific Northwest, The Good Rain.  First published in 1990, is a beautifully written book about the people, history and natural wonders of the PNW, and was actually inspired by the book we featured last month on NW Passages, the Canoe and the Saddle, written in 1853 by Theodore Winthrop.

Timothy Egan defines the PNW as wherever salmon can get to.  In this passage, which begins the book, Egan shares his thoughts about fish and rivers and life and death in the PNW.

Here's the playlist of artists I've come to enjoy in the first year of Notes by Northwest:

Woody Guthrie                 Roll On Columbia 

Wailers                                 Lucille 

Kingsmen                            Louie Louie

Q, Jones/Barry White   Secret Garden 

Folk Uke                              Wear you down

Brandi Clarke                  That wasn't me

Will and Haylie                Colours

Brandi Carlilse                    Every time I hear that song

Wilco Billy Bragg               Way over yonder in a minor key

Eddy Vedder                      Just breathe

Crushwater                        California

Chad Mitchell Trio           Reuben James

Buck Ellard                          Simple Man

Longboat                             Tacoma 

Woody Guthrie                 Pastures of Plenty 

Chris Cornell                       One 

Neko Case                           Furnace room lullaby

Modest Mouse                 Lampshades on Fire

Jimi Hendrix                       Little Wing

Pearl Jam                             jeremy

Nirvana                                Something in the way

Moby grape                        8:05

Ray Charles                         what I say

Playlist:

Penny whistlers  |   | Roll On Columbia
 | The miracle workers  |   | Way Back When
 | Mason Burns  |   | Come on Baby 
 | Kristina Lao  |   | Mice
 | Rumour Mill  |   | Feel it 2
 | Odo Abby  |   | Oshi
 | Heart  |   | Dog and Butterfly
 | The Matinee  |   | Said I
 | Rocky Voltalado  |   | Little Black Diamond
 | Grand Archives  |   | sleepdriving 
 | Wild Powwers  |   | Gorgon
 | Tiny Vipers  |   | Dreamers
 | Band of horses  |   | No body's going to love you 
 | The LoveMongers  |   | Sand 
 | Beat Happening  |   | Our secret 
 | Ray Charles  |   | America
 | Cub  |   | She's like a Rainbow
 | Willie Nelson and Ricky Lee Jones  |   | Comes Love
 | Danny Barnes  |   | Pizza box 
 | Les Gold  |   | Silver Platters
 | Asterhouse  |   | Devil's Haircut 
 | 3rd Secret  |   | Rhythm of the Ride 
 | Eddy Vedder  |   | Brother the Cloud
 | Foo Fighters  |   | Learn to Fly 

In this segment from The Canoe and the Saddle, author Theodore Winthrop relates another spiritual moment inspired by the natural beauty of the Washington territory in the mid-1800s. 

In this episode, we will continue the journey across 1850s Washington Territory as told by Theodore Winthrop, the Connecticut dandy who trekked across the PNW and wrote about it in his book, The Canoe and the Saddle.  In this passage, Winthrop tells the story of waking in the PNW forest at sunrise, in an encampment of missionaries, and the profound effect that colors, and light and the land and the vegetation has on him that day, and for the rest of his life. 

We’re continuing this week with The Canoe and The Saddle, the account of Theodore Winthrop’s journey to the Washington Territory in 1853, where he shared his accounts of the majesty of the mountains, the Salish Sea, and the native peoples of the PNW.   This edition of NW Passages includes Winthrop’s tribute to the mountain he, and the first people—refer to as Tacoma—and what the whites then and today call Mt. Ranier—much to the author’s chagrin.