Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Book Review: A Guide to Paddling in the Yukon
 Like a canoe that tracks straight and maneuvers well, Ken Madsen and Peter Mather’s A Guide to Paddling in the Yukon is a fine book for two reasons: it’s a helpful guidebook for canoeing and kayaking in the Yukon territory and it’s a worthy “coffee table book” thanks to its striking collection of color photos.
Printed on high-quality, glossy, stock, the book is a worthy investment for its depictions of the Yukon’s wilds alone. Madsen and Mather’s photos capture both the grandeur and the subtle charms of the region, as well as record the simple pleasures and adrenal moments of wilderness river tripping. The photo collection gives the reader not only a sense of what the Yukon will look like, but also what tripping in the region can feel like.
As a guidebook, Paddling is nicely constructed. For each of the 73 rivers included in the book, the authors include easy-to-find information on distance, paddling duration, whitewater difficulty, access and logistics, and the topo maps required. Their descriptions of the rivers are clearly written with just enough trip-enhancing information about the human and natural history of the area in question. Madsen and Mather are unapologetic conservationists, which shows, appealingly, in their writing.
Read the rest of this entry »
POSTED BY Charlie AT 1:59 pm |
LABELS: Books, Canada, Far North, Trips/Routes
Monday, May 12, 2008
Still Paddling to the Sea
Inspired by the Caldicott Award-winning book and Oscar-nominated film Paddle to the Sea, Jody Smith’s students at Cheery Creek public school in Marquette, Michigan often launched carved boats with their initials onto the water of Lake Superior. Like author Holling C. Holling’s young carver in the story, they hoped their boats would travel far and ultimately be found.
As THIS story in the Sault Ste. Marie Star reports, one of Smith’s sutdents’ boats was recently found after making its way across Lake Superior to Canada.
We’re glad to see that the book and movie — directed by canoeing hero Bill Mason — are still inspiring youngsters. We know at least one person in the Canoeing.com office started carving a boat after seeing the movie as a youngster!
POSTED BY Charlie AT 3:31 pm |
LABELS: Art, Books, History, Misc., People, Trips/Routes
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Paddlers, Water Balloons, and the Cops
 “Throwing water balloons at Naples canoe race could result in charges.”
The headline piqued our curiosity. The three paragraph Naples Daily News story that followed, HERE, warned that if injuries occurred at this Saturday’s Great Dock Canoe Race as a result of a thrown water balloon, criminal charges could be filed.
The story left, for us anyway, more questions than answers.
Water balloons? Canoe racers? Concern enough for police vigilance? An item in the newspaper? Ciminal charges? Just what kind of aqueous mayhem is happening along Florida’s “Paradise Coast?”
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POSTED BY Charlie AT 1:42 pm |
LABELS: Canoes, Florida/Southeast, Racing
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Olson’s Listening Point on National Register
Listening Point, the lake-shore property near Ely, Minnesota owned by nature writer and paddler Sigurd Olson, has just been added to the National Register of Historic Places, according to THIS news story.
The rugged 30-acre property on Burntside Lake is currently owned by the Listening Point Foundation.
Olson, who is well-known to paddlers and nature lovers for his books The Singing Wilderness, Listening Point, and The Lonely Land worked as a canoe-guide in what is now the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Quetico Provincial Park. With a group that referred to itself as The Voyageurs, and which included renowned Canadian wilderness paddler Eric Morse, Olson traveled on the Churchill River in Saskatchewan, the Hayes River in Manitoba, and the Camsell and Great Bear Rivers in the Northwest Territories, among others.
A favorite Olson canoe-quote of ours is:
“The charm of a canoe trip is in the quiet as one drifts along the shores, being part of the rocks and trees and every living thing. At times on quiet waters one does not speak aloud but only in whispers, for then all noise is sacrilege.”
Olson died in 1982 at age 82.
POSTED BY Charlie AT 2:46 pm |
LABELS: Books, Canada, Far North, History, Midwest, Minnesota, Ontario, People, Trips/Routes
Monday, May 5, 2008
Ancient Sea-Going Canoe Found in Florida Muck
The only prehistoric sea-going canoe ever found in Florida continues to rest in the muck of Weedon Island near St. Petersburg, as it has for a long, long time.
According to THIS Suncoast News story, the buried relic was once a 45-foot-long canoe that allowed the local Native American culture that carved the boat to ply the coastal waters of what is now Florida and trade with adjacent peoples.
The Lakeland Ledger also has THIS story on the find.
The dugout canoe, which is missing its stern but still measures 39 feet, 11 inches, is the longest ever found in Florida. It was carved from a single pine tree some 1,100 years ago.
Researchers, who had known about the canoe for seven years, only recently examined, measured, and took radio-carbon dating samples of the find. They left the vessel buried in place due to the difficultly of preserving such a large relic.
You can find out more about the prehistoric cultures in the St. Petersburg area from the Weedon Island Preserve website, HERE.
POSTED BY Charlie AT 1:37 pm |
LABELS: Canoes, Florida/Southeast, History
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