Like a sprawling lake with narrows and bays that lead in every direction, our Books and Media list for the Advanced Paddler covers a lot of territory. We’ve got books on Advanced Skills, Canoe Traditions, Canoe Building & Paddle Making, Adventure, History & Biography, and Reflection. We’re also highlighting Guide Books to favorite canoe areas, plus interesting Magazines and DVDs.
Check out Books and Media for Beginners as well.
ADVANCED SKILLS
Song of the Paddle: An Illustrated Guide to Wilderness Camping
by Bill Mason, Paperback, 186 pages, $19.95
More than a how-to camping and paddling guide, Song of the Paddle is a philosophical guide to outdoor living. Written by the acclaimed paddler and outdoorsman, Bill Mason, the book leads readers on a journey of exploration and discovery.
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Paddle Your Own Canoe
by Robert Baden-Powell, Paperback Facsimilie: 164 pages, 1939, $80.00
Common Sense; Resourcefulness; Endurance; On Being Accurate; Patience; Gratitude; Courtesy; Goodwill; Honour; Keeping You Nerve; Courage; Keeping Your Pecker Up; Humour; Don’t Swank; On ‘Sticking it Out”; How To Be Fit; The Duty of Service; Helpfulness; Responsibility; Self-Sacrifice.
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Canoeing Wild Rivers: The 30th Anniversary Guide to Expedition Canoeing in North America (How to Paddle Series)
by Cliff Jacobson, Paperback
The 30th Anniversary Edition of the classic Expedition Canoeinghas long been considered the premier guide to canoeing and exploring North America’s waterways. This thirtieth-anniversary edition expertly details everything you need to know about paddling the continent’s wild rivers.
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The Wilderness Paddler’s Handbook
by Alan S. Kesselheim, Paperback, $9.95
This book by America’s preeminent canoeing author combines evocative wilderness writing with nuts-and-bolts coverage of all practical aspects of canoe tripping. Alan Kesselheim uses the lessons he’s learned first-hand over thousands of miles of wilderness paddling to create a context for conveying everything a new or experienced paddler can expect to encounter, on any type of water.
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Cradle to Canoe: Camping and Canoeing With Children
by Rolf Kraiker, Debra Kraiker Paperback, 168 pages, $19.95
You’re never too young to go camping and canoeing. Certified canoeing instructors Rolf and Debra Kraiker have paddled thousands of miles together. Their sons, Kyle and Brendan, ages 9 and 12, have logged more wilderness miles than most adults three times their ages. In this compilation of practical advice and personal anecdotes, the Kraikers, both certified canoeing instructors, provide expert guidance on such topics as introducing children to the wilderness…
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Basic Essentials® Solo Canoeing (Basic Essentials Series)
by Cliff Jacobson, Paperback, 80 pages, $8.95
No longer is the canoeist limited by the problem of finding a compatible partner. No longer is it necessary to decide who will be in the bow and who will be in the stern. With The Basic Essentials of Solo Canoeing, freedom is at your feet.
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The Complete Wilderness Paddler
by James West Davidson, John Rugge, Paperback, $9.95
A combination of detailed instruction and text (based on actual adventures) of all the techniques of canoe camping and wilderness cruising. You learn how to “find a river,” navigate, cope with accidents and much more. With 65 drawings and 11 maps.
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CANOE TRADITIONS
The Story of the Chestnut Canoe
by Kenneth Solway, Paperback, $39.95
Invented in the deep Maine woods during the 19th century, this wood and canvas canoe became, in the hands of the Chestnut family, the world-renowned Chestnut Canoe ― the most famous canoe in Canada’s vast northern landscape and equally well known in the northern parts of the United States.
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The Survival of the Bark Canoe
by John McPhee, Paperback, $12.99
In Greenville, New Hampshire, a small town in the southern part of the state, Henri Vaillancourt makes birch-bark canoes in the same manner and with the same tools that the Indians used. The Survival of the Bark Canoe is the story of this ancient craft and of a 150-mile trip through the Maine woods in those graceful survivors of a prehistoric technology.
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Bark, Skin & Cedar: Exploring the Canoe in the Canadian Experience
by James Raffan, Hardcover, $9.95
Bark, Skin and Cedar is an intelligent and grand exploration of that great Canadian icon — the canoe. From the graceful birch bark vessels of the Micmac Indians to the wide and sturdy Haida dugouts, from the canvas-covered Chestnut Prospector to the sleek dragon racing boats, the fragile but powerful craft defines our history and our culture in a myriad of ways.
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The Canoe: A History of the Craft from Panama to the Arctic
by Kenneth Roberts, Philip Shackleton, Paperback 279 pages, $9.95
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North American Canoe Country: The Classic Guide to Canoe Techniqueby Calvin Rutstrum, Paperback, $16.95
Calvin Rutstrum’s fans have long known about his nuts-and-bolts approach to wilderness living. With this reissue of North American Canoe Country, a new generation of readers has the chance to learn time-tested secrets of a safe canoe adventure from a master outdoorsman.
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The Old Town Canoe Company: Our First Hundred Years
by Susan T. Audette, Paperback $13.99
The Old Town Canoe Company has a rich and diverse history now spanning a century, and its story is told here in rich and colorful detail, from the earliest wood-and-canvas canoes…
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From a Wooden Canoe: Reflections on Canoeing, Camping, and Classic Equipment
by Jerry Dennis, Paperback, $19.95
Jerry Dennis has earned a reputation as one of the finest writers on nature and the outdoors in America today. Now in From a Wooden Canoe, he turns his attention to old passions and discovers new reasons to appreciate them.
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The Canoe: A Living Tradition
by John Jennings, Hardcover
The Canoe is the definitive history of the construction and use of the canoe, kayak, dugout and umiak in North America. The book covers the canoe’s origins among Native peoples, its quick adoption by European settlers, its development from a working vessel to a recreational craft.
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The Canoe: An Illustrated History
by Jim Poling, Hardcover
A beautifully illustrated history of one of North America’s most enduring cultural symbols and recreational pastimes.
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CANOE BUILDING & PADDLE MAKING
Building a Birchbark Canoe: The Algonquin Wabanaki Tciman
by David Gidmark, Paperback, $34.95
In this groundbreaking book, David Gidmark reviews the early history of bark canoes, providing readers with an overview of construction methods and featuring the individual techniques of four traditional 20th-century Algonquin craftsmen and their assistants.
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The Wood and Canvas Canoe: A Complete Guide to its History, Construction, Restoration and Maintenance
by Jerry Stelmok, Paperback, $7.95
This rich history begins with the birchbark canoe, follows the turn-of-the-century canoe craze when builders such as Eve Gerrish, E. M. White, B. N. Morris, and others perfected the art of the wood-and-canvas canoe, then takes us step by step through the construction of an E. M. White-designed…
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Canoe Paddles: A Complete Guide to Making Your Own
by Graham Warren, Paperback, $8.95
Despite the growing interest in making paddles and canoes, it can be difficult to find reliable information on that craft — except for this book. First published more than a decade ago and having sold 35,000 copies, Canoe Paddles: A Complete Guide to Making Your Own is the ultimate modern guide to the traditional craft for both the how-to beginner and the skilled woodworker.
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Art of the Canoe with Joe Seliga
by Jerry Stelmok, Hardcover, $18.95
Joe Seliga has been hand building canvas-on-wood canoes in his Ely, Minnesota, workshop for more than 60 years. Seliga’s work is considered the best-of-the-best among canoe aficionados and wooden boat builders alike…
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Building a Strip Canoe
by Gil Gilpatrick, Paperback, $8.95
This completely revised edition includes plans and patterns for eight well-proven designs. Step-by-step directions are accompanied by over 100 photographs plus illustrations. Gil’s contemporary construction method augment the traditional wood strips with fiberglass and West System epoxy. The book includes an extensive listing of sources for lumber, tools and supplies.
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Building the Six-Hour Canoe
by Richard Butz, John Montague, William Bartoo, Paperback, $15.95
A guide to building a canoe that contains scale plans, specifications, a tool list, step-by-step instructions, and even a helpful explanation of how to paddle the canoe. All the building operations are clearly illustrated with photos and sketches. The canoe is constructed from a single 4’x16′ (or two 4′ x 8′ sheets) sheet of marine plywood and a few pieces of dimensional lumber and, with epoxy glued seams, is watertight from the moment it hits the water…
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Building Your Kevlar Canoe: A Foolproof Method and Three Foolproof Designs
James Moran, Paperback, $19.95
With this book, the most inexperienced home builder can turn out a handsome canoe for an investment of about $600 and a few weekends. The principal tools needed are a sharp pair of scissors and a $5 hand plane–and the method is astonishingly easy and forgiving. Featured are designs for a stable family canoe, a solo canoe, and a wilderness tripper…
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Canoecraft: An Illustrated Guide to Fine Woodstrip Construction
by Ted Moores, Paperback, $24.95
An excellent definitive book … something you must read if you are going to build a woodstrip canoe. If you want to build a strip-plank canoe — or kayak — Canoecraft is the book to buy… All in all a very comprehensive boatbuilding book and highly recommended. (Pete Greenfield Water Craft)
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The Canoe Shop: Three Elegant Wooden Canoes Anyone Can Build
by Chris Kulczycki, Paperback
A lavishly illustrated, user-friendly guide for novices and experienced boat builders alike, The Canoe Shop provides plans and building instructions for three graceful and rugged touring canoes―a 12-foot double-paddle canoe, a 14-foot solo canoe, and a 16-foot tandem boat―that virtually anyone can build directly from the book.
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ADVENTURE
The Amazon from Source to Sea: The Farthest Journey Down the World’s Longest River
Fifty-year-old canoe racer-turned-explorer West Hansen is planning to kayak the Amazon River when he learns that everyone – cartographers, adventurers, even his own sponsor, National Geographic Society – has misplaced the source of the world’s greatest river.
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Gunflint Burning Fire in the Boundary Waters
2018 by Cary J. Griffith, Hardcover, 304 pages, $19.99 The story of the Ham Lake fire, at the time the most destructive wildfire in modern Minnesota history—the blaze, the firefighters’ battle, the human toll… Gunflint Burning is a comprehensive account of the dramatic events around the Ham Lake fire of 2007, one of the largest wildfires in Minnesota history. In sharp detail, Cary J. Griffith describes the key events of the fire as they unfold, transporting readers to the front lines of an epic struggle that was at times heroic, tragic, and sublime.
Read the Canoeing.com Book Review
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Toward Magnetic North: The Oberholtzer-Magee 1912 Canoe Journey to Hudson Bay
by Ernest Oberholtzer, Hardcover, $49.95
A stunning collection of conservationist and explorer Oberholtzer’s photographs and journal entries from his famous paddle to Hudson Bay. BUY ON AMAZON
The Lonely Land
by Sigurd F. Olson Paperback, 288 pages, $11.99
An award-winning conservation activist and best-selling author, Olson introduced a generation ad Americans to the importance of wilderness. He served as president of the Wilderness Society and the National Parks Association and was honored by the Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation for his work. Olson’s nine books frequently appeared on best-seller lists across the nation. BUY ON AMAZON
By Canoe
by Kristin Law, Nigel Law, Paperback, $19.95
“By Canoe” is the personal account of a husband and wife team who travelled six months and 3,000 miles in a canoe from Wisconsin to the Florida Keys! With many gritty black and white photographs, journal entries, and humorous anecdotes, this 150-page travel essay is both entertaining and informative.
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Down the Mississippi With Stinky: 2 Women, a Canoe, and a Kitten
by Dorie Brunner, Paperback, 136 pages, $29.95
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Lost in the Wild: Danger and Survival in the North Woods
by Cary J. Griffith, Paperback, $17.95
On a beautiful summer afternoon in 1998, Dan Stephens, a 22-year-old canoeist, was leading a trip deep into Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park. He stepped into a gap among cedar trees to look for the next portage—and did not return. More than four hours later, Dan awakened with a lump on his head from a fall and stumbled deeper into the woods, confused.
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River Stories: Real Adventures in the North American Wilderness
By Rob Kesselring, Paperback, 208 pages, $14.95
From the author of Daughter Father Canoe, this book delights with 17 paddling stories from the Rocky Mountains to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota to the Canadian Arctic… adventuresome, humorous, and heartening with a good dose of how-to thrown in.
Book: Paddling South Winnipeg to New Orleans by Canoe
By Rick Ranson, Paperback, 121 pages, $19.95
In the Fall of 1969, Rick Ranson and John Van Landeghem took on the mighty Red and Mississippi Rivers, traveling from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to New Orleans, Louisiana by canoe. The recent high school grads saw it all: they ducked bullets in St. Louis, encountered a whirlpool, snow storms and a hurricane and even spent a few days in the Fargo City Jail. A deft storyteller, Ranson recounts this humorous and adventurous tale in 3 – 5 page vignettes that are sure to entertain.
River Time: Racing the Ghosts of the Klondike Rush
by John Firth, Paperback, $24.95
The story of two men following in the footsteps of their grandfather on a journey that changed his life and determined theirs. Firth brings to life the vivid scenery of the Yukon and the stark reality of the hardships faced by three men stampeding from Dyea to Dawson, separated by a century. One seeking the future; the others, the past.
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The Lure of Faraway Places: Reflections on Wilderness and Solitude
by Herb Pohl, Paperback
Pohl’s words and images provide a unique portrait of Canada by one who was happiest when travelling our northern waterways alone. Austrian-born Herb Pohl died at the mouth of the Michipcoten River on July 17, 2006. He is remembered as “Canada’s most remarkable solo traveller.”
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The Old Way North: Following the Oberholtzer-Magee Expedition
by David F. Pelly, Hardcover, $18.95
Tracing the route of the Oberholtzer-Magee expedition, The Old Way North transports readers through the history of this perilous wilderness and introduces them to the mapmakers, fur traders and trappers, missionaries, and native peoples who relied on this corridor for trade and travel. Through journals, historical records, personal interviews with Cree, Dene, and Inuit, and the account of a present-day canoeist, wilderness and conservation writer David Pelly reconstructs the many tales hidden in this land.
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This Water Goes North
by Dennis Weidemann, Hardcover, $21.95
From the tranquil farmland waters of Minnesota to the treacherous wilderness rapids of Manitoba, four young men in two old canoes experience an adventure that every kid talks about, but few take. With leaky tents, little experience, and no TV cameras or big-time sponsors, the lads set out in 1979 to paddle 1,400 miles north to Hudson Bay. Why? Why not! Driven by a youthful sense of adventure, they took the chance of a lifetime just to see what lay around the next turn. Sit in their canoe as they glide through smooth waters and survive rushing rivers.
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