Watertrail: The Hidden Path Through Puget Sound
by Joel Rogers
(Sasquatch Books, 1998)
Photographer/author Joel Rogers makes it easy to get lost in the breathtaking scenery of Washington State’s Cascadia Marine Trail, the 400-plus mile route that took him through Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. But there’s more to the Watertrail story than just pretty pictures—there’s also some incredibly evocative writing. In fact, the first sentence in the book pretty much tells you what you’re in for: “The scenic details of Budd Inlet revealed themselves in all their early-morning glory: ragged lines of pilings from long-ago mills, the rotting keels of beached boats, and the Capitol dome rising over the town of Olympia.”

 

Kabloona in the Yellow Kayak: One Woman’s Journey Through the Northwest Passage
by Victoria Jason
(Turnstone Press, 1999)
What does it take to paddle, largely alone, from Churchill, Manitoba, to Tuktoyuktuk on the Beaufort Sea, and survive? Here’s a hint: Think Victoria Jason. She completed the 4,600-mile feat between 1991 and 1994. And the two-time stroke victim and grandmother of two had only been paddling for a year when she started. Impressed yet? Don’t be, that’s just the beginning of the courageous story detailed in Kabloona. Her observations of the landscape and the people she meets elevate this paddling memoir and make for a captivating read.

 

Homelands: Kayaking the Inside Passage
by Byron Ricks
(William Morrow, 1999)
Forgoing the luxury of a standard honeymoon, Ricks and his new bride spent five months paddling the Inside Passage from Canada to Seattle. What could have been a run-of-the-mill paddling book in less-skilled hands is transformed into a personal account of the couple’s attempts to build a life for themselves among the people and places of an intricate coastal waterway. But that’s not to say that the author slouches off as a travel writer—he dishes out local lore and paddling adventure with the best of them. “The very name, Inside Passage, seemed to carry an intimacy,” he writes, “a knowing. It would be a personal voyage. As much as anything, it would be a journey home.”

 

Paddle to the Arctic
by Don Starkel
(McClelland and Stewart, 2000)
It’s hard to talk about Victoria Jason’s book Kabloona (see earlier reference) without mentioning Starkel, who attempted the Northwest Passage trip three times (once with Jason in 1991) before finally making it, surviving conditions and setbacks that are sure to send a shiver down your spine. The resulting book, written in journal form, offers a frank look at what surviving in the Arctic is all about. “I am very ‘green’ to the Arctic,” he writes early on, “inexperienced but I don’t think arrogant or overconfident…Today was crazy and risky. Paddled through the ice fields in all directions. Only my coolness and deck compass saved my life.”