Quite by accident, I began reading Byron Ricks narrative (Homelands - Kayaking the Inside Passage, Avon, ISBN 0-380-80918-4) a couple days after Wes Boyd's plea for "big trips." One of my "big trips" was a piece of what Ricks and his wife, Maren Van Nostrand, accomplished in the spring/summer of 1996. More, my inchoate motivation for exploring, at length, some of the northern coast of North America, was the same as theirs: to understand better how we came to the position we have regarding those wild lands. I did not know that when I bean reading the book -- I had picked it off the shelf to salve my yak-trip narrative addiction. In fact, I was put off at first by the author's photograph, thinking, "This guy is way too young to understand the Inside Passage very well." [ageist remark, so there!] "Homelands" is an apt title for Ricks' work. Through the slow process of paddling the coast and its passages from Glacier Bay, Alaska, to the Nisqually Delta at the southern end of Puget Sound, Washington, the two discover how differently we have treated the coast, both in recent time and before Europeans settled there. Here is an extended quote from the last part of the book: [begin] The places we lived, the string of campsites, have each become known, ephemeral homes where we dreamed of where we had been and tried to push ahead. Each camp carried an emotional component, distinct and essential to our journey, and even now we can recall any one of them with clarity and powerful feeling. If we are a lost people today, as so many complain, it is perhaps because we have lost this capacity to be at home with the land and our lives as we live them. A true home is not claimed through mere tenure but through a depth of living. We have lived fully within almost every place in our journey, between its dawn and dusk, along its slope of land, encountering the way waves curl across the rocks at various stages of tide, its parcel of forest, and learned how it all shapes our lives. Now these places assemble themselves as a region, and we begin to see the larger home we have found on this coast. Although we do not have a cultural legacy of ten thousand or more years living here, we have paddled these shores as many once did, and we now know the coast in ways they once did, in ways that all people once knew their homelands -- through its weathers and waters and work. [end] That phrase " ... at home with the land ..." really hits the mark for me. It is when I can feel at home with the land that I am most at peace. I believe it is the core value of having wilderness, and unexplainable to those who have not felt it. Those seeking an insightful description of what it is like to paddle at length will find those rhythms here in spades. As well, Ricks avoids the disdain many wilderness writers show for how the rest of us live, showing recognition that we all make compromises to get through the days. He also shows little of the bravado such journeys seem to instill into adventurers, and has a good combination of self-awareness and humility, to boot. Finally, his summary avoids the "guidebook" mentality many fall into, describing the aesthetics of each site, but never giving enough detail that he "reveals" fragile places to the hordes. Yeah, I liked this book! It is a great read for paddlers and wilderness-lovers. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 01-02-17 16:33:39 EST, dkruger_at_pacifier.com writes: << Quite by accident, I began reading Byron Ricks narrative (Homelands - Kayaking the Inside Passage, Avon, ISBN 0-380-80918-4) a couple days after Wes Boyd's plea for "big trips." >> Dave, is it out in paperback? sandy kramer miami *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Gypsykayak_at_aol.com wrote: > > In a message dated 01-02-17 16:33:39 EST, dkruger_at_pacifier.com writes: > > << I began reading Byron Ricks narrative (Homelands - Kayaking > the Inside Passage, Avon, ISBN 0-380-80918-4) a couple days after Wes Boyd's > plea for "big trips." >> > > Dave, is it out in paperback? Yes. Bard is the Avon paperback subsidiary. The ISBN above is for the paperback. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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