In the summer of 2001, Mike Barenti paddled the main fork of the Salmon River from Stanley, Idaho, down the Snake, hooking the Columbia River all the way to its mouth at Cape Disappointment. "Kayaking Alone" is the story of his 900-mile voyage, an exploration of distance, time, people, culture, and economics. Mainly though, the book is about how and why we value salmon, as an icon for the way we make choices in managing the land and water out West. Anyone who thinks a salmon is just a fish, has not tapped into our culture here. In this book, Mike explains why it is more than a fish. Barenti has solid journalistic chops, with a career spent hoeing words in a small handful of newspapers scattered about the Pacific Northwest over the last two decades. He shows a reporter's dedication ... to accuracy in fact, insight in questioning, and openness about his own biases. But, the real value in his piece is the sensitive way in which he lets us into his own evolving consciousness about how one category of anadromous fish stands for almost all of the conflicts on land and water use we have in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. He faces the hard choices we made in creating dams to manage the Columbia River watershed for our economic and social betterment. He shows understanding of how multifaceted our choices are and empathy for how those changes impacted some. Yeah, you got it: this is not just a paddling odyssey, although there is plenty in it to interest water whackers. Mike takes his lumps, shifting a whitewater style boat from eddy to hole to hydraulic on the Salmon, and does time fighting big headwinds and the freighter-barge shuffle on the main stem Columbia. But, the text does not concentrate on where he went so much as how he arrived at an appreciation for the importance of one critter in defining who we are and how we structure our relationship with where we live. I don't think he intended that when he started. I think he tumbled to it as he drove on down the river, pulling words from ranchers, whitewater guides, biologists, storekeepers, Indians, firefighters, and even the odd paddler or two. Mike spent a couple nights at my house at the end of his trip. He happened on me and a couple other grizzled types at one of my favorite islands, upriver thirty miles or so. We shared a beer, some stir-fry, and a bit of debate there. The next day he quickly showed us his stern as he powered down the Cathlamet Channel, on his way to the mouth. Couple days later, he accepted my offer of a place to crash and await the arrival of his fiancee, to return him and his borrowed boat home. It took Mike seven years to get this book out. I'm glad he wrote it. It's worth reading. Mike Barenti, Kayaking Alone, University of Nebraska Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8032-1382-1 -- 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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