The Wilderness Paddler's Handbook - Softcover

Kesselheim, Alan S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0771095503 ISBN 13: 9780771095504

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart, 2001

Synopsis

The Wilderness Paddler’s Handbook offers paddlers of any stripe Alan Kesselheim’s personal, engaging writing and his unsurpassed experience. Helpful sidebars, interspersed throughout the book, provide step-by-step instructions on all critical technical considerations. Everything a new or experienced paddler can expect to encounter is included, from trip planning, choosing the right gear, and packing, to camping, cooking, modifying your boat, and dealing with conditions on every kind of water. Whether it’s how to pick the right partner, negotiate a tricky rapid, go solo, or bring the entire family, it’s all here in this entertaining, inspiring, and informative guide.

Alan Kesselheim has paddled thousands of wilderness miles – alone, with his wife, Marypat, and with his young children strapped into the canoe like babies in car seats. He’s paddled fast-moving rivers, windswept lakes, and quiet ponds. (One trip took him on a 13-month, 2000-mile journey from Grande Cache, Alberta, to Baker Lake in the Northwest Territories.) He’s also one of North America’s preeminent canoeing writers, and his hard-won opinions are highly respected.

About this title

Book Description:

The Wilderness Paddler's Handbook is a how-to book on canoe camping by an acclaimed writer who has paddled thousands of miles in every condition imaginable. It will teach the essentials of canoe camping and wilderness travel through short, often lyrical narratives will be complemented by detailed sidebars that provide step-by-step instructions for such things as planning, packing, equipping, and modifying a canoe for day or extended trips. It is an engaging approach to how-to writing that will attract attention, reviews, and readers. Alan Kesselheim is one of the country's preeminent paddling writes. He has written five books, including Trail Food (Ragged Mountain Press 1994), and hundreds of magazine articles. He has paddled thousands of wilderness miles, including a 420-day journey taken with his wife across the Northwestern Canadian Wilderness--a trip that called for spending an isolated winter in a small cabin. He has paddled alone, with his wife, and with his young children strapped to the canoe like babies in car seats. He has paddled fast-moving rivers, windswept lakes, and quiet ponds. His opinions are highly respected, and his hard-won advice--and descriptions of the mistakes to avoid--will lend instant credibility to the text.

From the Back Cover:

"Alan Kesselheim is a master of the paddle and the pen . . . This [is] the best of Kesselheim: wit, wilderness savvy, and a boat-full of sound advice."--Larry Rice, editor, Canoe & Kayak

Welcome to simplicity. You are holding the only wilderness paddling guide that tells you not just what gear you need, but what to leave behind and how to judge the difference.

Welcome to discovery. This guide equips you to design and plan your own expedition instead of slavishly following a trip mapped by an "expert."

Welcome to experience. Any good book can outline the requisite skills for backcountry paddling. This one also shows by example when and why to use them.

Here are the keys to canoe tripping, whether for expeditions of one to one hundred days. Alan Kesselheim is both a master paddler--with 25 years and more than 10,000 miles of wilderness paddling behind him--and a writer of uncommon grace and skill. He has created here a book of concentrated wisdom that is so pleasurable to read you may scarcely realize how much you're learning. The Wilderness Paddler's Handbook packages rich nuggets of experience in stories that entertain while they instruct.

Most how-to books are written either to grow into or to outgrow. Not this one. You can start with The Wilderness Paddler's Handbook, and you can keep going. You can paddle right off the map.

"Alan Kesselheim's mix of paddling experiences and superb writing skills make him ideally suited to dispense this highly personal and entertaining look at the how-tos of canoe tripping."--Michael Peake, editor, Che-Mun: The Journal of Canadian Wilderness Canoeing

"Alan Kesselheim is a first-rate writer who flat out knows what he's talking about. This is a book that will enrich your days on the water."--Jerry Dennis, author of From a Wooden Canoe

"As an explorer whose heart is ever lost to the next river bend, Kesselheim inspires canoeists to seek the wilds. In The Wilderness Paddler's Handbook, he is merciless to paddlers who've maintained that their ignorance has kept them home. It's all here!--Jan Nesset, former editor-in-chief, Canoe & Kayak

About this edition

• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0771095503
• ISBN 13: 9780771095504
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 284