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Top 5 Great Sources


The best of instruction and scholarship


2. The Complete Wilderness Paddler, by James West Davidson and John Rugge (1975) A comprehensive how-to book wilderness canoeing, but also an account of one of the earliest recreational canoe trips down the Moisie River, when the Quebec govern- ment considered the river too dangerous. The illustrations are wonderful, the writing is urbane and witty. Always an enjoyable read. Vintage, 1983.


3. The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, by Edwin Tappan Adney and Howard I. Chapelle (1964) Chapelle presents the previously unpub- lished research of the late Adney (1868–1950). Adney recorded the many intricacies of bark canoes and their construction, amassing vol- umes of notes, beautifully detailed sketches, and an incredible collection of scale models. Chapelle adds his own notes on the construction of skin-on-frame kayaks and umiaks. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993.


4. Canoeing North into the Unknown: A Record of River Travel, 1874 to 1974, by Bruce W. Hodgins and Gwyneth Hoyle (1994) Documents northern river travel from the end of the commercial fur trade era to the time when wilderness tripping became common. Typical of mountaineering scholarship, but unlike anything else in canoe-dom. Makes sense of what was an individual and isolated patchwork of adventures, providing fascinating context for today and the future. Natural Heritage, 1997.


5. The Canoe: A Living Tradition, edited by John Jennings (2002) A magnifi- cent, complex and beautiful book about the North American canoe in all its diversity, art and uses down through the last five centuries. With contributions by many of the most important authorities on “the canoe.” Presented in a cof- fee-table format, it is so much more than a cof- fee-table book. Firefly Books, 2002.


Reviews contributed by Kevin Callan, Bruce Hodgins, Gwyneth Hoyle, Jeff Jackson, Bruce Kirkby, Becky Mason, Bryan Poirier and Wally Schaber.


Path Of The Paddle, by Bill Mason (1980) The definitive Canadian canoe manual since its publication, Path of the Paddle does- n’t just tell us how to canoe. Path of the Paddle tells us why. The book is imbued with a philosophy—in Mason’s case, more of a spiri- tuality—stated front and centre in the introduc- tion: The slower you go, the more you see. For Mason, the canoe is the vehicle for a distinctly


Canadian land ethic and a way of life. Packed with instructional parables and photos from classic canoe destinations like the Nahanni, the Petawawa River and Lake Superior—it’s the Swiss Army knife of canoe books. Wally Schaber: “I lived beside Mason, listening to draft after re- draft of this book, and knowing what a perfectionist he was, I know how superior this book was to anything that preceded it. It’s still very relevant 20 years later.” The latest edition has been revised and updated by Bill Mason’s son Paul. Firefly Books, 1999.


Behind the Scenes


Our panel—comprising scholars, authors, historians, adventurers, instructors, guides and retailers—helped us create a master list of over 100 books about or related to canoeing in Canada. We asked each per- son to select and give a score to their favourite titles and selected final- ists based on their overall popularity and cumulative score (authors did not vote for their own books). Our winners represent the most widely read and highly regarded titles. Many thanks to our panelists, noted here with their favourite canoe book titles in parentheses:


Kevin Callan is the author of eight books on canoeing and camping. (Magnetic North: A Trek Across Canada, by David Halsey, about a young man’s epic cross-Canada trek and its tragic result)


Brian Duplante has taught canoeing for 37 years. He is a manager for Swift Canoe and Kayak. (Path of the Paddle and Fire in the Bones)


Jeff Jackson writes a river conservation column for Rapid magazine and is a professor at Algonquin College in the Outdoor Adventure Program. (Paddle to the Sea)


Bruce Hodgins has written widely on canoes and canoeing and has co-led 20,000 kilometres of trips with Camp Wanaptei, usually with his wife Carol. (The Canoe: A Living Tradition)


Gwyneth Hoyle co-authored Canoeing North into the Unknown, for which she read hundreds of trip accounts, in books, magazines, or unpublished per- sonal reports. And she still cannot resist a good canoeing story. (True North)


Bruce Kirkby, Outpost magazine’s editor-at-large, is a Calgary-based author and photographer. His recent journeys include a camel crossing of Arabia and a raft descent of Ethiopia’s Blue Nile Gorge. (Paddle to the Amazon)


Becky Mason is a canoeist and visual artist. She offers canoeing workshops and an award-winning instructional video, Classic Solo Canoeing (www.redcanoes.ca). (Great Heart)


Michael Peake is the editor and publisher of Che-Mun: The Journal of Canadian Wilderness Canoeing. (Lands Forlorn)


Bryan Poirier is a graduate student, a canoe instructor and guide, and a teacher at the Canadian Canoe Museum. (Canexus: The Canoe in Canadian Culture, edited by Bruce Horwood and James Raffan—a “must read” collection of essays)


James Raffan is the author of several canoeing- related books, most recently Deep Waters: Courage, Character and the Lake Timiskaming Canoeing Tragedy. (Against Straight Lines, Robert Perkins’ contemplative tale of a solo canoe journey in Labrador)


Wally Schaber has operated the Trailhead outdoor store in Ottawa since 1977. He founded the Black Feather outfitting company in 1971 and was the first to commercially guide the Nahanni River. (Dangerous River and Path of the Paddle)


Alister Thomas, a Calgary-based journalist, is editor of Canada’s Best Canoe Routes and More of Canada’s Best Canoe Routes. (The Survival of the Bark Canoe and Canoeing North into the Unknown)


Hap Wilson is a writer, photographer, guide, artist and author of several guidebooks including the recent Canoeing and Hiking Wild Muskoka. (The Men of the Last Frontier)


2004 Annual 21


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