Canoelit

KIPAWA RIVER CHRONICLES
Written and published by Scott Sorensen, 1999. 286pp
US$14 Cdn$20
ISBN: 0-9672983-0-X

Scott Sorensen is a clearly a man who likes to do things himself. He has published his own book adorned with the skin-clad, pelt-draped, rifle-toting author on the cover.

A self-styled mountain man from the US he arrived in Canada in 1975 to work at a lodge on Lake Temiskaming - north of the Ottawa River near the Ontario-Quebec border. Sorensen has been returning every year since with his growing family.

The genesis for this book is clearly Hydro-Quebec's desire to divert the short but very rugged Kipawa River for hydro purposes.

The H-Q story is woven in alternating short chapters throughout the book which deals with the many interesting events that have happened to Sorensen. This includes his involvement in the rescue of survivors of the terrible St. John's School canoeing mishap in June 1978 when 13 students and teachers died of hypothermia following a tragic series of events on Lake Temiskaming. (He was recently interviewed by author James Raffan who is working on a book about the drownings.)

He has clearly done a lot of research on the event himself as he paints a grim and fair picture of the series of accidents that ended in death. There's much more to tell and he paints pictures of the locals and kayakers who come from far and wide to test the Kevlar-crunching waters of the short but lively Kipawa River. A great niche of Canadian history - naturally written by an American!



SHOOTING PADDLERS
By Toni Harting
Natural Heritage, Toronto 2000
176pp $29.95
ISBN: 1-896219-62-4

Every trip has its photographer, sometimes more than one but usually there is one person who excels above the rest. This means he is the least photographed person, the last one into group shots and the reason for yet another hold up as he scrambles up a brush covered slope covered in slippery rocks to get "that" shot that everyone will love-later.

Toni Harting knows this well, the Toronto-based writer and photographer has been a fixture at a great number of paddling events over the past 25 years. This is really a text book of sorts; a dissertation - with photo evidence - of how to do a better job recording your trip. If there's one tip Toni loves to impart (and I know this from personal experience) it's keep your horizons level!

The book's reproduction is quite good with the notable exception being the cover which is flat. The irony is that 98% of paddlers shoot in colour and this book is 98% black & white. I like the fact that Toni also published some of his mistakes and errors. He is not a fan of captions on the photos - a pet peeve of this reviewer's - but the body copy is usually talking about the adjacent picture. There's lots to learn here for both digital and film shutterbugs.



CANOEING ALGONQUIN PARK
Written & published by Donald L. Lloyd, 2000.
334pp Cdn$23
ISBN: 0-9686556-0-2

Okay, another canoeing guide to Algonquin Park? Well, yes and no. Donald Lloyd is a retired university professor and he brings an academic approach to yet another self-published book.

He is an old Algonquin hand and has produced a wonderful homemade book. This is not to denigrate it; the book is well done and all by Lloyd from the 20 extensive paddling area descriptions, to the wonderful pen and ink drawings to the sidebars on flora and faun and even some favourite recipes.

He even refers to other authors such as the venerable George Drought who wrote a whitewater guide on the Petawawa. His advice? - get Drought's book for rapid specifics! Lloyd's years of experience and his academic pursuit of the facts means this book is loaded with tidbits about who saw what - and when. A heartfelt and homemade labour of love and enjoyment!



BUG, SWEAT AND FEARS
By Allan Bayne
Turnstone Press 1999. 210 pp
$14.95
ISBN 0-88801-234-9

When I took over Che-Mun from Nick Nickels in 1984 he gave me one piece of advice. "Don't forget the armchair paddlers." He was right. There is a tendency to concentrate all our focus on the BIG trips and in this extreme age there is too much attention given to the gonzo factor.

The simple fact is that 95% of paddlers simply want a pleasant trip without any severe problems. Allan Bayne is a Winnipeg paddler who came late to the canoeing game and has blossomed. His book is meant for the "merely mortal" folks - i.e. most of us. Allan freely admits to planning exotic northern expeditions he will never take for time and money reasons. But that doesn't stop the fun of planning.

This book encompasses the usual areas of interest to paddlers. I liked his opening chapter which included what I call the Seven Deadly Attractions of wilderness appeal; Therapy, Expectation, Adventure, Fascination, Interaction, Solitude and Challenge. It's quite a complete book, covering cooking, campsite etiquette, equipment and safety. and, importantly, it is written by a Canadian with a Canadian focus on paddling areas, mainly northwestern Ontario and Manitoba.

Bayne has the right attitude. Canoeing should be a fun and somewhat of a challenge. Nothing that gives so much should be without its price.



CANOEING & CAMPING: BEYOND THE BASICS
By Cliff Jacobson
Globe Pequot, US. 2000 170pp
US$14.95
ISBN 0-7627-0668-6

Cliff Jacobson needs no introduction to readers of this journal. Neither does this book, in fact, as it is an updated edition of one released in 1992.

In person and in print, Jacobson has an endless supply of camping hints and tips to make you life on the trail much easier.

Cliff has updated and improved on many of the tips and techniques offered in this nicely illustrated book that has many real canoe trip illustrations of what he's writing about.

There are a few negatives; a batch of ads at the end of the book detracts as does a back cover blurb telling people where to buy the canoe shown on the cover and directing them to the ad in the book. These advertorials are not worthy of Cliff and I'm sure were entirely the publisher's idea.

But I was shocked that Cliff would cite Eric Morse (!) as the author of Canoe Canada - it was Nick Nickels, the founder of Che-Mun. Morse wrote Fur Trade Canoe Routes of Canada/Then and Now.



THE STORY OF THE CHESTNUT CANOE
By Ken Solway
Published by nimbus

Hugh Stewart is one of the pre-eminent experts on the wood-canvas canoe. His company Headwaters in Wakefield, Quebec builds and repairs canoes and takes northern trips using traditional gear including wooden canoes. This review was refused publication by Kanawa magazine yet expresses the concerns told to us by several people regarding Ken Solway's book 1997 book The Story of the Chestnut Canoe. By the way, Hugh sent this to us last September when it promptly disappeared and it was only uncovered during our recent move.

Readers should heed the author's caveat of Page 4 wherein he cautions that his book "does not attempt to be the definitive history of the Chestnut Canoe Company." At best, this brief book Kenneth Solway has written might be considered an "interesting glimpse" of Chestnut.

The Story of the Chestnut Canoe is a handsome book. The cover design and stock are attractive and alluring. The numerous photographs and reproduced pages from early catalogues are clear, crisp and historically interesting. Many readers will undoubtedly find some information intriguing; details on the characters in the Chestnut family; the bizarre corporate arrangement whereby all wood canvas canoes sold by Chestnut and Peterborough were made in Fredricton after 1923; the evolution of the different canoe models; and the ultimate fate of the forms on which the Chestnuts were built.

Unfortunately, The Story of the Chestnut Canoe is very poorly written. The text suffers from poor organization, repetition of some material, interruptions for the author's personal anecdotes and opinions, a mediocre writing style and inaccurate facts. approximately 30% of the text and the reproductions of catalogue pages deal with companies other than Chestnut; far more than is necessary to put the Chestnut story in historical context. The clumsy writing and sloppy thinking are irritating:

The wood-and-canvas canoe was the pinnacle of the classic white man's canoe because it was practical and most adhered to its aboriginal origins, and as such is the primary survivor.

Factual errors are annoying. On Page 59 we are told that in 1956 the Peterborough Canoe Company employed 206 people and built over 8000 boats and canoes. In the next paragraph we learn that this took place in a 3000 square foot factory. It must have been crowded for this is an area approximately 55 feet by 55 feet! Imprecise and inaccurate use of words is rampant throughout the text. "Mandate" is used when what is described is and "objective". "Autobiography" is used where "biography" is the appropriate word. The author talks of building canoes under the Chestnut name "without impunity" when he surely means "with impunity".

The publisher, nimbus, has seriously failed the book-buying public. A major part of the publisher's role is to employ competent editors and proofreaders to correct factual errors and stylistic inadequacies to a manuscript being published. The Story of the Chestnut Canoe seems to have gone from the author to the printer with its countless flaws uncorrected. The importance of Chestnut in Canadian canoe history is immense. If this is the best account of Chestnut our writers and publishers can give us, then the story of Canadian canoe building will end up like many of the old canoe routes; obscure and only half-remembered.

-Hugh Stewart