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Old 03-06-2018, 11:02 PM   #1
JPTolson
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Default "Reading" the River

While waiting for this year’s trip schedule to begin, I thought it might be interesting to ask if anyone has read any river and/or paddling books recently and whether they care to share a summary of them. I’ve read a couple and am in the middle of a third.

First was Dangerous River, Adventure on the Nahanni by R.M. Patterson. This is about the author’s intrepid exploration of the Nahanni River in Canada’s Northwest Territory in the late 1920s. Not so much of a paddling book, it recounts his experience going up and down the Nahanni and Liard rivers by canoe when the few other humans in this large expanse of wilderness were trappers or gold seekers. Among the hardships encountered by Patterson and/or his associates were minus 60 degree F temperatures and a fall through the ice at zero degrees while overwintering along the river in a cabin. For the first third to half of the book, the writing style can be a little tedious and hard to follow due to lack of a detailed map, but after that it picks up.

Next was Courting the Diamond Sow by Wickliffe Walker. This is an account of the ill-fated 1998 kayak expedition to Tibet’s Tsangpo River, the Mount Everest of whitewater, in an effort to be the first to paddle through its 16,000 feet deep gorge! Much of the book is devoted to preparing for the adventure, historical accounts of earlier explorers, and traversing the landscape to arrive at destinations along the river. The pace quickens and tension builds reading about the river’s huge volume of water and enormous whitewater features and the painstaking scouting necessary to navigate the Tsangpo. According to the author, the Diamond Sow is a creature of Buddhist mythology that represents the fantastic landscape of this region.

Finally, Far Appalachia, Following the New River North by National Public Radio’s Noah Adams reads like a travelog as the author winds his way from the river’s North Carolina headwaters through Virginia and West Virginia during 1997. He stops at small towns, natural features, and events along the way (like the Galax Bluegrass Festival) and even paddled a stretch of the upper New. I expect he will also sample the whitewater of the New River Gorge. All in all, this is a very pleasant read thus far.

Last edited by JPTolson; 04-02-2018 at 07:47 PM.
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