The Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska [Hardcover]

Kim Heacox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2005

Finalist for the 2006 Pen Center USA Western award in creative nonfiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Writer and photographer Heacox delivers a genuine, deeply moving account of the past 25 years he has spent living in Glacier Bay, Alaska, "the last wild shore, nine hundred miles north of Seattle and nine hundred years in the past." This work's title comes from the first kayaking trip Heacox took there in 1979. As he explored the bay with a friend, they found themselves the sole kayak in that body of water, "alone, and escaped, left to wonder how long it could last, this wildness and grace." Heacox's ability to use this tension—between the beauty of the Alaskan wilderness and the creeping encroachment of modern life—is the thread that unites his varied observations, and it's what gives the book its uniqueness and keeps it from being another pale imitation of Coming into the Country, John McPhee's late-1970s classic on Alaska. Heacox (An American Idea; Shackleton; etc.)deftly renders highly personal accounts of life with his wife and constant companion—especially a horrific account of her near-death from hypothermia in a winter storm—and the development of his friendship with Michio Hoshino, who became a famed photographer of bears before an untimely death. He also offers a fascinating look at his own development as a conservationist. The combination of these various elements makes for a charming reverie on Alaska's past and a thoughtful look at its future. Map. (May)
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From Booklist

One hundred years after naturalist John Muir made his first trip to Alaska, National Park Service employee Heacox is paddling the waters of Glacier Bay with Richard Steele, a fellow summer recruit. The year is 1979, and their goal is to visit untrammeled wilderness, and to be the only kayak in the bay. Although some 25 years have passed since that summer, Heacox is still enamored of Alaska, and the valuable friendships he made there. He is an intrepid spirit well suited to Alaskan life, and has little patience for those who don't meet his standards. "Make access easy, and a place dies," is his motto, and therein lies the paradox that Heacox tries to resolve in this book. He knows that cruise ships are damaging to the bay's ecosystem, for example, yet he also realizes that it would be nearly impossible for the elderly visitors to enjoy the coastline by kayak as he does. As he wrestles with such conundrums, Heacox creates a nicely balanced environmental portrait of Alaska's ice-cut coast. Rebecca Maksel
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press (May 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592287158
• ISBN-13: 978-1592287154
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,563,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars from Alaska, November 4, 2005

By 

Nick Jans (Juneau, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska (Hardcover)

Kim Heacox has outdone himself. This book is funny, sad, erudite, and beautifully written, and an important contribution to Alaska literature. It's a rarity--a book that manages to convey an important environmental message without sliding into self-absorbed intellectualism. Heacox does it all this time around. His voice is relaxed and the prose beautifuly crafted, and the landscape of Glacier Bay, present and past, lives and breathes around the reader. There's plenty of food for thought about the effects of industrial tourism, but Heacox manages not to preach--at least, not any more than he (as an insider who knows and loves Glacier Bay) should. As a student of Alaska literature and a professional writer, I'm grateful for this book.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Poetry, A Profound and Masterful Work, September 5, 2005

By 

David Finkelstein (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska (Hardcover)

I've followed the fascinating career of writer/photographer/wildlife biologist, conservationist/raconteur/guitarist/singer/teacher/humanist Kim Heacox for several decades now, and I've been as enchanted by the force of his personality as I have been moved by his artistic achievement, astonished at the depth of his knowledge, and informed by his profound ability and desire to communicate what he himself has assimilated in the course of his extraordinary life. I've marveled at what he's written in the past--his brilliant non-fiction works include Alaska Light, In Denali, etc., etc.--and by the photographic vision exhibited in those books as well, but I was positively swept off my feet by The Only Kayak. His latest book, a memoir of sorts, is a literary masterpiece with messages and lessons for all of us, and in addition to the wonderful humor that pervades its pages, it reads as poetically and as poignantly as the the fictional works of the great novelist, Wallace Stegner. Read it, it's a marvelous book.

Dave Finkelstein (Author--Greater Nowheres: Wanderings Across the Outback)
New York City

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everybody should read this book!, July 12, 2005

By 

J. Yu "The Dreamer" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska (Hardcover)

This book is about Kim Heacox's love for Alaska Glacier Bay and the people living there. His love affair with the Glacier starts with his kayaking trip with his friend Richard, later with his wife Melanie and lifelong friend Michio. From his book, I see great beauty in glaciers in Alaska, so majestic and beautiful, you hope it will preserved for generations to come. Kim reminds us that it takes great restrain to leave a place such beautiful untouched and admired from afar.

His lifelong friendships with Michio, Richard and Hank are what most people are searching for most of their lifes in vain. Their friendships are like the glaciers, retreating and advancing. Friends going in their seperate path, yet they meet and have sense of closeness that feel like they never seperated.

Reading Kim's book makes me feel like I have kayaked into Alaska Glacier, photographed with Michio, fighted to keep Alaska a wilderness refuge.

This book is philosophical, beautiful and great read for anyone who believes in conserving, preserving the beauty in wilderness. And I believe everybody should.