Kayaking Alone: Nine Hundred Miles from Idaho's Mountains to the Pacific Ocean (Outdoor Lives) (Hardcover)

by Mike Barenti (Author)
Key Phrases: watching fish, pictograph island, bivy sack, Salmon River, Bonneville Dam, Snake River (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A fresh look at a river system critical to our history and our future. . . . This is a good book about paddling, and an even better book about the salmon, science and politics up the Columbia."-The Spokesman-Review (Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review 20070516)

"Barenti takes readers on a simultaneously adventurous and sobering ride, starting at the headwaters of central Idaho''s Salmon River and journeying toward the Pacific Ocean. . . . Through his journal the ecology, history, and policies of Pacific salmon unfold in fascinating detail, and with this first-hand knowledge and experience, the reader gains a new and personal sense of the nature that unites and divides us."-Journal of the American Water Resources Association (Journal of the American Water Resources Association 20070516)

"Part travelogue, part history lesson, part ecological meditation, Kayaking Alone is the product of a tough but revealing trip."-Idaho Arts Quarterly (Idaho Arts Quarterly 20070516)

"Mike Barenti's heartfelt chronicle of the culture and politics of salmon rivers is both a splendid adventure yarn and a provocative inquiry into the American conscience."-Paul Schullery, author of Searching for Yellowstone (Paul Schullery )

"Mike Barenti's book is a good addition to Columbia River literature. Kayaking Alone is a travelogue, a wilderness adventure, an environmental history, and the story of the hopes and fears of the people whose lives are anchored in the river's changing currents. But most of all it's a personal quest to understand this wonderful gift we call the Columbia River."-Jim Lichatowich, fisheries biologist and author of Salmon Without Rivers (Jim Lichatowich )

"Mike Barenti's Kayaking Alone carried me like a river, but this is no passive traveler's tale. Barenti's knowledge of the Northwest makes this journey as intellectually engaging and rewarding as it is physically adventurous. In taking you down the river, this beautiful book takes you deep into narratives of humanity and nature-and reminds you that they flow as one story."-Jonathan Johnson, author of Hannah and the Mountain (Jonathan Johnson )

Product Description

The Columbia and its tributaries are rivers of conflict. Amid pitched battles over the economy, the environment, and breaching dams on the lower Snake River, the salmon that have always quickened these rivers are disappearing. On a warm day in late May, Mike Barenti entered the heart of this conflict when he slid a whitewater kayak into the headwaters of central Idaho’s Salmon River and started paddling toward the Pacific Ocean. This account of his two-month, nine-hundred-mile solo journey into the world of the Columbia Basin plunges us into the adventure of navigating these troubled waterways. Kayaking Alone is a narrative of man and nature, one-on-one, but also of man and nature writ large. In the stories of the river guides and rangers, biologists and ranchers, American Indians and dam workers he meets along the way, the rich and complicated life of the river emerges in a striking, often painfully clear panorama. Through his journey, the ecology, history, and politics of Pacific salmon unfold in fascinating detail, and with this firsthand knowledge and experience the reader gains a new and personal sense of the nature that unites and divides us.

(20080801)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (March 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803213824
• ISBN-13: 978-0803213821
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #946,696 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent reading but I did skip over parts., June 30, 2008

By	Andrew Cole - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I enjoyed the storyline related to the actual kayaking ie what he experienced but the filler related to history and conflict surrounding salmon is quite exhausting.