Rating: 
Summary: Thanks for sharing the journey - Great book.
Review: I've read many journey tales over the years, perhaps spurred on by my reading Marco Polo and trips to Venice and across Turkey while in the Army. Having just completed law school and returned home to start a career, I wanted some information about kayaking to inform a trip I wanted to take down the Des Moines river from the source in Minnesota to the confluence with the Mississippi. Byron Rick's book pleasantly surprised me, because it was exactly the kind of adventure I was looking for and I can so clearly understand where he is coming from at this life stage. Since my wife and I are also preparing to purchase our first home and raise a family, the book was all the more enjoyable. The history of the people and development along the Inside Passage is well researched and adds a great deal of context to our understanding of the trip, while the language used to describe the sights along the way clearly conveys the sense of awe and wonder Byron and Maren experienced.
Rating:
Summary: A clear-eyed, thoughtful, and lyrical adventure book.
Review: Ricks is a fine writer. The journey unfolds a day at a time, and for reasons which become obvious, he does not provide a lot of technical paddling instruction, maps, or 'broken stove" anecdotes. Homelands is an 'inside passage,' a journey of the mind through a landscape with a profound spiritual history. The relics and totems of European and American explorers and enterpreneurs are just as present as those of the First Nations peoples; Ricks sees the trees, the forest, the clear cuts, the log rafts, and the tides and currents as part of a personal and historical journey. It's a literate book and can be enjoyed by those who do not paddle. Readers are invited to go with the flow of the book, its weather days and paddling days, and to reflect on their own purposes in being outdoors, or on personal journeys. It is written with an authentic modesty about the considerable accomplishment of the journey, and has a moving ending, much more about the relationships one makes in one's life than about 'getting somewhere.'
Rating:
Summary: A clear-eyed, thoughtful, and lyrical adventure book.
Review: Ricks is a fine writer. The journey unfolds a day at a time, and for reasons which become obvious, he does not provide a lot of technical paddling instruction, maps, or 'broken stove" anecdotes. Homelands is an 'inside passage,' a journey of the mind through a landscape with a profound spiritual history. The relics and totems of European and American explorers and enterpreneurs are just as present as those of the First Nations peoples; Ricks sees the trees, the forest, the clear cuts, the log rafts, and the tides and currents as part of a personal and historical journey. It's a literate book and can be enjoyed by those who do not paddle. Readers are invited to go with the flow of the book, its weather days and paddling days, and to reflect on their own purposes in being outdoors, or on personal journeys. It is written with an authentic modesty about the considerable accomplishment of the journey, and has a moving ending, much more about the relationships one makes in one's life than about 'getting somewhere.'
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful insight into the lives of Northwest Native peoples
Review: Superbly written book
Rating:
Summary: The essence of sea kayaking.
Review: There are many "how to books" on all aspects of sea kayaking. Byron's book captures the why of this mode of travel. To me it did not matter where the paddle took place but that it re-activated the feelings, the fears, the frustrations, the joy of travels by kayak in wild, almost unpopulated areas. Of walking beaches without human foot print and living day by day with the weather & tides; of seeing how little one needs to live. It is the connection with the past and what has been lost. It is this essence that I hold to and try to take with me in my "real" life.
Rating: 
Summary: A well-written book, but deficient in kayaking content.
Review: This book is well written and interesting to read, but for a book claiming to be about "Kayaking the Inside Passage" there is remarkably little content on kayaking, camping and equipment (a complaint of other reviewers as well). The book instead emphasizes people, places and cultures, with plenty of politically-correct, ecologically-aware discourse on resource exploitation, which will no doubt resonate with the masses, but I found to be shallow and tiresome. The author appears to divide the frontier culture that he encounters into two camps. The bad guys are the resource exploiters (timber, mining, fishing), rich people in waterfront homes and the cruise ships. The good guys are Indians, biologists, whale researchers, people in non-motorized boats (kayaks are OK as long as they're not newbees) and homesteaders. Byron and Maren only seem to meet and associate with the "good guys" on their trip. No attempt appears to have been made to get to know and understand the "bad guys". I expected a great deal more sophistication in his discussions of development issues. I certainly share many of the authors concerns about loss of wilderness along the inside passage, and have been appalled by clear cutting and other threats to my wilderness playground, but such selfish notions must be balanced against the survival and welfare of people in rural communities.
Rating:
Summary: A well-written book, but deficient in kayaking content.
Review: This book is well written and interesting to read, but for a book claiming to be about "Kayaking the Inside Passage" there is remarkably little content on kayaking, camping and equipment (a complaint of other reviewers as well). The book instead emphasizes people, places and cultures, with plenty of politically-correct, ecologically-aware discourse on resource exploitation, which will no doubt resonate with the masses, but I found to be shallow and tiresome. The author appears to divide the frontier culture that he encounters into two camps. The bad guys are the resource exploiters (timber, mining, fishing), rich people in waterfront homes and the cruise ships. The good guys are Indians, biologists, whale researchers, people in non-motorized boats (kayaks are OK as long as they're not newbees) and homesteaders. Byron and Maren only seem to meet and associate with the "good guys" on their trip. No attempt appears to have been made to get to know and understand the "bad guys". I expected a great deal more sophistication in his discussions of development issues. I certainly share many of the authors concerns about loss of wilderness along the inside passage, and have been appalled by clear cutting and other threats to my wilderness playground, but such selfish notions must be balanced against the survival and welfare of people in rural communities.
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