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Rating: 
Summary: Quick Hand Me a Paddle
Review: I enjoyed this book and it is in many ways a very unusual book. It was written by Hap Wilson with the help of his wife Stephanie Aykroyd. They are experienced wilderness activists, canoe adventurers, and photographers. Hap has written other similar books and they live north of Toronto in Ontario, Canada (the province next to Manitoba) in a semi-wilderness and cottage area know as Muskoka. They are very passionate about their wilderness experiences and their various views on the environment and canoeing. I am from Manitoba originally, owned a canoe in that region, and know a little bit about the area. Having said that, this book covers some of the most remote areas of the province and the rivers - especially the most northerly - are rarely travelled by the general public. So this book is a bit of a pioneering effort and a great introduction. Some of the river trips last months.The book is a combination of personal philosophy about the use of wilderness areas, an introduction to river canoeing, river etiquette, photographs and maps. The book can be enjoyed even if you never leave home. After hearing about polar bears some will want to stay at home. Once we get passed the introduction, there is an approximate 25 page long guide to the climate, vegetation, and wildlife of Manitoba along with tips and techniques for camping and preparing for the river trips. This is mainly text and photos with a variety of hand sketches. Next they follow a formula approach where each river system is discussed and presented as a trip - which Hap and others have made - accompanied with a river guide, hand drawn sketches of the rivers down to the sub kilometre level to show rapids and boat paths through rapids, photographs, comments on rapids, portages, degree of difficulty, insects, wildlife, length, access, etc. This takes about 130 pages. They cover 11 rivers starting in the southeast with the Manigotagan that flows through a forested region and they continue northward, river after river, finally to the Caribou River that runs through northern rolling Precambrian plain to Hudson Bay. This river runs through a northerly region that has a July mean temperature hovering around just 13 C or 56 F, and is almost but not quite void of life. They go to great lengths and according to the authors it took years to produce detailed guide. They describe each river in detail, river by river, each river with comments so that one can use the book as a practical river guide - supported with additional maps. I have two minor complaints. The author likes to embellish the book with complicated words when simpler will do and because he is not John Updike it does not add to the book an some long words somehow feel out of place, i.e: "a landscape so discrete and multifarious as to beguile the senses", etc. just seems out of place when compared to the rest of the writing. My second peeve is the introduction. The author spent a lot of time and effort making the trips and doing the required research and making the maps, and detailing each river in a standardized format - all great stuff. But the introduction contains a lot of sentences and phrases that as I mentioned above seem out of place but shed little light on the subject and where the book will take us. It would be better to have a crisply written executive type summary at the start that summarizes where the book is summarized, saying for example, I travelled down the Pigeon River in 1998 in July with two other people during medium flow and warm and sunny weather. It took us 10 days. The trip down the Berens River was made a month later and took a week, etc. so we get a general feel for how long all the trips took and when and at what time of the year the trips were made. I read the book once and then found myself jumping back and forth to generate my own overview of the situation of what he did in terms of trips and dates. It is still not clear to myself. These are minor complaints but a better introduction/summary would help with simple English - constructive criticism - I hope. Otherwise this is a great book, I am glad that I purchased the book. It shows what and where a novice can do to start, and what river to take, and how to plan a trip. Also it alerted me to the fact that the authors have other similar nature books. 4 Stars. Jack in Toronto
Rating:
Summary: A Solid Effort Covering Most of The Rivers in the Region
Review: This is a river and canoeing guide written by Hap Wilson and Stephanie Aykroyd. The book covers the remote rivers in the province of Manitoba in central Canada - the Canadian province that is north of both Minnesota and North Dakota, and which extends all the way from the US border north up to the sub artic regions of Hudson Bay. Much of the northern 75% of Manitoba is remote wilderness with little or no vegetation, stunted trees and bushes, lots of rocks, rivers, lakes, summer temperatures at 20C or below, and just a small number of permanent residents who are mainly native peoples. In other words, great canoe country in the summer with lots of flies.
The book is a practical guide 158 pages long (not 168 as noted above by amazon.com) covering approximately 13 rivers or river systems from Le Petit Nord to the northerly Caribou Rivers. The origin of some of the more southerly rivers is actually in the far western section of the next province that being Ontario so that region is also covered.
This is a very personal book filled with pictures of Hap and his companion Stephanie as they undertake numerous canoeing trips. These are not one or two day trips but trips that take weeks or months and cover almost all of the remote wilderness rivers in a remote part of the continent. I am from Manitoba and am familiar with where he traveled but it was remote enough that most people including myself never visited many of these areas.
In addition to the many black and white photos and river descriptions along with maps and sketches of the rivers, the authors include detailed preparation and safety instructions, camping and living instructions, etc all to add to your safety and to make certain that you preserve the pristine wilderness areas. The actual trips are explained in detail with a series of hand sketches of each river showing the different rapids, danger spots, recommended river paths, starting points, distances, what they encountered such as wildlife, etc. The book is not a coffee table photo collection. It is a practical hands on guide for someone interested in planning a trip or for someone who wishes to get an idea of what the trip would entail.
The only negative is that the book has an amateur feel so I am only giving it 4 stars. For example, the photos are mainly of the couple and the introduction and table of contents require further editing. Sometimes the writers use overly complicated words and phrases that seem out of place in a canoeing guide and perhaps more appropriate for a John Updike novel, but overall the book is very interesting and well done for what it is intended to be, i.e.: a river guide.
I would rate it 4 stars plus and was not disappointed with the purchase. If the photography was a bit more varied and the front part a bit better organised I would rate it 5 stars. In any case it is a very unusual book, and useful guide.
Jack in Toronto
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