Voyage of a Summer Sun: Canoeing the Columbia River (Northwest Reprints) - Softcover

Cody, Robin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0870716611 ISBN 13: 9780870716614

Publisher: Oregon State University Press, 2012

Synopsis

“The story is the Columbia River, not the canoe and me, but I’ve learned that friends can’t hear me tell about the river until they know why I was out there. This is not an adventure story, though some adventure was unavoidable, and I didn’t set out to find myself if I could help it. Nor did I launch the trip with a large point to prove. It was a voyage of discovery, and its telling is the uncovering of surprise on a river I thought I knew...” —Robin Cody, from the prologue

On a June morning in 1990, high up in the Canadian Rockies, Robin Cody pushed his sixteen-foot Kevlar canoe through tall grass and mud to launch it on peaceful Columbia Lake, the nominal source of the river that heaves more water into the Pacific ocean than any other in North or South America. For the next eighty-two days, Cody would portage massive dams and revel in the rapids as the great river plunges 2,700 feet in 1,200 miles before reaching the river’s mouth in Astoria.

Cody’s canoe sneaks up on the bear and moose and raptors and beavers who make a living on the Columbia. He drops in on riverpeople: the trapper, the wind surfer, the archeologist, the lock operator, the native woman who grew up at riverside in a dwelling of tule reeds. With a generous and infectious spirit, Cody draws us into the mysteries of a much-altered and regulated river that is still, at heart, a life-giving place.

This first OSU Press edition of Voyage of a Summer Sun—winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award and the Oregon Book Award, and an Oregon State Library choice for “150 Books for the Oregon Sesquicentennial”—includes a new afterword by the author.

About this title

Review:

The beautiful Columbia River can be wild and unpredictable, which means it's perfect for an epic North American canoe adventure. From Columbia Lake (its source in the Canadian Rockies) all 1,200 miles to the Pacific Ocean, Robin Cody finally takes the 82-day trip that started with an idle but persistent thought: "a guy could probably canoe it." And Cody has all that's required (love of river, canoeing know-how, writing ease, and self-effacing humor) to take the trip and tell the tale.

About the Author:

Oregon native Robin Cody is the author of Ricochet River, which also appears on the Oregon State Library’s “150 Oregon Books for the Oregon Sesquicentennial” list, and Another Way the River Has. He lives in Portland.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oregon State University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0870716611
• ISBN 13: 9780870716614
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 308