Threading the Currents : A Paddler's Passion For Water

An account of the author's different canoe trips--ranging from afternoon jaunts to year-long excursions--shows how these experiences have shaped his life

Kesselheim, a canoeist and a columnist for Big Sky Journal, proves himself an insightful guide to the theme of wilderness and water in this engaging collection of personal essays. Kesselheim finds many subjects within his overarching theme: a meditation on thirst; a hilarious account of losing his clothes after a capsize; a terrifying encounter with hypothermia on a lake in northern Canada. He balances personal musings with thoughts on geology, water dynamics, anthropology, ecological change and human history, and he reveals how experiences with wilderness have shaped his attitudes toward himself and his loved ones. Especially interesting are his thoughts on "wintering over," the nine-month period he spent on Canada's Lake Athabasca in near-hibernation with his wife-to-be as they waited for the ice to clear during their 14-month cross-continent canoe journey. Also fascinating is Kesselheim's essay on flooding on the Yellowstone River: "A flood only makes blatant what is usually subtle," he writes, that a "river is a dynamic, fussy power, forever shifting, nibbling at banks, moving rock... seeking an elusive equilibrium." By the book's end, Kesselheim writes wryly of the joys and frustrations of paddling with three preschoolers or of finding wilderness within the confines of civilization. Neither strident nor romanticized, his essays speak honestly about the challenges, exhilarations and acceptance to be found in encounters with the wild. Illustrations. Agent, Jeanne Hanson.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Kesselheim, an avid canoeist whose other books include Silhouette on a Wide Land (Fulcrum, 1992) and Water and Sky (LJ 8/89), has assembled a collection of articles previously written for outdoor magazines including Backpacker, Canoe, and Sports Afield. His adventures begin with his first exposure to fast-running rivers and the nearly disastrous capsize of his brother's canoe in a cold northern lake. There are amusing stories of losing his clothes in a capsize and hitchhiking back to his car in the buff and a more harrowing description of his killing a bear that had stalked him and his wife for more than a mile. Most of his travels are in northern Canada, where he and his wife spent two long winters in a small, isolated cabin. During the second winter, his wife became pregnant, but they had to wait months for the spring thaw before they could paddle back to civilization. Later, Kesselheim took his young children canoeing, strapping them to the canoe like babies in car seats. Good adventure reading for public libraries.?John Kenny, San Francisco P.L.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.