Watertrail: The Hidden Path Through Puget Sound. This item is unavailable.Watertrail: The Hidden Path Through Puget Sound

Following the Cascadia Marine Trail--the first nationally designated saltwater trail, stretching from south Puget Sound to Canada--Rogers sets off on a 360-mile paddle to investigate how nature and habitat coexist with industrial growth, how Puget Sound has changed in the last 50 years, and how he will survive one month in his kayak. 80 color photos.

Joel Rogers's beautifully photographed Watertrail chronicles his 26-day, 440-mile sea kayak exploration of the Cascadia Marine Trail, the pristine water-bound route through Washington State's Puget Sound and San Juan Islands. Rogers closely scrutinizes the waterway, which is as much a Northwest icon as the apple or evergreen, investigating the relationship between ecosystem and industrial growth. But Watertrail is much more than an environmental impact study: the photographer-author embraces the region's diversity, paddling with orcas and oil tankers and camping beneath coastal old growth, all the while capturing the sights with vibrant photographs. Following the equipment-laden "Boato" in the wake of passenger ferries and factory trawlers, we learn about early settlement, tidal incongruities, and the nutrient-rich Puget Sound waters. Rogers also rubs elbows with locals who inhabit the Puget Sound coastline: he celebrates the Fourth of July in Port Townsend, a salty town filled with utopians, iconoclasts, poets, and eccentrics, an eclectic mix who are bound by their love of water. Throughout the journey, Rogers' thoughtful prose and intimate images convey his passion for kayaking and a strong sense of place. --Rob McDonald