Paddlenorth
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: March 16, 2017 3:09 PM | Last Updated: May 9, 2017
Jennifer Kingsley
Paddlenorth tells the riveting story of Jennifer Kingsley's 54 day paddling adventure on the Back River, in the northern wilderness of the subarctic, as she and her five companions battle raging winds, impenetrable sea ice, and treacherous rapids. The perils include rising tensions among the group, but these are tempered by grizzly sightings, icy swims, and the caribou's summer migration.
Woven through this spellbinding narrative are the harrowing accounts of earlier explorers, some of whom perished, but whose traces along the river warn us against romantic notions of the wild. Paddlenorth paints an indelible portrait of the spectacular northern landscape and eloquently explores what wilderness means to us. (From Greystone Books)
From the book
Finding those animals was a dream come true for me, and it was tempting to imagine a deeper meaning. I had prayed for a caribou to cross my path until I saw how that desire was holding me back from appreciating the rest of the journey. So I let it go, which I hated doing, and then they appeared. It sounds like a lesson from a book of daily meditations — let go and your deepest desires will come true — but it isn't. The tundra cuts a person down to size, disabusing us of new age notions that we are the center of it all. That alone is a good reason to go there.
From Paddlenorth by Jennifer Kingsley ©2014. Published by Greystone Books.