Description
Book SynopsisThe Columbia and its tributaries are rivers of conflict. Mike Barenti entered the heart of this conflict when he slid a whitewater kayak into the headwaters of central Idaho's Salmon River and started paddling toward the Pacific Ocean. This is a narrative of man and nature, one-on-one, but also of man and nature writ large.
Trade Review“A fresh look at a river system critical to our history and our future. . . . This is a good book about paddling, and an even better book about the salmon, science and politics up the Columbia.”—
The Spokesman-Review"Part travelogue, part history lesson, part ecological meditation,
Kayaking Alone is the product of a tough but revealing trip."—
Idaho Arts Quarterly“This book flows from cover to cover like the rivers traveled within its pages, and the story is never the same for long. Barenti takes readers on a ride deep into the personality of the West, shedding light on the culture of the region every time he eddies out.”—Sam Weiss,
Paddling Life“
Kayaking Alone provides much more than a chronicle of one man’s quest to find adventure on a great river system…Barenti weaves conversations with the people he meets, farmers, ranchers, river guides, fisheries biologists, native peoples and dam workers, into a narrative revealing the complex interaction among the economy, the environment and the lives of the inhabitants of the lower Snake and Columbia River.”—Stan Miller, OutthereMonthly.com
“This book is a good combination of paddling, river history, and the plight of the salmon on the river of the same name.”—
Cascade Currents"
Kayaking Alone turns out to be a meditation on salmon, on western rivers, and on American relations to the natural world. The prose is direct and provoking, and the book's pace moves as smartly as any healthy current—delivering us from landmark to new vista to conclusions with steady force."—Jeffrey McCarthy,
Western American LiteratureTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
Map
1. Sunbeam
2. Where the Marlboro Man Might Settle
3. Henry Clay Merritt, on His 158th Birthday
4. Into the Wilderness
5. Watching Fish in Riggins
6. Dragonflies and the Plant Migration
7. Into the Breach
8. Locking through with Smolt
9. River of Empire
10. The Swallowing Monster and the Pictograph Island
11. Watching Fish at Bonneville Dam
12. Used Up by the Wind
13. Looking Back at Cape Disappointment
Selected Sources
