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Moving Waters: Adventures on Northern Rivers
Moving Waters presents a collection of essays and photos from his canoeing adventures in Canada and Alaska. Sams trips include canoe travel on the Bloodvein, Tana, Winisk, Gods, Seal, Mountain, Pipestone, Nigu, and Pukaskwa Rivers. This book is a great read for the hard-core paddler and the armchair traveler too.
- GenresNature
130 pages, Hardcover
First published February 15, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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July 23, 2007I don't think it would be appropriate for me to review this book, since it was written by a co-worker.
I'll just say that if you like to experience adventures vicariously, this is a good book for you.
Sam has an uncanny ability to be miserably cold (or hot), wet through and through, eaten alive by biting flies, barely surviving a precarious paddle through pounding waves, living on the last of trail mix while waiting for a bush plane that doesn't show up -- while appearing to be having the time of his life.
He's like that in the office, too.
Also, with this book you get a cute picture of Sam when he was 15.
I'll just say that if you like to experience adventures vicariously, this is a good book for you.
Sam has an uncanny ability to be miserably cold (or hot), wet through and through, eaten alive by biting flies, barely surviving a precarious paddle through pounding waves, living on the last of trail mix while waiting for a bush plane that doesn't show up -- while appearing to be having the time of his life.
He's like that in the office, too.
Also, with this book you get a cute picture of Sam when he was 15.
March 18, 2009
More a collection of short recollections from a variety of trips he's done. An excellent read, though, and makes me want to get on that father/daughter/daughter BWCA trip we've been planning.
March 28, 2020
I had high hopes.
Pretty much sum it up like this: I like to canoe, I’ve canoed many rivers in the north, I saw lots of cool things that would really add to/make a good story but I’m only going to mention them in passing.
These stories had so much more to offer.
Pretty much sum it up like this: I like to canoe, I’ve canoed many rivers in the north, I saw lots of cool things that would really add to/make a good story but I’m only going to mention them in passing.
These stories had so much more to offer.
January 3, 2025
A series of vignettes of canoeing in Canada and Alaska. The prose is superior to the narrative; Cook relates the feeling of being there and his love of paddling, but not the story of the experience. An excellent "pick up and put down" read for paddlers.
February 15, 2016
Exceptionally well written and infinitely readable.
My history - I've had a few sea kayaking experiences, always in fear of worse case scenarios. I've never in my life been in a canoe. I've taken exactly one raft trip, a mild autumn (when flow is slow) ride on the Rio Grande south of Taos, New Mexico; and, I hated every minute of it. My mother put me in swimming lessons when I was nine (much too late), I cried during and after the first class and never went back. Finally when I was in college and had to either pass a test or take a class I learned the basics. My favorite water activity is soaking in a hot bubble bath. Even though I go to a water exercise class three times a week I'm still uncomfortable in most water situations.
When we travel my souvenirs include purchased books. National Park book stores are pure delight. Selected reads may be about natural features of the area, historic fiction or personal accounts, or first-person experiences. Sometimes I don't get to my purchases until years later but always when I do read them I'm transported back to my own experiences and impressions of my visit to the area.
Last fall while making a circle trip around Lake Superior I purchased Moving Waters in the Voyagers National Park visitor center. On this February Sunday I pick up Sam Cook's book of articles and essays based on 20 years of paddling Northern waters of the US and Canada. A valentine gift to myself. The accounts are supplemented with 30 pages of color photos.
Cook's descriptive accounts not only put the reader into the geographic scene but shares the thoughts and reactions of those facing each situation.
While I'll never recreate any of these adventures nor even be able to visit these remote areas my knowledge and appreciation these Northern rivers. My immediate reactions to finishing this book was to search for a list of Cook's other books and their availabilities. Readings to look forward to.
My history - I've had a few sea kayaking experiences, always in fear of worse case scenarios. I've never in my life been in a canoe. I've taken exactly one raft trip, a mild autumn (when flow is slow) ride on the Rio Grande south of Taos, New Mexico; and, I hated every minute of it. My mother put me in swimming lessons when I was nine (much too late), I cried during and after the first class and never went back. Finally when I was in college and had to either pass a test or take a class I learned the basics. My favorite water activity is soaking in a hot bubble bath. Even though I go to a water exercise class three times a week I'm still uncomfortable in most water situations.
When we travel my souvenirs include purchased books. National Park book stores are pure delight. Selected reads may be about natural features of the area, historic fiction or personal accounts, or first-person experiences. Sometimes I don't get to my purchases until years later but always when I do read them I'm transported back to my own experiences and impressions of my visit to the area.
Last fall while making a circle trip around Lake Superior I purchased Moving Waters in the Voyagers National Park visitor center. On this February Sunday I pick up Sam Cook's book of articles and essays based on 20 years of paddling Northern waters of the US and Canada. A valentine gift to myself. The accounts are supplemented with 30 pages of color photos.
Cook's descriptive accounts not only put the reader into the geographic scene but shares the thoughts and reactions of those facing each situation.
While I'll never recreate any of these adventures nor even be able to visit these remote areas my knowledge and appreciation these Northern rivers. My immediate reactions to finishing this book was to search for a list of Cook's other books and their availabilities. Readings to look forward to.
January 2, 2016
Moving Waters: Adventures on Northern Rivers, 2007. I enjoyed reading this book, which includes a good number of photographs from Sam Cook’s river trips over the past 25 years. If I were a whitewater canoeist or rafter, it would have been even better, but just by reading I learned more of those crafts. What I most enjoyed were the descriptions of the rivers and the landscapes themselves, along with their inhabitants, from the northern shores of Lake Superior at Pukaskwa National Park, to the great MacKenzie River in northern Canada, and the Nigu in Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle (where most years it snows at least once every month of the year).
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews