Bijaboji: North to Alaska by Oar

by Betty Lowman Carey, Neil G. Carey (Editor)

Betty Lowman was 22 years old in June 1937 when she climbed into her beloved red dugout canoe Bijaboji and set out on a journey from Puget Sound to Alaska. Traversing some of the most treacherous waters on earth, the journey would have been a risky act for an extreme adventurer in any era; for a young woman in the conservative 1930s, it was a venture of almost unimaginable daring. Betty pulled it off, and now, 67 years later, she accomplishes an equal feat--a book of pure adventure. Bijaboji is a classic of boating literature worthy of a place beside The Curve of Time by Muriel Wylie Blanchet, whose coastal narrative dates from the same period.

Betty slips through quiet water by moonlight, her oars dripping with phosphorescence. She goes deer hunting with a young Native man near Sechelt. She travels with a boat full of exuberant Boy Scouts for a few days and she visits lightkeepers, loggers, fishermen, doctors, missionaries and other coast dwellers who live in beautiful, isolated places and who speak openly about their lives, loves and politics. She also braves storms, rapids and blistering heat. In Douglas Channel Bijaboji capsizes and Betty loses her oars
and everything she owns, except her boat and her sleeping bag. She is trapped on a precarious rock ledge for three harrowing days until rescued by Native fishermen.

Through it all, she copes with her growing celebrity as people all along the coast watch for her, at the same time as they wait for news on the abdication of Edward VIII and on the disappearance of another female adventurer, Amelia Earhart. This is an amazing account written by a smart, strong, funny, independent woman with a glad heart and an abiding love of the BC coast.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Cgreybay · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband and I enjoyed reading this book together as we cruised some of the same places along the BC coast in our home built cruiser. Betty was truly a remarkable woman with such a spirit of adventure. The recounting of the fishing and logging camps and the people she met along the way really brought our coastal history to life.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Betty Lowman was a 22 year old Pamona College grad who decided to row her cedar canoe from Anacortes, Washington to Ketchikan, Alaska. The year is 1937. Betty was a large, one could say "powerful" young woman who could row for miles in Puget Sound and who would swim from Anacortes to Guemes Island for fun. To train for the trip she swam ten miles from Anacortes to Cypress Island with her dad, a fisherman, trailing her in a boat. I have mentioned before that I'm a sucker for nautical adventures and this is a good one. Betty's adventure changed her life and made her into a minor celebrity who would travel the country for several years telling of her adventures on the Inside Passage. It's a charming book on several levels. The 1937 mind set seems very naive from our point of view. At another level Betty's poor self-image as a full-figured gal becomes a sub-theme of the book. It's as if she is rowing the canoe to re-create herself. But she is constantly remarking on the svelte creatures who inhabit the pleasure craft she meets along the way or recounting insulting comments received at the hands of insensitive if well-meaning fishermen and loggers. Likewise her attraction to the many good looking men who populated British Columbia is hard for her to hide. (At one point in the book she mentions that she had never been kissed in the moonlight. Perhaps this explains all those cold, cold swims). Most surprising is the number of people Betty meets on the trip. Fishermen, loggers, government officials, sawmill employees, paper mill managers, light house keepers, housewives, tourists, natives, doctors. The Inside Passage was populated sparsely by today's measure but, still, Betty very often spent the night in shelter and occasionally in clean sheets. The radio (short wave) had made it known from Vancouver to Ketchikan that a young American woman, the coed canoeist, was making her way north. They looked for her; looked forward to her and offered amazing hospitality and assistance. The geography of the Inside Passage is very confusing with channels, bays, lagoons, reaches, inlets, rapids, island, narrows and passes. Betty helps by provided a decent map with each chapter marking her 66 days of progress. The tides and currents could be used to advantage and she was very lucky until she was swamped in a storm, lost all her equipment and her oars and was stranded for three days before paddling away using a piece of cedar bark. Helpful Canadians resupplied her and by the time Betty arrived in Ketchikan her life had changed.

[Sylvia Harrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up hearing about this remarkable woman and her unbelievable journey. My mother was from Anacortes, Washington the same as Betty Lowman Carey. in 1937, Miss Lowman rowed an Indian dugout canoe from Anacortes to Ketchikan, Alaska where her father was working as a fisherman. This book was written from Betty's notes and details her singular experiences with navigating and sometimes swimming in the chill, unfamiliar, foggy, and treacherous waters encountered between the Puget Sound and Alaska by herself and mostly without the use of chart or compass.

In her boat, named Bijaboji (an acronym for her brother's names, Bill, Jack, Bob, and Jim) she put in at various fishing villages and interacted with interesting characters along the way, winning the esteem and admiration hardened fishermen and knowledgeable native peoples along the way. News of the girl in the little red canoe preceded her so that people would call out to her along the way or as she entered a new port or fish village for the night. She was showered with hospitality at each stop along the way and as a solitary female traveler almost never encountered the kinds of sexual predators that seem to be almost everywhere today. In this way, the book tells us about the differences between the culture of the 1930's and that of the new millennium.

This was a can't-put-down book for me. Betty Lowman is in some of my mother's photos from the 1940's. She was celebrated in life and continues to be honored today for her courage and verve.

[Jim Corson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sixty-five years after Betty Lowman oared up the Inland Passage I did the Passage by kayak. It was almost like two different worlds that we experience. Betty virtually went from logging camps, Fisheries and small communities to stay as she went up the passage. When I went it was virtually all gone. Canneries, small communities, logging camps closed. It was very interesting to read her experiences and compare them with my own.

[Lisa Keuss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads like a ship’s log; and the people and places begin to blend after a while. But despite Lowman’s matter-of-fact writing style, and her ability to be unfazed by most anything, the story still conveys that this was no small feat.

[Mabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️. Row, eat sleep, eat, row, repeat. An amazing feat, though, for a woman in the 1930’s without all of today’s conveniences of an already challenging journey. An interesting perspective into the harsh life of all the coastline villages Betty Lowman Carey visited.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is a good book for getting an overall feel of the people and places of the PNW in the 1930s
Readers who are expecting a bunch of hair raising or interesting Inside Passage adventure might want to read something else.
Betty was quite daring and admirable in the undertaking of this voyage but the reality is that she spent far more time hitching long rides on power boats, getting rescued and sleeping in hotel rooms, comfy homes and shacks along the way to Alaska and eating huge meals as a house/boat/lighthouse guest than actually roughing it in the wilderness. At least these are the things she chose to write about. I found myself skimming the pages and pages of rapid fire desriptions of the different people who fed her meals and rescued her along the way.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Well written and it was a fascinating story of life on the coast in the 30’s. The logging and gushing industries were booming and here is a young woman in her early twenties rowing her canoe up the coast and anything could have happened.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an incredible experience! Betty graduated from college and then rowed a dugout canoe to Ketchikan, AK from Anacortes , WA. She meets incredible people along her 67 day journey. Betty kept a detailed journal which she shared with her readers taking them along. It was a great read.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was written by a friend of my grandmother's and it was so cool to read it alongside photographs of them together and know many of the areas she was talking about.

[Jo Glim · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bijaboji: North to Alaska by Oar" will always have a special place in my heart for two reasons: 1) It was written by Betty Lowman Carey, the aunt of my grade school classmate, Claudia Lowman and 2) Carey's family and trip began in my hometown. Being raised in the Pacific Northwest, I found it easy to identify with the ruggedly beautiful terrain and knew how teeth-chattering cold the weather and water could be.

What Carey accomplished by oaring from Anacortes, Washington to Ketchikan, Alaska through Puget Sound and the Inside Passage in two months in a fourteen foot Indian dugout canoe is just this side of miraculous, especially for a twenty-two-year-old, single woman in the late 1930s. The book is written in journal form but I found it held my interest from beginning to end.

I love reading true stories . . . you just can't make this stuff up!

[Joe White]

This was an interesting expeditionary trip that varies from the contemporary ocean rows which are more prevalent today. There was more emphasis on just going along to see what was ahead, and meeting local people for support along the way. This also varies from contemporary trips which seem to be focused on time deadlines, extensive provisioning, and usually have to deal with adverse government regulations for small boat travel. It also cost lot's more today to travel light like this.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, this lady had guts! I plan to make this voyage, perhaps some of it next summer, BUT in a 45-foot motor vessel. I enjoyed this boat more, having SEEN Bijaboji in a very small museum in Anacortes, WA (NOT where the book says it is). Betty studied journalism, so her book was a lot more readable than other 'personal history' stories I have read recently.

[Anita Norman · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great story by an inspiring, courageous woman. The absolute best part of it was 'Hi Daddy'. It is definitely worth reading. You will feel her joys, frustrations, moments of awe, and moments of terror as if you were right there on the journey with her. At the same time, it is an historical account of life on the coast from almost 80 years ago. Fantastic read!

[Ted Dunham · Rating 5 out of 5]

tis a great book about a young girl who rows to alaska from anacortes pretty much on her own in the 1930's and she is still alive and kicking!

[Toesnorth's mom]

good! true story