Homelands: Kayaking the Inside Passage

by Byron Ricks

Describes one couple's five-month journey by kayak from Alaska's Glacier Bay to the Puget Sound, chronicling the remarkable beauty and wonders of a fragile wilderness and their encounters with the wildlife and human inhabitants of an endangered world. Original.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1999

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Homelands is the true story of a kayaking journey down the Inland Passage from Glacier Bay, Alaska to the Nisqually Delta near Puget Sound. It takes five months for Byron Ricks & his wife Maren to travel this distance and along the way they pass through the homelands of five different native people groups. It's not long before they realize that their passage is simply one of thousands made over time. Camping every night on remote beaches, islets or marshes, Byron & Maren often find evidence of old villages, fish traps, and trading posts. In addition to great evocation of the history of the area, it takes a great deal of skill to be able to describe water, weather, islands and nature daily for five months in a way to make them interesting and Byron does.

[Tommy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed account of an amazing kayak trip from Glacier Bay in Alaska to Washington State.

The author does a great job sharing the people and places that he and his wife met and explored during their months long journey. I found myself looking up these places on Google Maps as they went, but a simple map in the book would have been easier.

I understand that they lived and breathed by the tide schedules, but the book drones on a bit in references to daily tidal activity. It’s the other aspects of this book that make it interesting, like finding wolf pups in camp one morning or camping near a glacier.

He does blend some historical narratives into the book which is nice as well. More information in that regard would have been better.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is like a journal of a kayak trip from Alaska to Puget Sound. It really started slow, although it did get better.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Homelands is a lovely read, a travelogue of two people who kayaked the Inside Passage, 1000 miles on the water. Non-kayakers may find it slow in places, and repetitive in others, but I think it's a pleasant book for leisurely consumption, especially on hot summer evenings.

[Pancho · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an avid kayaker I thoroughly enjoyed this journey through the inside passage along the northern pacific coast. Easy to daydream about the beauty of the landscape. I would have appreciated maps and pictures.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The glimpses of life in rural communities were the best parts - I didn't find the description of the journey very compelling.

[Clivemichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful descriptions