Product Description

"Alan Kesselheim is a master of the paddle and the pen...This [is] the best of Kesselheim: wit, wilderness savvy, and a boat-full of sound advice." - Larry Rice, editor, "Canoe & Kayak Welcome to simplicity". You are holding the only wilderness paddling guide that tells you not just what gear you need, but what to leave behind and how to judge the difference. Welcome to discovery. This guide equips you to design and plan your own expedition instead of slavishly following a trip mapped by an "expert."Welcome to experience. Any good book can outline the requisite skills for backcountry paddling. This one also shows by example when and why to use them. Here are the keys to canoe tripping, whether for expeditions of one to one hundred days. Alan Kesselheim is both a master paddler - with 25 years and more than 10,000 miles of wilderness paddling behind him - and a writer of uncommon grace and skill. He has created here a book of concentrated wisdom that is so pleasurable to read you may scarcely realize how much you're learning."The Wilderness Paddler's Handbook" packages rich nuggets of experience in stories that entertain while they instruct. Most how-to books are written either to grow into or to outgrow. Not this one. You can start with "The Wilderness Paddler's Handbook", and you can keep going. You can paddle right off the map". "Alan Kesselheim's mix of paddling experiences and superb writing skills make him ideally suited to dispense this highly personal and entertaining look at the how-tos of canoe tripping." - Michael Peake, editor, "Che-Mun: The Journal of Canadian Wilderness Canoeing". "Alan Kesselheim is a first-rate writer who flat out knows what he's talking about. This is a book that will enrich your days on the water." - Jerry Dennis, author of "From a Wooden Canoe"."As an explorer whose heart is ever lost to the next river bend, Kesselheim inspires canoeists to seek the wilds. In "The Wilderness Paddler's Handbook", he is merciless to paddlers who've maintained that their ignorance has kept them home. It's all here! - Jan Nesset, former editor-in-chief, "Canoe & Kayak".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #251517 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 284 pages

From the Back Cover

"Alan Kesselheim is a master of the paddle and the pen . . . This [is] the best of Kesselheim: wit, wilderness savvy, and a boat-full of sound advice."--Larry Rice, editor, Canoe & Kayak

Welcome to simplicity. You are holding the only wilderness paddling guide that tells you not just what gear you need, but what to leave behind and how to judge the difference.

Welcome to discovery. This guide equips you to design and plan your own expedition instead of slavishly following a trip mapped by an "expert."

Welcome to experience. Any good book can outline the requisite skills for backcountry paddling. This one also shows by example when and why to use them.

Here are the keys to canoe tripping, whether for expeditions of one to one hundred days. Alan Kesselheim is both a master paddler--with 25 years and more than 10,000 miles of wilderness paddling behind him--and a writer of uncommon grace and skill. He has created here a book of concentrated wisdom that is so pleasurable to read you may scarcely realize how much you're learning. The Wilderness Paddler's Handbook packages rich nuggets of experience in stories that entertain while they instruct.

Most how-to books are written either to grow into or to outgrow. Not this one. You can start with The Wilderness Paddler's Handbook, and you can keep going. You can paddle right off the map.

"Alan Kesselheim's mix of paddling experiences and superb writing skills make him ideally suited to dispense this highly personal and entertaining look at the how-tos of canoe tripping."--Michael Peake, editor, Che-Mun: The Journal of Canadian Wilderness Canoeing

"Alan Kesselheim is a first-rate writer who flat out knows what he's talking about. This is a book that will enrich your days on the water."--Jerry Dennis, author of From a Wooden Canoe

"As an explorer whose heart is ever lost to the next river bend, Kesselheim inspires canoeists to seek the wilds. In The Wilderness Paddler's Handbook, he is merciless to paddlers who've maintained that their ignorance has kept them home. It's all here!--Jan Nesset, former editor-in-chief, Canoe & Kayak

About the Author
Alan Kesselheim is a contributing editor to Canoe & Kayak and has written for Backpacker, Outside, and Sports Afield, among many other leading magazines. He is also a columnist for Big Sky Journal and the author of six critically acclaimed books, including Threading the Currents, Water and Sky, Going Inside, and Silhouette on a Wide Land. His 10,000 miles of wilderness paddling have been accomplished alone, with groups, with his wife, Marypat, and with his three children from their infancy. He has complete two trips of more than a year's duration, including a 420-day expedition with Marypat across northern Canada.

Customer Reviews

Just a great book.
This is an excellent book, the author writes well, is very entertaining, and not in the least bit patronising for all his obvious experience.

Kesselheim honestly gives his practical thoughts on wilderness paddling, and does so in such a personal way that it gives great enjoyment.

As a reference book it is both engaging and humours. His thoughts on fancy equipment, and techno gear hype, are worth the purchase alone.

I thoroughly recommend this book to all paddlers