Books, Videos, and Movies

Reviews of books, videos, and movies.

  • Books, Videos, and Movies

    New National Geographic Maps Cover the Boundary Waters Canoe Area

    There’s a new player in town for Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness maps, and it’s National Geographic’s excellent Trails Illustrated Maps. The current players in the BWCA map field include McKenzie Maps, Fisher Maps, and Voyageur Maps. Each of the current vendors follows the philosophy that more detail is better. To cover the entire BWCA, they require 25, 32, or 10 maps, respectively. Trails Illustrated does it with 2! Trails Illustrated Boundary Waters maps are printed on double-sided waterproof and tear resistant 27″ x 39″ paper. When folded, the maps reduce down in size to approximately 4 1/4″ x 9 1/4″. They weigh 3.3 ounces each. The scale of 1:70,000…

  • Books, Videos, and Movies

    10 Classic Canoe and Kayak Books

    Canoeist and kayakers should start off the new year and a new decade by resolving to read a few books. In the past I’ve done round-up reviews of boat building books and paddling books, but it’s about time for a new round-up. These 10 stand out as the paddling books you should read in 2010. Kayaking Books Sea Kayak Rescue, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Modern Reentry and Recovery Techniques (How to Paddle Series) First published in 2001 and updated in 2007, this guide presents the most up-to-date rescue, reentry, and recovery techniques for sea kayakers. The book is well-written, easy-to-understand, and laid out in a progression that instructors could…

  • Books, Videos, and Movies

    Paddle to Seattle Kayaking Film

    J.J. Kelley and Josh Thomas built a couple of plywood kayaks. Then they paddled from Alaska to Seattle via the Inside Passage in the plywood kayaks that they built. During the trip, they filmed everything. After the trip, they whittled all the footage down to an 80-minute movie. Everyone from Paddler Magazine to Outside Online is raving about this new movie. You’ll see why after watching the trailer. Paddle to Seattle What intrigues me is that they took the time to build their own kayaks, invested the extra work into filming the movie, they got sponsorships, but they come across as just a couple of guys on an adventure. They…

  • Books, Videos, and Movies,  Reviews

    Book Reviews

    Jacobson, Expedition Canoeing. Connecticut, The Globe Pequot Press, 2001. Cliff Jacobson lays down the law of canoeing big and small rivers of the Canadian North. He covers details such as researching, picking a canoe, picking gear, navigation, cooking, hazards and rescue, and much more. Jacobson also includes other great Canadian explorers as additional voices to enhance his book. You’ll here from such greats as Verlen Kruger, Bob O’Hara, and many others. If you buy one book on how to canoe, this should be it. Get the book at Amazon here. Excerpt: page 53: “Some people are turned on by beautiful cars. With me, it’s canoes. So it was natural that…

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