The C&O Canal Companion by Mike High. It includes lots of history.
However, most of the canal is now dry, so it is better for cycling.
However, most of the canal is now dry, so it is better for cycling.
-
Happy Birthday, Marilyn Monroe (1926-62)! 🎥⭐👩🏼👄👠👗
What are you reading?
- Thread starter roadends
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2018
- Messages
- 1,663
- Reaction score
- 2,475
While the canal itself is mostly dry, the Potomac would be a nice paddle and enough of the lock keeper's houses are available for rent that it remains a bucket list trip for me. If I ever get it done, I'll have to remember to check out the book prior to the trip.
I am currently re-reading The Great Gatsby, but that has been sporadic because I already have to do a lot of reading and writing for my master's program. My current goal for reading is to go back and read all the classics that I read when I was a student and see how much more I can get out of them now that I am an adult (and a teacher).
Also, I read The Hobbit every spring, both because I love the book that much and because it's a great way to get inspired for summertime adventures. It's that time again!
Some of my recent reads have been:
The Witcher series, all 8 of them straight through. I started playing the video game (Witcher 3) and couldn't keep any of the names or places straight, so I figured I would read the books to learn the characters/world at a slower pace and in greater detail, then return to the game later.
Fight Club. I had never seen the movie either, I had to see what they hype was all about. I was expecting dumb action, but it was surprisingly good. Sad and weird and uncomfortable, it's not something I would return to just for fun, but it sure was interesting.
3:10 to Yuma. I have seen and loved both of the movies. The book was surprisingly short! The written story is only the hotel room scene and then the dash to the train, for those who know the movies.
Starship Troopers. Again, never saw the movie until after I read the book and boy are they different!
Also, I read The Hobbit every spring, both because I love the book that much and because it's a great way to get inspired for summertime adventures. It's that time again!
Some of my recent reads have been:
The Witcher series, all 8 of them straight through. I started playing the video game (Witcher 3) and couldn't keep any of the names or places straight, so I figured I would read the books to learn the characters/world at a slower pace and in greater detail, then return to the game later.
Fight Club. I had never seen the movie either, I had to see what they hype was all about. I was expecting dumb action, but it was surprisingly good. Sad and weird and uncomfortable, it's not something I would return to just for fun, but it sure was interesting.
3:10 to Yuma. I have seen and loved both of the movies. The book was surprisingly short! The written story is only the hotel room scene and then the dash to the train, for those who know the movies.
Starship Troopers. Again, never saw the movie until after I read the book and boy are they different!
I haven't read books about canoeing or canoe tripping in decades.
Why not?
Well, I've been posting and reading about these subjects on the internet for decades. And I now own and administer the world's most active site on the subject. While trying to be the most active thread starter. Which includes researching a lot of canoe literature and canoe videos for prospective posting topics. While being a director and general counsel of the WCHA, as well as a member of WCHA committees. And all that time engaging in some form of canoeing via my still-growing fleet.
It would be like reading books about my bloody job, which I rarely ever did. Just not interested.
So, I mainly read detective stories, spy thrillers and science fiction, or science books about physics, cosmology and evolution, or theological/historical works about Christian and Islamic origins. Currently, I'm reading The Cellist by Daniel Silva, one of his novels about Israeli superspy and art expert Gabriel Allon.
Why not?
Well, I've been posting and reading about these subjects on the internet for decades. And I now own and administer the world's most active site on the subject. While trying to be the most active thread starter. Which includes researching a lot of canoe literature and canoe videos for prospective posting topics. While being a director and general counsel of the WCHA, as well as a member of WCHA committees. And all that time engaging in some form of canoeing via my still-growing fleet.
It would be like reading books about my bloody job, which I rarely ever did. Just not interested.
So, I mainly read detective stories, spy thrillers and science fiction, or science books about physics, cosmology and evolution, or theological/historical works about Christian and Islamic origins. Currently, I'm reading The Cellist by Daniel Silva, one of his novels about Israeli superspy and art expert Gabriel Allon.
I just finished ‘The Shetland Bus’ by David Howarth. It is about the Norwegian resistance during WW2. I wish things like this were taught in history class, I might have paid more attention to.
Before that it was a Maine centric murder mystery called ‘Everyone Knows But You’ by Thomas Ricks.
Jim
Before that it was a Maine centric murder mystery called ‘Everyone Knows But You’ by Thomas Ricks.
Jim
Well I finally got to it (actually got the audio CDs from the library). Echo others here in their strong recommendation. I was interested to learn that much of the expedition was accomplished in dugout canoes. Didn't see that coming!
We used to paddle up the C&O Canal and down the Potomac River in the Boy Scouts in 1960. It is how I got started in a lifetime of canoeing. We used to backpack along the Canal. There were few people in those days. We could go 4 days without seeing anyone.
Senior Class canoe trip in 1968 was up the Canal and down the river with a big party at Violet's Lock. We had 50 people on that one.
Senior Class canoe trip in 1968 was up the Canal and down the river with a big party at Violet's Lock. We had 50 people on that one.
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2018
- Messages
- 1,663
- Reaction score
- 2,475
That would have been pretty cool. Closest we got to that was some keggers on the ridge. Burned up quite a few pallets though.
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2017
- Messages
- 861
- Reaction score
- 876
I have just re-read Joe Kane's Running the Amazon which reports on the first descent of the Amazon River from its source high in the Andes Mountains in Peru on a river named Apurimac to the Atlantic Ocean. It was done with kayaks and a raft, but was still extremely interesting. Holes where the water is four feet higher than it's eye, for example. The expedition started out with some 17 members but only four made it the entire way and only Piotr Chmielinski traversed the entire river on the river or by portaging. (Some of the members were support and traveled by walking and truck.)
The hero of this story is Piotr Chmielinski without whom the expedition would not have been successful. A Pole without a home (now a citizen of the USA), he was the first to run the canyon of the Colco. There is a three part interview with him from 2015 here:
Chmielinski Interview
Jerome Truran was probably the best whitewater kayaker on the team. He was the only person to get through the Black Canyon without injury. He was also the only paddler who did not swim. He left the expedition before it was complete (it was weeks over the projected schedule) so he could compete in world kayak competition. Also, he had paddled all the whitewater and did not really look forward to 3000 miles of flat water paddling.
You can read more about Truran here: Jerome Truran
The expedition was threatened by serious dissention among team members, reinforcing my commitment to paddling solo.
. They were also attacked by the Sendera Luminosa. They ran into a big cocaine operation. They were almost out of money and sometimes out of food. It is an entertaining story and even on reread, I found it compelling.
The hero of this story is Piotr Chmielinski without whom the expedition would not have been successful. A Pole without a home (now a citizen of the USA), he was the first to run the canyon of the Colco. There is a three part interview with him from 2015 here:
Chmielinski Interview
Jerome Truran was probably the best whitewater kayaker on the team. He was the only person to get through the Black Canyon without injury. He was also the only paddler who did not swim. He left the expedition before it was complete (it was weeks over the projected schedule) so he could compete in world kayak competition. Also, he had paddled all the whitewater and did not really look forward to 3000 miles of flat water paddling.
You can read more about Truran here: Jerome Truran
The expedition was threatened by serious dissention among team members, reinforcing my commitment to paddling solo.
. They were also attacked by the Sendera Luminosa. They ran into a big cocaine operation. They were almost out of money and sometimes out of food. It is an entertaining story and even on reread, I found it compelling."I have just re-read Joe Kane's Running the Amazon" I read that some years back, and an excerpt more recently. It seemed to be a story where he was expecting death at any time (and with good reason). I like adventure (even Type 2), but that was a few points beyond. I just finished Facing the Congo, by Jeffrey Tayler, about a young American paddling down the Congo in the 1990s in a dugout. It's not such a paddling book, but a jaunt into a different world of culture, risk, and poverty. Recommended. Next on the list is Blood River, another Congo River trip to duplicate Stanley's expedition of the 1870s.
Last edited:
Two gigantic rivers.
I read today:
There is disagreement as to whether the Amazon or Nile is the longest river system in the world. The Amazon has the greatest drainage area in the world and has by far the greatest water discharge. The Congo has an almost unbelievable maximum depth of 720 feet (220 meters).
Based on the first book, I'll pass on the Congo. We'll see if the next book will change my mind.
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2017
- Messages
- 861
- Reaction score
- 876
Joe Kane had never been in a kayak before this trip. He'd never done any river paddling. He was there to write the story, but got sucked into paddling. The read through the Black Canyon is harrowing.
It was a poorly put together team, with only Chmielinksi and Truran truly being qualified.
We have house wrens nesting in a brightly painted bird box my grandson made me several years ago, and so Peterson Field Guides Eastern Birds (Roger Tory Peterson) is at my elbow and A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds (Colin Harrison) is likewise sitting open at troglodytes. We watch them from our kitchen with coffees in hand, waiting for the toast to pop up. Coffee, toast, and wrens have ushered in our spring mornings in May.
'Blood River' will not. I happened upon that book a few months back and devoured it. Gripping, scary in so far as seeing what happens to society when law and order really breaks down. My sister lived and worked in DR Congo for several years. She loved the spirit of many she met, joyful, decent people who only want a decent life, but it sounds like an incredibly difficult place and one I don't intend to visit. The book is certainly worth a read. Per Glenn's comment, the ecology of the river is really amazing, though sadly degraded at this point.
I also enjoyed reading 'Running the Amazon' many moons ago. Maybe I'll revisit it. I remember it also not being an experience I would want for myself.
Thanks. Stuck on the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy right now, so it will have to wait!
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2017
- Messages
- 861
- Reaction score
- 876
About 20 years ago I was foundering in the Arlanda (Stockholm) for a book in English to read on the flight back to the US. Totally unaware, I picked up the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I read it straight through, all the way home.
Just finished the second one yesterday. I'll take a break with Blood River before tackling the third. Good stuff.
Similar threads
- Locked
