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A review by cnorbury
Canoeing with the Cree by Eric Sevareid
4.0
An interesting book especially since I just read Natalie Warren's memoir of her identical trip with Ann Raiho from Mpls. to Hudson Bay some 80 years later. The narratives were similar but distinctively show the personalities of each writer. Sevareid showed his writing chops at an early age as his narrative is more "journalist." (Just the facts). Warren's was more introspective and relationship based. No surprise that both pairs had big fights well past the halfway point in the trip. Sevareid and Port actually came to blows during their trip.
Both groups are to be commended for completing a monumentally difficult challenge. In both cases, I was surprised by the seeming lack of care in packing their gear and keeping it waterproof and secure. The men can be forgiven a little bit because camping/canoeing gear was not sophisticated at all back in 1930, whereas Warren & Raiho had the advantage of waterproof Duluth packs, superior rain gear (Gore-tex), bear barrels, stronger tents, good ropes, better maps, and such. Yet each author mentioned moments where capsizing the canoe would have either sunk most of their gear or had it float away from the canoe and be lost. Any good river runner would make sure the gear would either be secured to the canoe or totally waterproof so it could be recovered whole and dry somewhere downstream.
But an enjoyable read nonetheless of an adventure very few people in history have ever undertaken.
Both groups are to be commended for completing a monumentally difficult challenge. In both cases, I was surprised by the seeming lack of care in packing their gear and keeping it waterproof and secure. The men can be forgiven a little bit because camping/canoeing gear was not sophisticated at all back in 1930, whereas Warren & Raiho had the advantage of waterproof Duluth packs, superior rain gear (Gore-tex), bear barrels, stronger tents, good ropes, better maps, and such. Yet each author mentioned moments where capsizing the canoe would have either sunk most of their gear or had it float away from the canoe and be lost. Any good river runner would make sure the gear would either be secured to the canoe or totally waterproof so it could be recovered whole and dry somewhere downstream.
But an enjoyable read nonetheless of an adventure very few people in history have ever undertaken.