Spirited Waters: Soloing South Through the Inside Passage

I read this book one winter day tucked safely and warmly under my bed covers. In the summer I signed up for a kayak trip with the author. Did the book inspire me--you bet! And I've been going on adventure trips ever since. I've bought the book for friends who love it as well. It's an exciting read but more importantly, for me, a life changer. Marilyn McLauchlan Bainbridge Island, Wa

For those who have ever dreamed of taking a trip through Alaska's Inside Passage, Jennifer Hahn's Spirited Waters might be the closest thing to making that dream come true. With every page reader's can feel the freedom, the thrill, even the tension and moments of fear that Hahn experiences--whether cause by acts of nature (predictable and unpredictable) or acts of people along the way (well-intentioned or otherwise). Motivated in part by the untimely deaths of her mother (when Hahn was a young girl) and then her brother when he was just 32 and in part by the persistent "whispers" of her own dreams, Hahn knew "it was time." "Dreams," Hahn says, "I've learned have the patience of Job. Like mushroom mycelium, they can live underground for years, laying a vast framework while awaiting an opportune rainstorm to waggle their fruits. Unbeknownst to me," she continues, "such a storm was approaching as I strode into my early thirties...Whatever dreams lay sleeping inside me; my intuition said I'd better roust them ASAP. For all I knew, like my adventurous mom and my brother, I might not live past my mid-thirties, either." Armed with the survival skills she had learned over the years and had been teaching for almost 15 years, as well as the tools of survival she could fit into her kayak, Yemaya, she set off--alone! "Kayaking, "she says, "offers the traveler one of the most holistic and sensual rides," largely because one can move "at a walking pace" in a kayak. At maybe three miles per hour (if there's no wind or current) the traveler can observe--see, hear, feel--the smallest details in the water, the flora, the fauna, even the wind and the water current. Hahn's adventure--72 days on the water--spanned two summers and two springs with breaks in between during the most unrelenting Alaskan climate. While she spares no details, readers flow through the pages and the chapters as smoothly and adventurously as Hahn flowed through the Inside Passage. As impressive as the thoroughly engaging and often poetic prose are Hahn's delightful, detailed maps and illustration of birds, plants, flowers, and animal tracks. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book, laden with wonderful insights, tales of trials and trails, and exciting accounts of seemingly endless adventures.

Spirited Waters is not just another run of the mill, macho adventure story. Don't get me wrong, you'll find plenty of excitement, danger, and a wonderful guide to roughing it in the remote Pacific Northwest, but this book offers so much more. This is a moving journey of self discovery in one of the last great wildernesses of the Pacific Coast. Hahn is a true wild woman whose love of the natural world makes her stories lush with detail, a succulent feast for your mind's eye. I've finally found my ideal wilderness adventure reading, a beautiful narrative inspired by a passion for all things wild, and written from the heart.

This is the debut passage of a kayak guide whose fecund and original prose is reminiscent of Annie Dillard and John Muir. As if her exceptional natural history writing isn't enough, Jennifer Hahn is also heritably wired--through the accidental deaths of her mother and brother--to the calculated risks of a modern day Odyssey. Her encounters with hairy bears, scarey tiderips, lonely men, huge seas, and a spy-hopping gray whale are gripping and inspirational.

Imagine one of your closest friends just took a remarkable adventure. The two of you are out to dinner for the first time afterwards and she is telling you stories about the amazing things she saw and did along the way. That is exactly how Spirited Waters was for me. I just couldn't wait to hear what Jennifer Hahn saw and did next! I am a kayaker myself and have been to several of the places that she wrote about, and I couldn't have described their beauty any better myself. Reading this wonderful book made me want to jump in the car with a kayak strapped to the roof, head north out of the hustle and bustle of Seattle, and set out for an adventure of my own. Even if you aren't a kayaker it would be hard not to take up the sport after reading Jennifer Hahn's book.