Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #481555 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 213 pages

From Library Journal
Not many people, especially a solo woman traveler, would attempt to kayak the 750 miles along the Inside Passage between Alaska and Washington state. All the more reason for the adventurous Hahn to try it. Hahn, a naturalist and kayak guide, felt a call to do this trip but realized that she would have to do it in sections, over two spring and summer seasons. Sometimes fearless, sometimes terrified (of the currents, wolves, bears, and strange men), Hahn remains honest and thoughtful about her experiences. As her account reveals, she meets many generous people and a variety of animals and sea creatures on the trip and finds a sense of peace within herself. Her extensive knowledge of nature, native customs and legends, and the navigational history of the area nicely complement her personal experiences, while her eloquent writing allows readers to feel both the pain and the triumph of the journey. Recommended for all travel collections. Kathleen Shanahan, Kensington, MD
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Freedom
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

Inside the Inside Passage
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.

What a ride!
I just finished reading Jennifer Hahn's Spirited Waters. I admire courage where ever I see it especially in the water since I can't swim! But Hahn's book is about more than courage. It's about the beauty of nature and the loneliness of a solitary adventure.

I felt as though I was with Jennifer in that kayak experiencing the grandeur of the Inside Passage and navigating unknown treacherous waters at every turn. I loved her ability to convey her fear during a storm and her strength in rallying her inner resources to conquer it.

Most of all, it was Jennifer's writing style and observations of things such as the wildharvesting and my amusement in her description of plucking seaweed for a snack.

I will probably never be in a kayak much less traveling 750 miles in one in seventy days but Jennifer Hahn brought the experience to me in Spirited Waters. I marvel at her ability to breath life into her experience through the written word as well as the drawings that enhance the story. Reading about her adventure put me in the story with her.