Product Description

WINNER, 2004 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD! (Outdoor Literature)

In today’s high-tech world, getting away from the stresses of everyday life can be tricky. Cell phones, palm pilots, and laptop computers allow you to be wired-in from pretty much anywhere. But Ted Kerasote wanted none of that. He wanted a chance to disconnect from the buzz and grind of the wired world. And what better way to do that than to head to the far reaches of Canada’s Northwest Territories for a canoe trip through 400 miles of wilderness.

Or so he thought. Much to Ted’s chagrin, his friend and traveling companion, Len, brings a satellite phone along on the journey, ostensibly in case of emergency. Throughout the trip, however, Len uses the phone simply to touch base with family, friends, and the office—undermining their sense of being "Out There."

"Out There: In the Wild in a Wired Age" is Kerasote’s entertaining account of this journey down the Horton River toward the Arctic Ocean, through a stunning landscape of tundra and varied wildlife. Between navigating rapids, staying warm and dry in rainstorms, and avoiding grizzly bears, Ted and Len discuss the meaning of life, love, and solitude in a wired age.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123220 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Review
"Ted Kerasote is a fine literary companion---poetic, honest and observant." -- (Alexandra Fuller, author of “Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood”)

"Ted Kerasote is a fine literary companion---poetic, honest and observant." -- Alexandra Fuller, author of “Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood”

"The writing in this book is like a hand crafted canoe, elegant in its simplicity . . ." -- Mark Jenkins, The Hard Way columnist for “Outside” magazine

About the Author
Ted Kerasote is a regular contributor to "Outside," "Audubon", and other magazines and is the author of several books. He has participated in and led many backcountry trips, including mountaineering, desert and jungle crossings, skiing, dog sledding, river descents by canoe and kayak, and ocean sea kayaking. These trips have taken place all over the globe.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The current carries us swiftly past the pilot and the three anglers downstream, all of whom are playing leaping grayling. An instant later, we’re swept around a bend and out of sight. The country immediately becomes so empty it seems as if we’re the first people on Earth.

Even after spending many years in the outdoors, in some very remote places, I always find this sudden change in consciousness a jolt. It’s as if an unseen hand has literally flipped a switch in the universe. One moment I’m embedded in a world where motorized conveyances offer a quick escape to comfort and safety. The next, I’m free-floating in a world from which escape is extremely difficult—or was until the advent of global satellite phones.

The Arctic landscape hasn’t changed since I first saw it two decades ago—shoreline sedges, dense willow, a moiré of green tundra, rippling and shimmering away toward hills dappled with the shadows of cumulus clouds—but I have to admit that the country’s old edginess is gone. The mixture of genuine fear at being alone in the vastness of the high latitudes, and the lovely tension of facing that fear with no resources other than what we’ve brought along and the wit inspired by necessity, is diminished. The air taxi service’s telephone number is programmed into Len’s satphone and is no more than the push of a memory button away. The entire rescue services of North America would then be at our disposal, down to a huge, twin-rotor helicopter that can navigate through fog and find us by Global Positioning System coordinates. Len, leaving nothing to chance, has also accepted the offer of a handheld GPS from his law partner—a device that, with another push of a button, tells you your! latitude and longitude, bouncing its signal from satellites circling overhead.

All this technology doesn’t mean that we’ll be less careful. Getting pinned in a rapid with your head underwater takes only a few seconds of inattention, and then all the satphones and GPSs in the world won’t do you a bit of good. Nevertheless, the phone has given us a newfound cushion and is extinguishing an awareness that’s always been part of these trips, what I like to think of as slipping through the world’s harshness by a mixture of skill and divine grace.

Customer Reviews

When reading the jacket description I was nervous
I must admit, when reading the description on the inside of this book's jacket I was a little nervous about reading this book. It reads "Who hasn't wanted to get away from cell phones, e-mail, roads, and traffic? ... But what if your canoeing partner brings along a satellite phone to use in case of an emergency? And, struck by the novelty of anywhere-on-earth communication, he proceeds to use the phone to check in with his law office, his wife, kids, sisters, father, and friends?" I really didn't want to read a book that lectures one of the merits of getting totally disconnected from civilization.

What I found when reading Ted's book was a wonderful story of a great canoe journey through a truly wild landscape. During their journey they encounter grizzly bears, gold and bald eagles, Gyrfalcons (one of my favorite birds), grayling and char fish, musk ox, and many other wild creatures. This book is filled with some historical accounts of artic exploration as well as some of the natural history of the region and its wildlife. We learn both where the river got its name as well as some interesting features about musk ox. And, yes there is some contemplation on the value of detaching from the modern world and getting immersed in the natural world, but this is only one small part of a larger story.

All in all, it is a excellent nature adventure book which is both entertaining and informative. I highly recommend it. It inspires me to want to take another Canadian wilderness canoe trip. It has been over 20 years since my first Canadian Wilderness Canoe trip with my father and Boy Scout Troop.

Kerasote's the Best!
After his earlier books (Bloodties, etc.), one would hardly have thought that he could do it again. But there's an amazingly deep mind and a poetic soul at work here--the words of a man who has traded off some of the more mundane pleasures of life for an honest, strenuous existence. Ted Kerasote's voice rings true and clear, whether he's writing about elk hunting or (as here) white water canoeing. Absolutely not to be missed, if you have even the faintest interest in what "wilderness" means!

My favorite read in quite awhile....
Great writing about both his wilderness experience(s) and interesting, poignent comments on life and relationships. I can't imagine anyone would be disappointed with this book.