Lake Superior To Manitoba By Canoe

The Trans Canada Trail (www.thegreattrail.ca) was designed to run uninterrupted more than 20,000 kilometers from the Pacific to the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean. Hap Wilson -- a modern-day explorer and mapmaker -- was the man chosen to find a water route through the wilderness from Thunder Bay on Lake Superior to Manitoba's eastern border. First Nations peoples had traveled this mosaic of lakes and rivers 7,000 years ago. Coureurs des bois and voyageurs had used it to carry furs and trading goods. Wilson set off to carve a trail for modern users. He mapped it, measured it, marked it and in the process, experienced the best and worst of Canada's wilderness. He survived bear confrontations, being struck by lightning, grueling days slashing open old portage routes, a knee replacement, violent storms, gale force winds, isolation, biting insects, tick infestations and bitter cold. Organizers christened this section of the Trans Canada Trail the Path of the Paddle in honor of canoeing icon Bill Mason and Canada's First Nations. In this exciting account, Hap Wilson divides his 1,200 km journey into 12 routes with varying degrees of difficulty. Diary excerpts, hand-drawn maps, GPS coordinates, and photographs provide up to date information, expert guidance and anecdotal color. He describes the pictographs, old encampment stone circles that he finds along the way, more evidence of early travel, survival, myth, legend and mystery.

The Little North, north of Superior between Lake Winnipeg and James Bay, is a historic area including over 20 major lake and river system. This oversized atlas reviews the area's geography and canoe routes and features 50 annotated topographical maps.

Temagami, located in northern Ontario (five hours north of Toronto by car) is a world-renowned canoe tripping destination featuring over 4,000 square miles of canoe country. The waterways of the Temagami region are particularly attractive since many of the routes form convenient trip loops. Hap Wilson compiles more than 25 canoe route descriptions, including hiking trails that cater to wilderness paddlers from beginner to expert. Climb Maple Mountain, camp at Centre Falls, listen to the wolves howl, or fish its fabled deep waters -- Temagami has it all.

New York's Men's Journal Magazine hired a studio photographer from Brooklyn, a post-master/writer from Thermond West Virginia and two Canadian river guides to paddle one of the country's most dangerous whitewater rivers - the Seal in northern Manitoba, for the purpose of publishing the quintessential Canadian adventure story. Add to this unlikely melange of characters, the possibility of capsizing in freezing water, the threat of polar bears, a midnight sail down Hudson Bay and Manitoba's worst boreal wild fire, this chronicle will carry the reader to the extreme edge of exploration.

Lass's book will be the standard work on the Lake Superior to Red River boundary, but it reaches beyond those limits defined in the title. In order to make any sense out of the border, Lass has gone a long way towards writing a good general survey of Canadian-American boundary issues. The book is based on an extensive use of published and manuscript materials, and it is well illustrated with photographs and maps, including reproductions of important historic maps."--Www.mhs.ca/docs/mb_history/04/boundarycommission.shtml.