12/01/01

The premise is straightforward enough—chronicle a solo kayak journey from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Bellingham, Washington, taking place over the course of two springs and two summers. But the resulting narrative, Spirited Waters, stretches far beyond what the reader might expect, its complexity and density belying the simplicity of its premise.

It doesn’t matter if you have never nestled your hips into a kayak, or if you know next to nothing about the northern Pacific coastline. Jennifer Hahn is an expert guide. The founder of Elakah! Kayak Tours, she has led adventure-seekers along the Inside Passage since 1988, and her understanding of the region is informed in part by degrees in Ecology and Environmental Studies and a keen interest in the history and legends of its original inhabitants. Drawing on biology, horticulture, history, art, and narrative, Spirited Waters, like all good travel narratives, immerses the reader in the place, so that by the end, the coastline, its inhabitants, and even kayaking are familiar to you.

Spirited Waters is the the winner of the Barbara Savage Miles from Nowhere Memorial Award, given biennially to a book-length narrative "conveying the risks, joys, hardships, disappointments, triumphs, moments of humor, and accidents of fate that are invariably a part of personal outdoor adventure." And it is an apt choice. Within its pages, the reader finds the dangers and exhilirations of traveling on water on one’s own. Some of the dangers are expected—bears on the island. But much of the sense of danger here comes not from the "wild" of animals and water, but from the occasional forays into "civilization." Confronted with bears, Hahn relies on her wits; she’s done her research before setting off, she knows their dangers, but she also knows how to protect herself. Drunken fishermen are another; she again knows the dangers, and she knows that her best protection is fleeing to safety. Only when she returns to the water, where her safety depends on her own understanding of the water and the weather and her own ability to control her kayak in adverse conditions, do we see her confidence fully return.

But Spirited Waters also makes clear that outdoor adventures are not all about danger and exhiliration. In fact, one of the more remarkable characteristics of Hahn’s work is that the exhilirations are rarely tied to the dangers. Instead, they come in small, quiet moments. Kayaking, she points out, is a relatively slow means of traversing such a distance, enabling the kayaker to examine the ocean and land at a pace suited for attention to detail. And here we find attention to detail in massive abundance. This is a densely packed book, not to be read quickly. Get distracted for a minute, and you miss a whale sighting or a lesson on sea urchins, starfish, and sand dollars. Hahn requires that you give yourself over fully to her book; it is engrossing in the truest sense of the term.

Your reward for allowing yourself to be taken in is a series of tiny snapshots of experience, a pointillist painting of the life of the Inside Passage. Hahn writes in terms of smells and colors, exact sounds and sizes. She gives us recipes for Yemaya Chowder (Yemaya, Hahn's kayak, is the namesake of the Yoruba ocean goddess) and "sea cheetohs," as well as medicinal uses of Labrador Tea. We learn that whale breath smells suspiciously like the pulp mills that dot the logging-heavy coast. We learn that a sea urchin is the size of her own head (or at least fits perfectly into her hat), a bit of knowledge that prompted me to consult a mirror to fix the size with the sketch in the book. If we require more information, there's a bibliography for further reading on any number of the subjects she touches upon.

Spirited Waters is peppered with Hahn's own pen and ink drawings, which combine whimsy with textbook accuracy to completely fix her descriptions in our minds. There are about thirty drawings, in addition to the highly detailed and artful maps that accompany each section, and about these sketches I cannot say enough. First, I commend the publishers, The Mountaineer's Books, for including them, at a time when beautiful illustrations seem to have fallen by the wayside. It is always a joy to find a book whose physical beauty equals the loveliness of the prose, and Spirited Waters is one of those books. From the stunning cover shot to the intricate maps to the illustrations to the graphic design, everything works together. The physicality of the book is perfect fit for a narrative that celebrates the beauty of large and small things intertwined.

Hahn writes from the perspective of one who loves the area she's travelling. She has great respect for its natural balance and the history of the native peoples which has been so plundered. Yet she is no angry crusader; there are no diatribes here, only descriptions. She lays before us the Inside Passage as she sees it and loves it. Chances are, once she's finished, we will love it, too.