What follows is a collection of true life short stories of some of the adventures I have had over the last decade and a half as a solo kayaker. They all take place in Eld Inlet, Southern Puget Sound.

Grab a paddle as the author leads you on day trips and overnight adventures on the rivers and lakes of northwestern Washington. Travel to out-of-the-way destinations where kayaking allows us to pursue our innermost individual freedoms. Freshwater exploits in a sea kayak - not your typical jaunts in the Pacific Northwest. Here's proof that enchanting journeys are born in dreams of personal exploration. A Canadian paddler heads south to probe the rivers of Washington, searching for "slow pushers" to propel his kayak lazily downstream mile after mile. In the process, rivers and lakes become inspiring expeditions for an amateur paddler and his wife. A travelogue memoir of enlightening adventures set in the magic of the Pacific Northwest. WASHINGTON: Skagit River, Dakota Creek, Nooksack River, Silver Lake, Lake Samish, California Creek. OREGON: Willamette River. BRITISH COLUMBIA: Fraser River, Powell Lake.

Most books on this subject fall into two categories:
How-To's and Grand Expeditions.
Paddle Adventuring happily fills some of the inviting spaces in-between.

This tribute ranges from the joy and zen of paddling to the zany, from novice to skilled tripping and family cruising. It reflects useful lessons learned and possibilities that beckon - from local to favored waters like Ontario lakes country, Chesapeake and Florida rivers, New England, the British Columbia coast, Alaska, coastal and interior Belize.

Millions of us are beneficiaries of a vast array of new outdoor and on-the-water possibilities, offering more than a lifetime of easily pursued adventure from mild to wild, from global in scope to after work, and right around home. Paddling is a universal activity unrestricted by age or sex that almost anyone can do, a recreational style that is simple, versatile, hip, wholesome, ecologically friendly, affordable, a door to freedom, connecting with nature and providing easy access to varieties of joyous adventuring.

Increasingly we need outlets which offer diversion and simplicity in the face of daily complexity. Recent announcements touting hundreds of planned, "You Can Paddle" events in the United States put it this way: "Paddling brings sanity to an insane world. It quiets society's noise and reconnects us to something vital and real. Paddling can change your life if you let it." ...Chevy Trucks. James Raffan, author of "Bark, Skin and Cedar," has written "To paddle a canoe is to embark on a luminal journey that can sweep a willing heart across thresholds of new worlds."

TABLE OF CONTENTS includes:
The Paddle Thing
Paddle Adventuring
"Taste Life"
Heritage
Canoes Schmooze, Kayakety-Yak
"Canoe"bial Bliss
Nuts & Heroes
Canoe Views
Gunkholing
Whitewater
Paddling with Kids
Tripping and Cruising
Portaging
Mug & Grub
Fishin' & Wishin'
The Wild Side
Stump Sermons
Staying Topside
Out & Beyond
U 2 Can Canoe - and Kayak Too

Paddle Adventuring is opti-centric; lots of photos, saving, in theory at least, thousands of words. As for the "kaleidoscopic" mix, the versifications might sometimes conjure faint company with Rap or Cowboy Poetry, but inspired this time by the rhythm of paddle strokes, the gentle rise and fall of the oceans swells, and the windy-day lapping of waves. It is an appreciation of useful shared experience, a window on a segment of the paddling world. Old timers may nod and chuckle; newcomers might be encouraged to just get out there, and go.

There are references to much that is happening in the paddling universe-motherships, urban paddling, canoe design, canoe trails, kayak trends, paddling seniors, remedial paddling, safety, conservation, saving and restoring rivers- and some how-to's via the not-how-to's. The paddle offers a return to a conscious sense of body and self. From imagining to doing. Grabbing hold, a handle on your world, "paddling you own canoe..". or kayak... instantly and tangibly responsive, buoyant. Real, Exciting. Revitalizing.