Voyage of a Summer Sun: Canoeing the Columbia River

Voyage of a Summer Sun: Canoeing the Columbia River by Robin Cody

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was a bit aprehensive about reading this book, just because I thought that it may be a bit dry. Instead it was a completely delightful read and really interesting. I loved the way the author eased his way into the actual canoe trip by giving the reader a background of his family and his Dads love of the river. Robin Cody gives a wonderful history of the Columbia river and the dam's that provide the Pacific Northwest with power, as well as colorful accounts of his trip and the characters he meets along the way as he paddles his way from the source of the Columbia River to the mouth where it spills out into the Pacific Ocean. This book is really eye-opening and heart-breaking in many ways; the loss of native life-styles up and down the river as the dam's went in; the change of landscape as these dam's backed up creating reservoirs and leveling age-old falls.
If you have a connection with the Pacific Northwest or a love of rivers and wildlife, I would definately recommend this book.

A couple of my favorite passages from Voyage of a Summer Sun -

"From my mother came a strong sense that it mattered who came before us, and how they did it."

On witnessing a family of geese in spring on the river -
"Adult geese lose their flight feathers soon after the goslings hatch in spring.  The adults can't fly until the little guys can, which is nature's way of keeping the family together."






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