Revisiting , The Lonely Land
The Lonely Land by Sigurd F. Olson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am rereading all of Sigurd Olson’s books in their order of publication. He has long been my favorite author, and this is the third or fourth time I’ve read this book.
Sigurd’s previous two books were topical explorations of nature. This book is a narrative based on a 500-mile canoe trip he made with five companions. In addition to the experiences that group had, the book also contains the quotes from the writing of some early explorers, voyageurs, and other travelers over those same routes dating back to the 1700s. My reading contained one more layer, a canoe trip I took with five great companions in 1989 following the first 250 miles of Sigurd’s path. As I read the book again, images from that trip filled my head, and I am not sure if these resulted from Sigurd’s great description or from my own memories of the same scene. We too experienced the seemingly weightless joy of surfing big waves with gale-force tail winds, the struggle to make headway when those winds were in our face, the thrill of running whitewater rapids, and feeling the bite of pack straps and getting close to the land on numerous portages.
Sigurd’s writing always moves gracefully from the specific incidents and places to touch the abstractness of their significance. In that way the story of this trip is the story of every extended wilderness canoe trip: great companions facing challenges head on with profound results. One of Sigurd’s companions, said about the trip, “I went along to iron out the wrinkles in my soul.”
Like Sigurd, my group selected me as the Bourgeois, what the voyageurs called their leader. A trip like this has inherent dangers and many critical decisions, and requires someone to make the final decision. My copy of the book was given to me from my companions after that 1989 trip, each of them having signed it. Mel, Gershan, Goldie, Michael and Chris: thank you for that. The copy of the book and the memories it holds are two of my most prized possessions.
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