Burt Kornegay returns to several Shops in February:
“The Perfection of Traveling: a History of the Canoe from Birchbark to ABS”
Setting out in a birchbark canoe to paddle through the wilds of Maine in 1857, Henry David Thoreau immediately sensed that the canoe presented him “with the freedom of the lakes and the woods.” And during the 10-day trip he discovered that no matter how small the passage, “wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe.”When Thoreau and his companions paddled across lakes, he found it “inspiriting to hear the regular dip of the paddles.” And he decribed running rapids as being “somewhat like navigating a thunderspout.” Toward the end of the trip Thoreau reached the fast-flowing Webster Stream, which to him looked like an “inclined mirror” sloping for miles “between two evergreen forests,” and he found his swift descent down it to be “very exhilarating, and the perfection of traveling.”
Quick Facts about Burt:
- First ran wilderness trips: age 20, Adirondack Mountains, New York
- Started Slickrock Expeditions: age 33
- Number of nights spent annually in the woods: 100+
- Number of Slickrock Expeditions run to date: more than 400