Gone Canoeing: Weekend Wilderness Adventures in Southern Ontario

Louise Karch is a career consultant with Carswell Partners in London, Ontario.

Gone Canoeing provides city dwellers with accessible canoe routes close
to Ontario’s urban centres. Each of the 20 routes is accompanied by a
detailed map and a summary that lists the route’s difficulty,
portages, fees, access points, outfitters, topographical maps, and
resources (including Web sites). There is a “kayak friendly” route
rating system, as well as packing tips and recipes.

The routes come alive as Callan uses a storytelling technique to convey
historical and Native significance, geological highlights, flora and
fauna observations, and fishing tips. For example, he follows a
description of Lt. Colonel Robert McDougall and the Glengary Light
Infantry’s adventures on Willow Creek in 1812 with the observation
that he used snowmobile trail signs

to find his way through an adjacent flooded swamp. We experience the
immediacy of discovery as he points out the “staggered pad marks of
the coyote” on the banks of the Nonquoun River or counts 42 turtles
with his friend’s children on the Sauble.

This is a charming, informative book; my only complaints are the typos
and the lack of ethnic representation in the color photographs.