I hope that your summer reading lists includes a few outdoors and nature books.
Photographer Jerry Kobalenko is a traveler who believes that feeling small and insignificant in the Arctic makes the world larger and that much more wonderful.
He captures the wonders in images and words in “Arctic Eden” ($45). Although the scenery speaks for itself, defying the limitations of words, Kobalenko does speak the language, whether he touches on history, icebergs or animals.
The young Arctic hares feed for barely a minute a day, spending the rest of the time browsing like adults; rose rocks, or hedgehog rocks, are found in only a few circumpolar sites; 45 million years ago, the Arctic climate was similar to today’s Louisiana climate.
He offers a land of candle ice, ermine, grave markers, icebergs and sunbathing walruses in a region he considers far from barren.
Other book options include:
“Desolation Sound & the Discovery Islands” ($50): Sailors, listen up. Anne and Laurence Yeadon-Jones are back with another of their Dreamspeaker cruising guides including, as always, excellent charts and maps, a guide to cruising, and places to stop along the way in British Columbia’s Gulf Islands.
“The Thunder Tree: Lessons From an Urban Wildland” and “Pathfinder: Blazing a New Wilderness Trail in Modern America” (both $19): Robert Michael Pyle, author of “Thunder,” and Ron Strickland, author of “Pathfinder,” offer two well-honed and sometimes eloquent perspectives. Yet their paths are remarkably dissimilar: Pyle’s the High Line Canal, Strickland’s a 1,200-mile trail. Strickland is founder of the ambitious Pacific Northwest Trail in the early 1970s connecting Glacier National Park to the Pacific.
“A Field Guide to Alpine Flowers of the Pacific Northwest” ($8): Phillipa Hudson’s colorful waterproof guide is perfect for a high-country hike. The images are excellent and grouped by color. And it doesn’t take up much space in the outside pocket of your backpack.
“Last Child in the Woods” ($15): Richard Louv’s updated and expanded version is the bible of saving children from nature-deficit disorder. He covers parents who are “scared dumb” as well as the research that shows the lack of nature in children’s lives contribute to obesity and depression.
This could be a totally depressing book, but Louv offers 100 actions that can instill in our children a love of nature. That generation is the next one that will have to care for our wildernesses, and they can’t feel a need to do so without our help.
“Easy Cycling around Vancouver” ($20): This is an all-ages, 45-route finder mostly east of Vancouver, much along the Fraser River. Each trip starts with the basics up front, then adds descriptions of what you’ll see, a map and the route using mile marks. A useful ride-by-duration index is included.
“White Planet: A Mad Dash through Modern Global Ski Culture” ($18): Leslie Anthony knows there is more to skiing than going downhill. He combines history with humor, passion with extreme skiing, sometimes with a handicap (skis tied to helicopter skids with shoelaces).
“Dazzled and Deceived” ($27.50): One of my favorite books is a fascinating look at mimicry and camouflage by Peter Forbes. He explains the whys and wherefores, such as how a Kallima butterfly can mimic a leaf, and he also ties in the use of nature’s camouflage by humans, focusing on World War I.
“Atlas of the Pacific Northwest” ($25): For almost 50 years, this has been the place for exploring the environment and human activities, and has more thorough information than any guide can provide. It’s full of one-color maps, graphs, figures with specific findings, including that Cape Disappointment is the foggiest place on the U.S. Pacific coast.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at www.songandword.com.
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