The Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska Book

Have you ever wondered what that national park ranger collecting your entrance fee and warning you about the wildlife is really thinking and dreaming about? Kim Heacox begins his life in Alaska as a young seasonal ranger in Glacier Bay. There is a good chance two of the people who heard his cruise ship lecture were my maternal grandparents. He blossoms into a naturalist and conservationist whose photographs are every bit as amazing as his writing.

I was drawn to "The Only Kayak" for the same reason Heacox is drawn to the kayak: It is a unique way to interact with our world. Your are more vulnerable to the capriciousness of mother nature while at the same time exposed to her creatures on their turf. Two of my most unforgettable experiences have been kayaking off the coast of Maui with a pod of dolphins leaping through the air and with a raft of sea otters using rocks to open shells in Monterey Bay.

The fact that "The Only Kayak" is about so much more than just kayaking is both its greatest strength and weakness. I love the way Heacox weaves together his adventures with "geotheomorphology," local history, photography, literature and the Beatles as music therapy. What could be more awesome than swapping John Muir and F. Scott Fitzgerald quotes with a new friend while on an epic kayak journey? How he saves his future wife's life on a later trip is even more amazing.

Unfortunately, the second half of the book gradually loses steam as Heacox increasingly focuses on his environmental activism, which I found tedious after a while. Even Heacox becomes profoundly bored at a meeting with the park superintendent. Getting married and finding regular jobs leaves Heacox and his friends wistfully staring at maps of places they wish they could explore.

Heacox has a follow-up book on Denali, but he relates some of those experiences in "The Only Kayak" and I have had my fill of his environmental activism. I haven't been able to find the right book with his photography. Instead, I want to learn more about John Muir as well as his relationship with Teddy Roosevelt. I am not sure how close they became, but close enough for Muir to ask TR when he was going to outgrow his "childish habit" of killing all the wildlife he encountered. Douglas Brinkley's "The Wilderness Warrior" might just fit the bill.