Book Review: Where the Green Light Shines

In Where the Green Light Shines: A Fifty-Year Odyssey from the Boundary Waters to the Far North (available here), Ryan Rodgers sets out to tell the tale of the recreational canoe exploration of the Far North through the lens of Bob O’Hara. Bob O’Hara, a well-known figure among passionate Minnesota paddlers, has spent a lifetime of summers in the far north canoeing remote rivers and returning home to inspire a generation of paddlers who followed. The book follows his story.

Using journals from O’Hara and other tripping companions, Rodgers recreates the pivotal expeditions from O’Hara’s life while trying to find formative lessons within each. He uses this structure to explore history of the Far North. For example, early in the book after O’Hara visits a remote cabin on a river expedition. Rodgers then tells the story of John Hornby, Edgar Christian, and Harold Adlard, who starved to death there in 1927 due to not gathering enough food before winter set in. Rodgers weaves these stories into the narrative to help the reader not only learn about O’Hara but also about the history of the Far North before recreational canoeing there started to get more popular.

*Icebound on the Back River en route to Chantrey Inlet, 1976. Credit: Photograph by Bob O’Hara*

While reading the book, I was struck by the number of days that O’Hara and crew where either windbound or icebound and the number of near misses that they experienced. It seemed unusual by today’s standards. By reading the book, you’d be surprised that he and his crew survived at all.

I think in part that’s a testament to canoe and safety instruction that the industry and paddlers within it have expanded. When O’Hara first started paddling few programs existed to help canoeists grow their skills before venturing into the unknowns.

As the book nears an end, it switches from a focus on O’Hara and shifts to the next generation of paddlers with stories from Bear Paulsen, Peter Marshall, and others. If you have attended Canoecopia, the world’s largest paddlesports expo, you likely would recognize some of the names as presenters. Their stories briefly expand the story of recreational canoeing in the far north.

I think that where Rodgers succeeds in this book is in preserving O’Hara’s story and placing his expeditions within the development of recreational paddling in the Far North. Even so, I wish that those individual stories had built towards a larger narrative. The lessons that Rodgers found within the journals didn’t always connect with me, and in the end I felt that the shift to the next generation of paddlers was too brief to show how O’Hara fully shaped the canoe culture that he in part created.

O’Hara hauls a canoe up the rocks, Quoich River, 1989. Credit: Photograph by Gayle Knutson. — *O’Hara hauls a canoe up the rocks, Quoich River, 1989. Credit: Photograph by Gayle Knutson*.

My reaction may also reflect my personal interests. I’ve never paddled in the Far North, although back when I was more into long-distance sea kayaking, I’ve dreamed of circumnavigating a few of the larger lakes, such as Great Bear, Great Slave, and Lake Athabasca, but I never felt the draw of the northern rivers. Maybe if I paddled one, I’d get hooked. After reading about all the hardships and near misses that O’Hara suffered, I’m not sure I’m motivated to try. I’d rather not die, to be honest.

Although I personally didn’t feel the draw of the Far North that the book set out to convey, those who are already fascinated by canoe expeditions in the north or Arctic may respond differently than I did. If that’s you, then Where the Green Light Shines (buy it here) offers a detailed account of one of canoeing’s legendary figures and the paddling traditions that he inspired.