While not exactly northern canoe-camping, the aquatic adventure-readers among us would be quite remiss by neglecting this classic by John Wesley Powell, "The Exploration of the Colorado River"!

This is the personal account of how this one-armed explorer & Civil War vet mapped out the Colorado from Wyoming to Arizona, probably the last large "unknown" area in the mainland 48 states (less than 48, at the time... yes, I know).  It is a relatively short book that first came out in 1875.  This book isn't just ABOUT history, it IS history.  This is the story written by the actual guy who was the first to go down the Grand Canyon!  It is kind of neat to see the world & those sights as HE first saw them (and NOT as some historian sums up how he "thinks" Powell first saw them).  Since Powell was a 1st rate geologist, too, it is a highly descriptive account of that marvelous scenery.

This is a quick, exciting, must-read for those who enjoy the adventure aspect of first explorations, especially a legendary one like this.

Jimbo