Adam Shoalts does canoe trips I’ve only dreamed of. The journey narrated in Beyond the Trees is no exception. Launching on the Dempster Highway north of Dawson, Shoalts travels all the way across Northern Canada to finish at Baker Lake on a tributary to Hudson Bay.

Shoalts’ narrative is sparse and direct, neither moralizing nor sentimental. The ups and downs of the trip, both physical and emotional, will resonate with anyone who’s spent a good amount of time paddling in the wild.

What makes this trip even more unbelievable is that he completed it solo. This book is a study on solitude. At one point, Shoalts meets an unexpected lodge owner on a random northern lake only to decline the offer of a shower and food. The solitude sunk in.

Adventurers of all sorts, but especially Canadian paddlers should read this book. It fuels the imagination during those long winter evenings between canoe trips.

Shoalts, Adam. Beyond the Trees: A Journey Alone Across Canada’s Arctic. Penguin, 2019.