Water Words: “The Canoeist”
The Canoeist
A Memoir
by John Manuel
Jefferson Press, 2006
215 Pages
The Canoeist recounts the early and middle life of John Manuel from his early years spent in Ohio until his relocation to North Carolina in his twenties. Manuel gives a thread to the story in two ways. His relationship with his demanding father was not the best. It reads like many baby boomer histories, John growing up in a conventional household where his father tried to impress the value of hard work, defined roles, traditional jobs. John resisted, as did his siblings and the Manuel household was often a battleground in the changing cultural battles of the 1960’s and 70’s. Despite their contentious relationship, his father did instill one value in John, a love of rivers and canoeing.
The other device Manuel uses in his narrative is the naming of chapters after rivers he is paddling at particular points in his life. The Chagrin defines early rebellion and lasting resentment. The Lost meanders through his rudderless early twenties. The use of river names works especially well in the middle chapters: Cuyahoga, Upper Haw, Lower Haw. The Cuyahoga is the Ohio river so famously polluted with waste, effluent, and spilled oil, that it burst into flames several times, on the worst occasion spreading to envelope nearby shipyards. Fireboats were called out to spray water on the burning river and tugboats. This disaster helped to spur the passage of the Clean Water Act. Manuel worked for the Ohio Conservation Foundation and was proud of his contributions to improving the Upper Cuyahoga but he realized it was time for a change of jobs and most of all a change of location, putting some distance from his home waters and heading south.
Manuel landed in North Carolina and quickly adapted to the cultural differences and the prolific rivers. He made friends, purchased his first canoe and became a fixture in the local paddling scene. This was a time when if a paddler wanted to know if a river was runnable, he or she would drop by Haw River Canoe or River Runners Emporium and get the scoop on river levels and paddling opportunities. A chance encounter on the Chapel Hill campus led John to notice Cathy and soon they were dating. The critical juncture in their romance occurred on their first paddling trip, a tandem canoe on the Upper Haw. Despite some bumps the trip went well and they continued to flourish, tackling harder rapids on the Lower Haw and harder challenges such as living together. They are still married and still paddling together so they made it work.
The chapter on the Pigeon could be of particular interest to people who remember when paddling first started on the river. In the early 70’s Manuel dreamed of finding an undiscovered, pristine, rapid filled stream flowing through a beautiful, hidden gorge. The Pigeon wasn’t pristine or remote but it satisfied most of his quest. His crew was one of the first to take canoes on the river, guided by perhaps the first person to start a paddle company on the Pigeon, Jerry Taylor. Taylor died soon thereafter in a horse riding accident and a plaque memorializing him graces the Big Rock/BFR just past Powerhouse rapid on the Pigeon.
Of course the river was turbid but what action it held, with then unnamed rapids marking the entire run. The Dirty Bird, as it came to be known, was stained and stinking but with non-stop rapids and bedazzling scenery.
Manuel does a good job describing the paddling action in a precise, involving way. You feel the push of the water, the missed line, the sudden swim and the exhilaration of a run well made.
John Manuel lives in Durham and still writes and paddles. Carolina Paddler contacted him for this article and he was just finishing a six-day trip through Desolation Canyon on the Green River in Utah. He has three novels: Hope Valley, The Lower Canyons and Solitario: The Lonely One. He’s also written a guidebook, The Natural Traveler Along North Carolina’s Coast in addition to his memoir, The Canoeist.” He continues to write for publications like Our State and NC Wildlife.
John Manuel’s website: https://jsmanuel.com The Canoeist is no longer in print but copies are available from the author at mannyjohn776@gmail.com
Report by Alton Chewning