Pushing the River Book Review

Recently, I read Pushing the River by Frank Bures and enjoyed it thoroughly. The book documents the history of marathon racing on the Mississippi River, other stories from the region, some of the author’s personal adventures and his brush with death on cold water. Overall, it was an entertaining read and well worth picking up for your winter reading.

I find book reviews somewhat tedious, but I did want to recommend this book to PaddlingLight’s readers, so I’ll be brief with this review.

The History of the Paul Buyan Canoe Derby

The book starts with a detailed history of the Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby race, which started in the early 1900s and continued until the 1960s. Bures uses newspapers, interviews and other sources to document the race in the best way possible. The writing is entertaining, and the history feels relevant to modern paddling. What I found most interesting was the diversity of racers, how far away they came from, and the innovations in canoes and paddling styles that were made during the race’s history.

Stories and a Brush with Death

After charting the history of the Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby, Bures writes about some of his adventures, which are fun to read. This includes a narrative called Dead Cold, which tells the story of the author almost dying after capsizing on the Mississippi River just after ice out. After that he turns to other adventures. The story about a couple getting caught in the middle of the Pagami Creek Fire in the Boundary Waters had me gripping my armchair.

The Mississippi River Record

After the adventure section, we get several stories about racing for the record descent of the Mississippi River. Those four stories were also fun to read.

The Risks of Paddling on Cold Water

Hidden in the appendix, Bures recaps what happened to him after he almost died and then dives into the lessons learned and what you need to know about the risks of paddling on cold water. Both the Dead Cold story and the lessons learned are worth the price of the book, but you also get all those extra stories.

Highly Recommended

This was one of the better paddling adventure books that I’ve read in awhile, and I highly recommend it even if you think racing canoes isn’t your thing.

Get it here: Pushing the River

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