Canoeing the Adirondacks with Nessmuk: The Adirondack Letters of George Washington Sears

My ultra light canoe from Slipstream is basically a replica of the Sairy Gamp and Wee Lassie, but elongated to 13 ft. I picked up this book to read along a trip from Lows Lake through to the Oswegatchi and ending in Wanakena. Was quite cool to read from the “inventor” (along with Rushton) of the canoe I was sitting in.In fact, the original Sairy and Wee Lassie are on display at the ADK Museum in Blue Mountain Lake! Go check them out. I can’t believe they’ve been preserved so long.This guy really has a way with words and I found myself laughing out loud at his descriptions of things, and also making notes where things he said 140+ years ago are still 100% pertinent today.Great read ! I’m currently reading Nessmuk’s Woodcraft book as I type this review. Same wit and candor. Love it.

I admit it: I am an addict for tales of the woods from the 19th century. Nessmuk, the pen name of George Washington Sears, was a most unlikely spokesman of the wild. Slight of build and racked with the consumption that weakened and eventually killed him, he nonetheless spent weeks and months exploring solo the waterways of both the Adirondacks and his native Pennsylvania.This tome is made up of several letters he wrote for publication in the magazine "Forest and Stream." The magazine was a very highly regarded sporting magazine of the late 19th century, including "We Seized Our Rifles," a collection of tales from the West, a number of which were taken from the magazine.Because of his small stature and weakness, Sears was an early proponent of traveling light, ordering a series of ever-lighter wooden canoes, culminating in the "Sairy Gamp," which weighed in at a scarcely believable ten and a half pounds. With rifle and fishing kit, Sears lived off the land in a way that even then was becoming less possible in the eastern wilds.This book makes an excellent winter read while you are preparing for the coming season's adventures. Also see my review of a book that was inspired by Nessmuk's adventures, "Adirondack Passage, "by Christine Jerome. She and her husband followed in Sears' wake in modern boats that were also made with an eye to extreme lightness.

Informative but not riveting could only read a chapter at a time. Just an OK book!

If your interested in how this canoeing thing got started read this. If your more of a racing canoe type not so much. If you want to know how to enrich your experience in the woods read this.

Real good read. Makes you long for the simpler times.

well written enjoyed it very much. i recommend to anyone is interest in the life of a woodsman. it woth a read and a leasen can be learned.

very excellent read

A great piece of Adirondack history of a time long past. Very enjoyable read by George Washington Sears (Nessmuck)an outdoor writer of a past age. Paddlers especially will enjoy this.

great book