Voyage of A Summer Sun: Canoeing the Columbia River

by Robin Cody

At the center of Robin Cody's book is the great river -rich with history, myth, riverfolk, salmon and the effects of progress. Winner of the Oregon Book Award and a PNBA Book award, Voyage of a Summer Sun is the account of a fascinating, personal a modern-day expedition down the length of the Columbia River.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Nature, Memoir, Environment, Science Nature, Natural History

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

An Oregon native, Robin Cody is the author of Ricochet River and Voyage of a Summer Sun, both of which appear on the Oregon State Library's "150 Oregon Books for the Oregon Sesquicentennial" list. Voyage of a Summer Sun won the Oregon Book Award for literary nonfiction. Cody has worked as an English teacher, a dean of college admissions, a baseball umpire, and a school bus driver. He lives in Portland.

Reviews

[Mykle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find myself more and more drawn to rivers. Last summer I got to float a short segment of the Willamette with some friends, and had a magical time. Since then I've been thinking about trying to float from Portland to Astoria next summer on some kind of junk barge, and doing some research on the matter. I forget how I heard about this book, but it's pretty much the perfect document: a guy somewhat like myself (but much better at boats) describes the entire length of the Columbia from the seat of his canoe.

It took me a chapter or two to get acclimated to the language, which initially comes off as a bit posh-poety but became entirely forgivable as I settled into Cody's mindset. It's amazing how he never runs out of words to describe coastline, or rowing, or water, or beavers, and remarkable how even-handed he is toward every farmer and dam-overseer he encounters, even though his sympathies clearly lie with the fish and the ducks. The big theme of this book is how the damming & complete regulation of the river has profoundly altered the experience of living on it or near it for everyone, and how everyone seems to know we're killing the fish & destroying native ways of life, but so many benefit from the dams, the irrigation, the hydropower and the calm state of the river that we probably can't ever go back of our own volition. All the structures and settlements take on a temple-like quality in that light, symbolizing a belief system in jeopardy.

I wish I knew the secret of keeping and relating such detailed accounts of experience. This book was written before it was economical to install surveillance devices in the bow of a canoe, and yet Cody seems to remember the full name of every single person he met of the river, what they looked like, everything they said and everything else about them, plus nuances of detail for every single bend in this very bendy river, a running census of waterfowl and fish and trains and RVs passing by ... every last thing a person could notice. Then he weaves in history, personal and otherwise, and a boatload of detailed research. Remarkably, it never gets dull or repetitive or even smug.

It leaves me wondering: is Robin Cody still alive? Is he my next-door neighbor? What does he have to say about the changes on the river since he wrote this? The Trojan nuclear plant is gone, but Hanford is still leaking radioactive water in the river. How are we doing, riverwise? I've come to realize that everybody in northern Oregon & southern Washington talks about the river, but very few of us actually go there. Probably this book is the next best thing.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book anticipating a spiritual, natural, and adventurous tale of a canoe trip along a river, the exact river being unimportant. By the third chapter I realized I was going to be reading a lot about the many dams, along the Columbia River in the Northwestern US. I would have abandoned the book except my next reads were still on reserve at the library. So, I stayed with it, and adjusted to the new focus. The author shared technical facts about dams (none of which I will retain) and dam’s impacts on civilization and the environment. He touches on native cultures, often wiped out by “progress,” Lewis and Clarke, the Oregon Trail, and the more recent history of Hanford, where the US War Department secretly made plutonium for the atomic bomb. I didn’t realize how much of this history was tied to the Columbia River. I didn’t find it to be a dry read as the author shares his thoughts and observations, along with facts. He also shares his encounters with people along the shorelines when he stops to camp or spend the night in town. Of course, he includes his interactions with the river as he paddles for eighty-two days. One of the most interesting was his description of being lowered inside a lock to the river below. Toward the end of the book, I googled his locations, and I was astounded at the beauty. I regretted not doing it earlier. So, as I read, I gradually changed my rating from 2, to 3, to 4 stars.

[Susan Conklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Take a canoe the entire length of the great Columbia River that starts in Canada and ends in Astoria, Oregon and the Pacific Ocean. You will feel as if you are riding along with Robin Cody as he describes not only his personal trials and tribulations along the way, you also get rich and fascinating history from apple orchards in Washington to zealous loggers and the history of the northwest.

[Bill Brewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Columbia River has fascinated me all of my life. From the history of industry at its mouth at Astoria to the haunting tales from its source in the Rocky Mountain trench of British Columbia it is a river of tremendous power and beauty. The Columbia River even made college English literature come alive with the musings of William Cullen Bryant in his poem Thanatopsis where he alludes to the Columbia:
“Or lost thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregan, and hears no sound,
Save his own dashings.. “
Robin Cody ties it all together with another of his superb books about the Pacific Northwest and especially its waterways. You cannot get closer to a river then spending months on it from its source to its mouth and in doing so you find out much about history and the world we in the Pacific Northwest live in. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Pacific Northwest and the natural world.

[Gwendolyn B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's ironic, isn't it? While it's easy to scoff at early, (and presumably less enlightened), white settlers who saw the Columbia River frontier as little more than profit harvesting grounds, the dominant culture's mentality has changed very little.

But the matter goes deeper than this exploitation. Today, there are those who either continue to participate in the planet-for-profit model - exploiting land and laborers for monetary gain - or those who eschew this practice in favor of "conservation efforts" and forest "management," as though the spruces, cedars, and sequoias couldn't grow without our intervention. Some will combine the two, putting a do-gooder spin on profit-making, like "thinning the forest" for paper production or damming the river to prevent flooding. Under any of these models, nature is an entity to conquer, subdue, and control.

Then suddenly, lightening strikes a tree in a dry forest. The ground below Portland and Vancouver starts to tremble. Mt. St. Helens declares, "F*ck you all, I'm gonna blow." Or the mighty tide of the Pacific Ocean pushes back against Robin Cody's canoe as he drifts into the mouth of the Columbia River. Then we're reminded, through a violence that humbles us, of our lowly Place in this world.

Combining Huck Finn-esque encounters with commentaries on everything from salmon to Indian relations to nuclear power production, Cody treats readers to an adventurous tour de force as he floats his canoe from the Columbia River's genesis in western Canada to its mighty finale in Astoria, Oregon. There's especially little travel writing on the underrated beauty of high desert country - and arguably little to write *about* when surrounded by sagebrush the-world-over - but Cody finds plenty to recount of its history, industry, natural world, and modern-day inhabitants. I closed this book feeling a new love of a region that I know so well and look forward to reading more of Cody's work.

[Mathieu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Cody's narrative of his journey by canoe for the length of the Columbia River, from Canada to Astoria, Oregon.

It is a well told story. If you know a canoe, or if you know a river, you understand and experience the adventure along with Cody. And if you know both, it is almost experiencing the Columbia for yourself.

Cody expands that experience with observations of the history of the Columbia, from Indigenous stories about the origins of the Pacific Northwest landscape, to geologic stories about the ice dams and floods and volcanoes that shaped and carved the landscape. He also describes the takeover of the land by the European settlers from the Indigenous people who resided here.

Cody enriches his experience with insights about nature. The plants and animals that he lived with for 80 some days. The wind and rain and sun that challenged him, along with the river that both influenced and was influenced by the weather. The changes from moisture rich landscapes to desert.

We are also exposed to the people that Cody meets. Some are talkative, some are not. Some live with the river, some are visitors. The river has its supporters, and others see the jobs created by dams and irrigation. The control of nature, by the dams on the Columbia or the atoms at Hanford on its banks, has brought economic life to the Northwest, at the same time it has depleted so much of nature's life.

Cody gives us insight and thought provoking views of what is now the Columbia River and the surrounding landscape and people. Written in 1995, there have been some significant changes, and the 2012 afterword by Cody fills some of that in. This is a solid portrayal of the Columbia, of the influence it has across and beyond the Northwest, and of the adventure of a thoughtful and observant canoeist.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was published in 1995 and the voyage down the river was done in 1990, but it is still relevant in 2018. I have lived on the Columbia for 11 years and have lived in and near several other places noted in this book, so it had strong personal interest.

Cody grew up on the Columbia River and his family was emotionally and physically involved with the river. In his late 40s (about halfway through the book, I realized that Cody and I are the same age), he undertook canoeing from the headwaters of the river at Columbia Lake in Canada down the entire river to the Pacific Ocean at Astoria. I loved his attitude toward the river: “I paddled here as a visitor, not master…I wasn’t even the unrivaled head of the food chain.” (p 22) His writing is often beautiful. He is almost always able to achieve just the right balance of story and mythology, history, personal reflections, description of people he meets, environmental concerns – the past and the present and the future. Although he definitely has an environmental slant, he also can see the importance and beauty in the dams and the especially in the people who work on the river. How wonderful that this book has so much meaning more than 20 years after it was published.

[Betsey Stahler · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book! This book has it all -- setting, writing, characters and more. I found myself tearing little strips of paper to mark pages that had a beautiful line or beautiful paragraph that I wanted to be able to read again and just bathe myself in the words. Ahhhhh.... And then I learned so much about this river I can see from my kitchen, my dining table, my living room. Roll on, Columbia, roll on.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iwould love to see an update of this book with the sites mentioned revisited. Robin Cody is a fine writer, combining wit with solid information, and some soul-searching about this great river. I live in the Columbia River Gorge so I learned a great deal about where the river has been by the time it rolls through these cliffs.

[Mama Llama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting travelogue by a man who canoed, by himself, from the source to the end of the Columbia River. It was a pleasurable trip and I learned much I didn't know about the river.

[Susana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've lived near this river for much of my life. Now I feel even more connected to it. Thanks Mr Cody!

[Susana · Rating 5 out of 5]

... and here I thought I knew the Columbia River. Mr Cody educated me in such a delightful way

[bookinglibrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re looking for the best book to read about the Columbia River, this may be it. And even if you’re not, I highly recommend Robin Cody's book for anyone interested in understanding this vital artery of the environment, ecology & economy of the Pacific Northwest.

For some reason in the mid 1990s, there was a spate of books published about the Columbia River and over the years I have been trying to determine which one to read, which one offered the perspective I sought whenever I’ve spent time on the Columbia. However, I couldn’t decide and while perusing the tables at the University Bookstore, I came across this book, also published in the mid-90s, but which I had never heard of.

Why do I recommend Cody’s book? I think because it’s from the perspective of the river, or as close as a human can experience the river, in all its dimensions. Cody has the credentials, both as a Columbia native, a longtime river dweller & explorer, and as a writer for, among other entities, the Bonneville Power Administration, one of the major transformers of the river as we know it.

In the summer of 1990, Cody paddled a canoe the length of the river from its source in British Columbia to its mouth at the Pacific Ocean. He passes, with the river, through a landscape of fire and ice: deserts, mountains, coulees, the gorge, orchards, farmlands, parks, forests, fish hatcheries, towns, Indian reservations, paper mills, aluminum plants, the Hanford nuclear site and of course, multiple dams. He experiences blistering sun, tremendous thunderstorms, raging winds and gentle rain. He encounters many kinds of wildlife—bears, moose, deer, beavers, eagles, geese, white pelicans, mosquitoes, gnats, salmon, carp, sturgeon, and there are places where he sees none of these creatures. He talks to all types of river people along the way, including Indians from multiple bands, farmers, fishermen, engineers, restaurant workers, park rangers, wind surfers, store owners, newspaper publishers, kids, campers. And the Columbia arguably impacts them as much as their actions have impacted it, for the real story is about how humans have dramatically changed this river, channeling its energy into ours.

I’m not sure Cody’s Columbia story would be much different 20 years later. Yes, there are art installations by Maya Lin along the river commemorating spots of the Lewis & Clark expedition and its legacy. Tour boats now explore the Hanford Reach, the looming Trojan nuclear plant is gone and numerous vineyards are among the agricultural offerings along the river’s shores. Perhaps there is more concern about the still-endangered salmon and certainly greater awareness of other environmental issues. However, I wish there was more serious consideration of restoring Celilo Falls, for while it’s debatable whether a river the size and complexity of the Columbia can have a single soul (for lack of a better term)—in fact, Cody’s journey indicates otherwise—the restoration of the Falls would be a step in redeeming what we humans have done.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit aprehensive about reading this book, just because I thought that it may be a bit dry. Instead it was a completely delightful read and really interesting. I loved the way the author eased his way into the actual canoe trip by giving the reader a background of his family and his Dads love of the river. Robin Cody gives a wonderful history of the Columbia river and the dam's that provide the Pacific Northwest with power, as well as colorful accounts of his trip and the characters he meets along the way. This book is really eye-opening and heart-breaking in many ways; the loss of native life-styles up and down the river as the dam's went in; the change of landscape as these dam's backed up creating reservoirs and leveling age-old falls.

If you have a connection with the Pacific Northwest or a love of rivers and wildlife, I would definately recommend this book.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

S O V E R Y M U C H information in this book: as the description says, "rich with history, myth, riverfolk, salmon and the effects of progress." The words I use are: Indian folklore and fables and the treaties, dams and locks, salmon and fish ladders and yes, "rich with history". He spent 82 days (mid June-Labor Day 1990) canoeing from Columbia Lake (BC Canada) to where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific Ocean (Astoria, OR).
Since I did not absorb all the info, I want to read this again as lot of familiarity with places once he made it into the "states".

[Leeann59 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is wonderfully written. He connects you with the esthetics of the river along with history and environmental impacts of the dams. He does so through facts, interviews and is not judgemental though it would be difficult to igore the conclusions of man's impact.
If you are interested in more info on the whole water in the west history Cadillac Desert is an excellent book. It turns out this wasn't done so much for the people but for the politicians. what a surprise!!!

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice introduction to the history of the Pacific Northwest, and a wonderful snapshot of the Columbia River in the early 90s. The issues facing the river and those depending on it are still recognizable now, 25 years later, but some things have changed. Cody writes with an interesting mix of styles - dryly humorous, swept-away Romantic, matter-of-fact/perfunctory - that helps emotionally underscore his narrative. All told, a good read.

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cody takes us on a meandering canoe journey from the source of the Columbia river to the sea. Somewhat dated and a little self-indulgent but still interesting. Sasquatch Books gets negative points for the book falling to pieces in my hands as I read it.

[Lissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling and sobering. Cody travels the length of the Columbia River from Canadian headwaters to Astoria, reporting the both the beauty of the land and river, as well as the degradation of the environment.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic! For anyone who would like to know more about the adventure of navigating a large river, or how human development has changed the face of the river over time. Read this just after seeing "Grand Coulee Dam" on The American Experience.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story really made me want to jump in my canoe and get out on the water. The tale gets a little boring after Hanford, but the river above sounded really interesting. Lots of history on the Columbia.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

i learned a lot about the damming of the columbia and the people and land it has effected. you should read it. seriously.

[Chapple · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paddling from source to mouth of the Columbia with Robin Cody gives you a great look at geography, culture, wildlife and stories. Great Northwest read.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was enjoyable and easy to read. The history of the river and people and especially the dams on the river was a good part of the book.

[Jim Bronec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book that kept me engaged with the Authors journey down the Columbian River. I liked how he engaged with and wrote about the local communities along the river.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

really entertaining until he gets to the gorge and just kind of wants to be home...

[Ben]

A good book.