Liminal zones
Subtitle: where lakes end and rivers begin
By: Kim Trevathan
Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Knoxville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 221
ISBN-13: 9781572339538
Subjects: Canoes and canoeing; Description and travel; Limnology; Dams; Travel; NATURE / Ecosystems & Habitats / Rivers; Rivers
Description: "After the death of his paddling companion, a German shepherd-labrador retriever mix named  Jasper, Kim Trevathan began a series of solitary upstream kayaking quests in search of what  he calls "liminal zones," transitional areas where dammed reservoirs give way to the current  of the rivers that feed them. For four years he scoured the rivers and lakes of America, where  environmentally damaging, and now decaying, man-made structures have transformed the  waterways. In this thoughtful work, he details his upriver adventures, describing the ecological  and aesthetic differences between a dammed river and a free-flowing river and exploring the  implications of what liminal zones represent--a reassertion of pure, unadulterated nature over  engineered bodies of water.  Trevathan began by exploring the rivers and creeks of his childhood: the Blood River and  Clarks River in western Kentucky. He soon ventured out to the Wolf River, the Big South Fork  of the Cumberland, and other waterways in Tennessee. In 2008, he looped around the country  with trips to Indiana's Tippecanoe River, Montana's Clearwater River, Oregon's Deschutes and  Rogue Rivers, and Colorado's Dolores River, as well as adventures on such southeastern rivers  as the Edisto, the Tellico, and the Nantahala. To Trevathan, paddling upstream became a sort of  religion, with a vaporous deity that kept him searching. Each excursion yielded something  unexpected, from a near-drowning in the Rogue River to a mysterious fog bank that arose across  the Nantahala at midday.  Throughout Liminal Zones, Trevathan considers what makes certain places special, why  some are set aside and protected, why others are not, and how free-flowing streams remain  valuable to our culture, our history, and our physical and spiritual health. This contemplative  chronicle of his journeys by water reveals discoveries as varied and complex as the rivers  themselves."--