As long as there are young men with the light of adventure in their eyes and a touch of wildness in their souls, rapids will be run.

There is magic in the feel of a paddle and the movement of a canoe, a magic compounded of distance, adventure, solitude, and peace. The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness and of a freedom almost forgotten. It is an antidote to insecurity, the open door to waterways of ages past and a way of life with profound and abiding satisfactions. When a man is part of his canoe, he is part of all that canoes have ever known.

Wilderness to the people of America is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium.

Man's history is woven into waterways, for not only did he live beside them, but he used them as highways for hunting, exploration, and trade. Water assured his welfare, its absence meant migration or death, its constancy nourished his spirit. A mountain, a desert, or a great forest might serve his need of strength, but water reflects his inner needs.

The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness, and of a freedom almost forgotten.

Awareness is becoming acquainted with environment, no matter where one happens to be.

Joys come from simple and natural things: mists over meadows, sunlight on leaves, the path of the moon over water.