The Lure of Faraway Places is the publication canoeist Herb Pohl (1930-2006) did not live to see published. But Pohl’s words and images provide a unique portrait of Canada by one who was happiest when travelling our northern waterways alone. Austrian-born Herb Pohl died at the mouth of the Michipcoten River on July 17, 2006. He is remembered as "Canada’s most remarkable solo traveller." While mourning their loss, Herb Pohl’s friends found, to their surprise and delight, a manuscript of wilderness writings on his desk in his lakeside apartment in Burlington, Ontario. He had hoped one day to publish his work as a book. With help and commentary from best-selling canoe author and editor James Raffan, Natural Heritage is proud to present that book, Herb’s book, The Lure of Faraway Places. "There’s nothing like it in canoeing literature," says Raffan. "It’s part journal, part memoir, part wilderness philosophy and part tips and tricks of the most pragmatic kind written about parts of the country most of us will never see by the most committed and ambitious solo canoeist in Canadian history."

This book examines Aboriginal resistance movements on Canada, focussing especially on the Temagami and Oka blockades.

The Temagami region of northern Ontario has been a magnet for recreational canoeists since the 1890s, when city dwellers began embarking on long, gruelling trips to reach its unfettered wilderness. The land is steeped in the history of its tribal inhabitants, the Teme-Augama Anishnabai (TAA), whose roots are 6,000 years deep. At the turn of the 20th century, the TAA still hunted on their traditional family territories, trading pelts at the Hudson's Bay Company post on Bear Island. The railway arrived in 1904, easing travel from all over North America. Steamships conveyed passengers to all five arms of the lake where rustic resorts and youth camps were popping up. Soon, the village of Temagami became a tourism hub. Logging and mining would later diversify the economy. The province of Ontario began leasing the lake's more than 1,200 islands in 1906. In 1931 cottagers united against logging near the mainland shoreline under the Timagami Association banner, now the Temagami Lakes Association. Temagami is the only Ontario lake where mainland shoreline development is banned Temagami Lakes Association: The Life and Times of a Cottage Community recounts Temagami's history to 2011, and examines the Association's often convoluted, occasionally controversial, relationships with the TAA, various levels of government, villagers and within its own ranks. The narrative is lightened by cottagers' tales of mice invasions, flesh-embedded fish hooks, encounters with big screen stars, cabin construction gone awry and the like. More than 150 photos enliven the text.

Carol and Bruce Hodgins began leading canoe trips in 1957 for Camp Wanapitei on Lake Temagami in Northern Ontario, initially to the great rivers of that region and on into Quebec. Their first venture north of 60 found them on the South Nahanni, soon to be followed by the Coppermine River, and by the 1990s their annual tripping took them to the Soper River on Baffin Island. included with their richly descriptive accounts of wilderness travel with groups of people, are kayak adventures in Baja California, Mexico, and the Queen Charlottes, paddling in and near the Everglades and explorations on Heritage rivers in the Maritimes and along the coast of Newfoundland. Few have personally experienced the breadth of wilderness travel in Canada as have the Hodgins husband-and-wife team. Their fifty years as "paddling partners," a legendary achievement, is a story of shared joys, challenges, triumphs and mishaps, delightfully told and augmented by excerpts from daily logs, historical insights and the tidbits of experience gleaned over the years.

A symbol unique to Canada, the canoe is one of the greatest gifts of First Peoples to all those who came after.

A self-taught artist and photographer, Hap Wilson has travelled over sixty thousand kilometres by canoe and snowshoe, and embarked on more than three hundred wilderness expeditions. He is one of North America's best-known wilderness guides and canoeists, and has been building sustainable trails for more than thirty years. He is also the co-founder of the environmental group Earthroots. He lives in Rosseau, Ontario. for more information, please visit Hap's website at www.eskakwa.ca. Ingrid Zschogner is a self taught artist and outdoor enthusiast who has been creating detailed portraits in oil, graphite, and pastel for more than fifteen years. She is also a professional trailbuilder, wilderness guide, and environmental activist. To view Ingrid's portfolio, please visit her website at www.wildrosedesigns.ca.

“A definitive guide to astronomy’s hottest field.” —The Economist Since its formation nearly five billion years ago, our planet has been the sole living world in a vast and silent universe. But over the past two decades, astronomers have discovered thousands of “exoplanets,” including some that could be similar to our own world, and the pace of discovery is accelerating. In a fascinating account of this unfolding revolution, Lee Billings draws on interviews with the world’s top experts in the search for life beyond earth. He reveals how the search for exoplanets is not only a scientific challenge, but also a reflection of our culture’s timeless hopes, dreams, and fears.

Over the course of a dozen years, Scottish plant collector Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889?1982) explored northern latitudes from the Lofoten Islands of Norway to the far reaches of the American Aleutians. To achieve her goals, she traveled by any means available, from rowboats in Greenland to trading schooners and coast-guard vessels in Alaska. When necessary, she journeyed by snowshoe or sled in pursuit of her botanical specimens, accompanied only by strangers who served as guides. In Flowers in the Snow, Gwyneth Hoyle paints a vivid portrait of a woman gloriously out of the step with the conventions of her time.

The best canoe, kayak and hiking routes in the wild Temagami region of Ontario. Temagami is one of the northern hemisphere's most desirable and pristine wilderness areas. Each year thousands of Americans and Europeans visit this 4,000 square mile wilderness area in Central Ontario in search of rugged solitude and truly authentic backwoods adventure. This comprehensive guidebook clearly details 25 of the best canoeing, kayaking and hiking routes and contains notes on the region's history, geography, archaeology, flora and fauna, as well as important outfitting, camping and safety tips. Trips include: Temagami to Lake Wanapitei Loop Florence Lake Loop Marten River to Wicksteed Loop Lake Temagami Circle Loop Red Cedar to Jumping Cariboo Lake Loop Diamond, Wakimika and Obabika Lake Loop Anima Nipissing and Jackpine Lake Loop Rabbit and Twin Lakes Loop Turner Lake Loop Matabitchuan River Route Nasmith and Obabika River Route Lady Evelyn, Makobe River, Montreal River Loop Anima Nipissing -- Montreal River Loop Maple Mountain Loop Sugar Lake, Muskego River Links Gowganda to Elk Lake Route Sydney Creek Route Smoothwater Lake to Gowganda Route Smoothwater Lake, Lady Evelyn River Loop Makobe Lake and Trethewey Lake Links Smoothwater Lake to Sturgeon River Route

For sublimity and philosophical grandeur Milton stands almost alone in world literature. His peers are Homer, Virgil, Dante, Wordsworth, and Goethe. Gordon Teskey shows how Milton’s aesthetic joins beauty to truth and value to ethics and how he rediscovers the art of poetry as a way of thinking in the world as it is, and for the world as it can be.