Magnetic North: A Trek Across Canada

In May 1977, 20-year-old Halsey set out from Vancouver on a wilderness trek across Canada on foot, snowshoe, dogsled and canoe. His three companions abandoned the expedition almost immediately, but Halsey continued alone and was later joined by photographer Peter Souchuk and a friendly coyote-dog, Ki, both of whom stayed with him until August 1979, when they reached the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Halsey's restless passion for adventure led him to tackle every danger the wilderness had to offer--hazardous rapids and ice floes, treacherous mountain ridges and perilously freezing weather--and he recorded all in vivid detail. Fired by a compulsive energy that later manifested itself as manic depression, he died, a probable suicide, in 1982, and Landau, his editor at Sierra Club Books, assembed his diaries and other records into this engrossing account of the two-year journey. (Oct.)