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Brett Hodnett

Paddling with a Naturalist

I decided to write Paddling with a Naturalist because I noticed that an awful lot of people are really interested in the natural world. I also noticed that many of the books I’ve found on the subject do a great job of describing the natural world, or of illuminating some of the amazing behaviour of the myriad of species around us, but very few really focus on why things are the way they are. In Paddling with a Naturalist I try to give readers a deeper understanding of the “why” in a way that I hope is enjoyable and easy to read. I’ve written it as a travelogue of a short canoe trip I took in Algonquin Park, Ontario. You’ll follow me through creeks and lakes, and along the portage trail, where we’ll discuss the things we come across - which is after all how the natural world presents itself on a canoe or hiking trip. By the end I hope you’ll find that you have a better understanding of the forces that make our beautiful natural world possible. I hope you enjoy it.

The book cover of Paddling with a Naturalist. The cover is a photograph taken from the front seat of a canoe. The nose of the canoe is in the image, the deck and carrying handle making up the foreground, ropes tied messily to them. Extremely calm flat water is in all directions beyond, and barely perceptible sparse clouds can be seen reflecting from it. Far in the background, thickly treed gentle hills run horizontally, the dark green sandwiched between the calm blue water below, and the slightly lighter blue sky above. In bold white translucent type 'Paddling With a Naturalist' is printed over the top half of the book cover. In much smaller type below, the author, Brett Hodnett, has his name printed in the same white, translucent type.