Disappointment River

Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage

By: Brian Castner

Narrated by: Brian Castner

Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1789, Alexander Mackenzie traveled the 1,125 miles of the immense river in Canada that now bears his name, in search of the fabled Northwest Passage, only to confront impassable pack ice. In 2016 the acclaimed memoirist Brian Castner retraced Mackenzie's route by canoe in a grueling journey - and discovered the passage he could not find.

Disappointment River is a dual historical narrative and travel memoir that at once transports listeners back to the heroic age of North American exploration and places them in a still rugged but increasingly fragile Arctic wilderness in the process of profound alteration by the dual forces of energy extraction and climate change. Eleven years before Lewis and Clark, the Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie actually crossed the North American continent with a team of voyageurs and Indian guides. Before that he was the first to discover a route to the Arctic Ocean from the Great Lakes, along the river he named Disappointment because he believed he'd failed in his mission to find a trade route to the riches of the East. In fact he had - he was just two-plus centuries early.

In this book, Brian Castner not only retells the story of Mackenzie's epic voyages in vivid prose, he personally retraces his travels in an 1,125 mile canoe voyage down the river that bears his name, battling exhaustion, exposure, mosquitoes, white-water rapids, and the threat of bears. He transports listeners to a world rarely glimpsed in the media, of tar sands, thawing permafrost, remote Native American villages, and, at the end, a wide open Arctic Ocean that is quickly becoming a far-northern Mississippi of barges and pipelines and oil money.

©2018 Brian Castner (P)2018 Random House Audio

Obscure History and High Adventure

I enjoyed this saga of little-known history of McKenzie and the English Chief's search for a Northwest Passage interspersed with the challenges of the author's (Brian Castner's) quest to canoe the route in 2016. Further, I was reminded of many similar experiences in backwoods across the globe and found myself looking for time to continue the narrative. Note: I don't recall Castner describing his portages due to waterfalls along his modern day McKenzie River run.

Canoe Travel Inspiration

This is a fascinating story of two canoe trips happening alongside each other 100+ years apart. The history of Sir Alexander MacKenzie, Native Nation neighbors, and the voyageurs in parallel to Brian Castner's narrative of traveling down the MacKenzie river in 2016 inspire this reader to plan for canoe travel, and aspire to perhaps a larger expedition someday.

Fantastic adventure story, excellent reading

This was an excellent story of both and historical adventure and a contemporary rediscovery of the same journey. I felt very connected to both of the narrators experience as well as McKenzies adventuresome spirit.

If you are a student of pioneers and adventurers, this one absolutely belongs in your library .

Instantly transported to the voyage

This is a great selection. The author does a fantastic job of transporting you to both his and Mackenzie's voyage. The entire book will keep you engaged. I wanted to learn more about Mackenzie's voyage and did so. And as much as I enjoyed the story of Mackenzie's voyage, I enjoyed hearing about the author's voyage more.

History come alive!

Learn a long forgotten piece of Canadian high school history, much embelished with colorful detail. sad to hear history of how the colonizers destroyed a plentiful land and willfully created a relationship of dependence among the indigenous population.
Loved the parallel journeys. Author as narrator lent authenticity - a form of oral history.

Part memoir, part history

I really enjoyed listening to this book, the author narrates both his journey and historical parts very well. I found the historical parts about Mackenzie and the trade so interesting and well researched. Castner brings the characters and landscape to life and you feel how harsh and brutal that part of the world was back then, and how not much has changed so many years later. (Except for the glaring effects of climate change).

Well worth a listen and checking out other books narrated by the author too!

high adventure + history

Read by the author, this first hand account of his retracing history is a well woven story of the "then" and the "now." Well done!

Thoroughly enjoyed this Book!

Great story about an interesting time on the North American continent. Well written and well told, did not want it to end...

Great History

This is the first book I've listened to on here that I had to slowdown the play rate of. I listened to this book at 0.75x speed because the reader just seemed to read a little fast to me.
As far as the information in the book. It's good history stuff, a little boring at the beginning but it picks up. My biggest problem with the book is that it's a mix of history which is great with the author's own canoeing trip down the Mackenzie River. It's at least half and half. Would have preferred just a book about Mackenzie's history.

Great

I enjoyed the book. Canoe the Rockastle river Ky. with no portages and you will appreciate it even more.