The day after her 43rd birthday Ann Linnea (and her brother-friend, Paul) begin circumnavigating Lake Superior by kayak, a 1200-mile spiritual and physical journey of 65 days. In order to complete this passage, and move onto the next phase of her life (which includes leaving her husband of 21 years), the author struggles to overcome physical and emotional limits while battling raging seas, bitter winds and freezing temperatures. Her desire to understand the changes she needs to make lead her on a search for life-affirming answers, and ultimately allow her to find purpose and meaning in her life. The insights she shares enable the reader to bear witness to her transformation as she faces self-doubt, life-threatening danger and exercises her choice to live. A marathon runner and cross country skier, Linnea is no stranger to the elements, no idle pursuer of physical challenges. Her life lessons are learned through her body. In the summer of 1992, Ann Linnea became the first woman to circumnavigate Lake Superior. Her experience with "She-Who-Is-The-Biggest" changed her life. The telling of that experience is both moving and meaningful.

Ann Linnea writes about many issues that women face as they grapple with motherhood, careers, love, relationships, and sense of self. Her harrowing kayak trip around Lake Superior is the back drop for her journey toward self realization. Her struggles with the elements, as she paddles, mirror her struggles toward self understanding. This is a wonderful book about courage, and an eloquent statement about what it means to be a woman. It is a good read for kayakers as well as non-kayakers, women, as well as men.

A luminous book, filled with adventure, discovery and emotional truths. Since I live in Michigan, I'm very familiar with Lake Superior, and the images that Linnea evokes are wonderful: she made me feel the storms, the magic, and the fury that the Lake can unleash.

The emotional part of the story is a somewhat familiar one, but it is beautifully told. Any woman who has taken the track that society told her to take--at her own expense (and many, like me, who actually had a mother who told them to question it)--can relate to this story. In taking this journey Linnea found the rest of her life. We are fortunate to be able to take both journeys with her: the inward and the outward. I am filled with pride that this strong woman had the courage to take both leaps: the one that took her around the big lake, and the one that took her away from a man who had no egregious flaws, but who wasn't meeting her needs in any way except financially. Sadly, societal pressures still tell women that any "decent" man is better than being alone, and if you find one, your happiness is less important than that of your family. Of course, "decent" is open to discussion: a man who won't even adjust his university schedule to spend time with his children doesn't seem like a particulary stunning father to me. For too long a woman's happiness has been subjugated to that of her husband and children. Linnea reclaimed her joy: I'm sure her children feel and appreciate that joy.

My only gentle criticism of this book is that Linnea at times waxes a little too New Age for me, but the quest for traditions that speak to women in a way that our patriarchal choices do not is a very valid one.

This is a wonderful book to give as a gift: It's an adventure story, an introspective memoir, and a delightful travelogue. Give it in good health!