In the summer of 1991 Michael Burke, an experienced river guide, embarks on a three-week journey down a series of remote rivers in British Columbia. Leaving behind his pregnant wife, he embraces the perils of a voyage with a companion he barely knows in a raft that may not weather the trip. He attempts to reconcile the shifting fates of his life--"his transition from river guide to husband, father, and academic. Ac the same time, he hopes to explore his connection to a distant relative, Sid Barrington, who was a champion "swiftwater pilot of the North" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As Burke contemplates what Sid and he may have had in common, he meditates on the changing meaning of rivers and the impossibility of fully recovering the past. In clear and graceful prose, Burke blends Sid's colorful history with his own uncommon journey. He also reflects upon the quick currents of time and the fierce passion he shares with Sid for the life of river running in Alaska and the West. Unlike most river-running books, which describe waterways in the lower forty-eight states,