‘River’ juxtaposes two canoe trips

In 2016, journalist Brian Castner set off by canoe to navigate the length of the Mackenzie River.

The 1,100-mile Mackenzie flows through Canada's Northwest Territories from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean.

Castner was following the route of the 18th-century explorer for whom the river is named. Alexander Mackenzie was hoping that the river, previously untraveled by European settlers, would provide the long-sought Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean.

The river doesn't lead to the Pacific Ocean, of course, but the two journeys did leave Castner with a story to tell in "Disappointment River."

Castner alternates between his tale and Mackenzie's — and both serve as perfect examples of the type of grueling travel adventure that is far better experienced on the page • “Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage” (Doubleday, 352 pages, $28.95) by Brian Castner

than in real life.

The book begins at a leisurely pace, with some well-researched context and backstory.

Castner sums up the history of the fur trade in Canada, with special emphasis on the role of the voyageurs who canoed all around its waterways, and he backtracks through Mackenzie's life as a Scottish immigrant who worked his way up in the fur trade.

The story gains speed when the two men set out on the river.

As the narrative moves between the two, following their experiences on the same stretches of the river at the same time of year, similarities and differences in the journeys come to light.

Mackenzie, who was 27 at the time, traveled during what is now known as the “Little Ice Age” — so, even though he was canoeing during the summer, he often encountered ice. His party included 10 other men and four women packed into three birch-bark canoes.

Castner, 39, moved under a sun that was “piercing, headache-inducing, unavoidable.” Traveling in one canoe, he was joined in sequence by four men, including an opera composer who had never spent more than one night camping.

Both explorers confronted plenty of challengees along the way.

Mackenzie's team often had to deal with cold, a steady diet of unappetizing pemmican (a mixture of fat and protein) and rebellion among his crew. And mosquitoes.

Castner's crew endured heat, thunderstorms, a lack of dry camping spots and the logistics of getting to the towns where paddlers were to be swapped out. And mosquitoes.

Either story would be suspenseful and engaging on its own.

Mackenzie's, much of which is flavored by his own vocabulary and perspective, is one of frustration, with occasional flashes of brief pleasure.

Castner's, motivated by a search for experience rather than economic gain, alternates between fear, boredom and delight at being out in a part of the world where few humans live.

Together, they provide a richly stereoscopic view of this relatively unknown river and the landscape through which it flows.