Robert F. Jones (1) (1934–)

I had high hopes for The Run to Gitche Gumme by Robert F. Jones as I thought a nice gentle nature story about 2 young men on a 1950 canoe trip would be something to take my mind off the real world. The Firesteel River empties into Lake Superior and is about 150 miles of twists and turns through wooded uninhabited country. The book started out exactly as I had hoped with paddling the river, fishing for trout and having a run in with a black bear. But I guess the author decided that wasn’t excitement enough, and, before I knew it my travellers had run afoul of some bank robbers hiding out in the woods, got on the wrong side of a millionaire when they got involved with his daughter, and had to shoot their way to safety. And this was only the first part of the book.

The story then switched to one of the young man’s war experiences in Korea, then jumped ahead 50 years as the two men, much older now, take a final trip down the Firesteel River. They still have more adventures than was believable, this time with game wardens, a biologist and a millionaire developer.

The Run to Gitche Gumme was not the quiet nature book that I thought I was going to be reading although the sections about the actual paddling and fishing were very well done, the rest of the book was a mess. The story was disjointed and lacked cohesion and was entirely too silly. Although having said that, I surprised myself and stuck with it to the end.… (more)