"This book is the first telling of what was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the 'longest canoe trip in history'-an eighteen-month, 7,865-mile saga of two young men and a canoe named Muriel. The year was 1936. The place was New York City, where two young office workers, weary of the depression, embarked on one of history's most remarkable expeditions. They left New York City at the foot of 42nd street and paddled their canoe across the uncharted wilds of Canada to Nome, Alaska. This is their true story - of the people they met, of hunting, fighting, ice, bears, wolves, unspoiled forest and tundra, and , most of all, of the two men sharing the challenge of a lifetime."