No Roads to Follow

When people are searching for direction or meaning in their life, they say that they are looking for “a road to follow.” In the spring of 1994, author Michael Herman was searching for a new road. Dissatisfied with his job and feeling unsuccessful, Michael began what some people considered unthinkable. Under the watchful eyes of a small crowd of friends and onlookers, he embarked on a 127-day solo sea kayak expedition of the Great Lakes. His goal was simple: to raise money and support for the cancer society by kayaking Canada’s biggest lakes. Beginning in Thunder Bay, Ontario, as the ice was melting on Lake Superior, his trip included more than the physical landscape he traversed. Put to the test by open-water crossings, ferocious storms, illness, betrayal, and self doubt, Michael’s journey is nothing less than extraordinary. Part memoir, part adventure, and part love story, No Roads to Follow shares one man’s 3,200-kilometer expedition across the Great Lakes and his journey inward as he learns to define the measure of personal success.