August 1953 (age 54)

Sigurd spent August 8th-24th in the role of the Bourgeois for his first trip with the Voyageurs. They traveled for roughly 275 miles through the Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario. More importantly, it was the beginning of lifelong friendships that would provide a real boost to the popularity of wilderness canoeing in Canada and contribute to the preservation of the Quetico and other Canadian wild places. Read more about the voyageurs (including more on the 1953 trip).

Among the letters Sigurd wrote this month was one to his daughter-in-law Yvonne, in which he made the following interesting comment: "No I never did go to Walden Pond and I do not think I ever shall. I do not want to see it changed as it is now. I want to think of it always as Thoreau saw it. Someday I may break down and go but I doubt it. Some things had better be remembered as they should be rather than as they are."

August 1968 (age 69)

Sigurd had recently gotten a contract with Viking Press to write The Hidden Forest. On August 15th, he wrote to editor Nicolas Ducrot: "Did you know that Sigurd is an old Viking name and isn't it fitting that with such a name I should at last be working with Viking Press Inc?"