River: One Man’s Journey Down the Colorado, Source to Sea.

FLETCHER, Colin.

$175.00

Item Number: 54787

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

First edition of this epic adventure by Fletcher, a renowned traveler and writer. Octavo, original half cloth, illustrated with 15 maps and 42 photographs. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Alan and Lotte with best wishes Colin Carmel Valley, California 4/30/97.” Near fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket. Jacket design by Susan Carroll.

At age sixty-seven, Colin Fletcher, the guru of backpacking in America, undertook a rigorous six-month raft expedition down the full length of the Colorado River--alone. He needed "something to pare the fat off my soul...to make me grateful, again, for being alive." The 1,700 miles between the Colorado's source in Wyoming and its conclusion at Mexico's Gulf of California contain some of the most spectacular vistas on earth, and Fletcher is the ideal guide for the terrain. As his privileged companions, we travel to places like Disaster Falls and Desolation Canyon, observe beaver and elk, experience sandstorms and whitewater rapids, and share Fletcher's thoughts on the human race, the environment, and the joys of solitude.