[at-l] re: Colin Fletcher

[pmags at yahoo.com (Paul Magnanti)]

>>I haven't yet read "River: One Man's Journey Down
>>the Colorado, Source to Sea," but the subject
>>interests me. Does anyone on the list recommend 
>>that book?


Excellent read done in the usual good Fletcher
narrative style. A little geology, a little history,
lots of thoughtful words, good adventure.

And here is an excerpt I love:

I also realized that I'd grown soft, Things had been
going to well latlely. Too easily. I needed something
to pare the fat off my soul, to scare the shit out of
me, to make me grateful, again, for being alive. All I
knew, deep and safe, beyond mere intellect, that there
is nothing like a wilderness journey for re-kindling
the fires of life. Simplicity is part of it. Cutting
the cackle. Transportation reduced to leg- or
arm-power, eating irons to one spoon. Such simplicity,
together with sweat and silence, amplify the rhythms
of any long journey, especially through unknown,
untattered territory. And in the end such a journey
can restore an understanding of how insignificant you
are-thereby set you free.



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The true harvest of my life is intangible.... a little stardust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched
--Thoreau

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