Colin Fletcher was born in Wales, educated in England, and served 6 years in the Royal Marines during World War II. After four years farming in Africa, he moved to Canada and then in 1956 to California, where he hiked the deserts and mountains from Mexico to Oregon, detailed in this book...
... and in 1967 he was the first man to hike/bushwack the length of the Grand Canyon, off trail, below the canyon's rim, a two month journey. The book details this spiritual odyssey and oozes of his philosophical ponderings.
He is credited with inspiring the explosion of backpacking in the country with the publication of this landmark book in 1968, in which he asserted that the best roof is the sky, and in which he eloquently and authoritatively shared his sage advice, hard-earned firsthand knowledge, and outspoken opinions. There have been 4 editions of this book, each updated to stay current.
The book's third edition was my guide and inspiration when I began backpacking in 1998. Over the years, I went on 60+ backpack trips in 52 different forests and wilderness areas across America. It was a bit expensive initially outfitting a family of four with equipment, but we got our money's worth, and I continued solo backpacking or with a buddy after the family trips ended.
In 1989, Fletcher shared his secret worlds and how we can break free in our minds by hiking the wilderness...
In 1989, Fletcher shared his secret worlds and how we can break free in our minds by hiking the wilderness...
His 1989 raft trip down the entire 1700 miles of the Green and Colorado Rivers stirred my desire for such adventures and led me to undertake trips in rafts, kayaks, canoes, and houseboats covering 777 of those same miles.
To ascertain the springs which were the source of the Colorado River, he backpacked into Wyoming's Wind River Range, above Upper and Lower Green Lakes. My oldest son and I retraced that backpack in 1998.
Many are unaware that until 1921, the Colorado River began in Utah at "The Confluence" where the Green River (from Wyoming) met the Grand River (from Colorado.) The name "Colorado River" was derived from the Colorado Plateau through which it flowed as it carved the Grand Canyon. The Grand River emanated from Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and gave names to such places as Grand Lake and Grand Junction, Colorado. In 1921 (coincidentally, the year Fletcher was born), due to intense lobbying, the Colorado Legislature renamed the Grand River as the Colorado River. But the facts remain that the Green River is 300 miles longer than the Grand and also drains a larger area, and geographers thus consider it the "master stream" and its headwaters in Wyoming as the source.
As Fletcher neared the end of this river journey, he felt very poorly on a hike up to a high point and went back to his camp to recover. Five months later, well after this adventure, an arterial blockage required a coronary bypass, thus explaining why he had felt "crummy, pretty deathly" for a few days.
At the age of seventy-nine in 2001, Fletcher was struck and seriously injured by a vehicle while walking to a town meeting near his home in California. His survival was attributed to his excellent physical condition. Within a year of the accident, he was back on his feet and walking daily. Fletcher died in 2007 as a result of complications from a head injury sustained from being hit by the car six years earlier.
