River
Subtitle: One Man's Journey Down the Colorado, Source to Sea
Publisher: Knopf; Alfred A. Knopf; Distributed by Random House, Inc
Published: April 1, 1997
Language: eng
Number of pages: 400
ISBN-13: 9780394574219
First sentence: Well, see you in six months, said John.
Description: From its Green River source in Wyoming to its black conclusion in Mexico's Gulf of California, the 1,700-mile Colorado is America's second-longest river and the one with the most beautiful vistas. For Fletcher this was an opportunity to perform aesthetic and emotional geology on the landscape (and on himself), and to treat the reader to a host of dramatic, moving and hilarious experiences.

We see sandhill cranes and great blue herons; we experience many miles of whitewater challenges that stretch Fletcher's rafting capabilities to the limit; we float through stupendous canyons and open desert, pass mountains and abandoned villages; we flyfish for rainbow trout. We meet the people who live along the river, other adventurers, tourists. We wake up every morning to fresh views and the rewards of wilderness solitude.

And finally we come to know this feisty curmudgeon who in his late sixties achieved the journey of a lifetime.