The book provided the exploration history of the Grand Canyon, and while interesting, was a struggle to read through. In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named "The Emerald Mile" at the head of the Grand Canyon, just fifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, seemed not just odd, but downright suicidal. In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named the Emerald Mile at the head of the Grand Canyon, just fifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, seemed not just odd but downright suicidal.The Emerald Mile, at one time slated to be destroyed, was rescued and brought back to life by Kenton Grua, the man at . Fedarko earned a Masters of Philosophy in Russian history at Oxford in 1990. I had wanted to pay my respects to Kenton Grua and had resolved my self that I would not. It took me a while to understand the author was painting a broad picture of the background leading up to the main event, and after my initial impatience to get to the adventure, began to really enjoy the detail of the lead up to the speed run. Read reviews from thousands of our guests on a variety of trips. Not everyone will want to invest the time necessary to fully appreciate this exquisite work of narrative nonfiction. The night sky is so much better than anything I could have imagined. We small talked for a while and I learned he was working for Oars Grand Canyon Dorys. Last June, I went and listened as Kevin Fedarko gave us a presentation and overview of the Emerald Mile. In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named "The Emerald Mile" at the head of the Grand Canyon, just fifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, seemed not just odd, but downright suicidal. Plans were limited to the highest releases that occurred regularly each summer. C&K: Its been a wild week. The 135 miles that we experienced, never lost its magic. dirtbagdiaries.com I reread some passages just to revel in the prose. I had no idea all that was happening in the '80's. I told the guide my storyhow Tom had given me the book and how Kit and I had gone to Oars Dories to see the Emerald Mile. Enjoy the rides! In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named "The Emerald Mile" at the head of the Grand Canyon, just fifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, seemed not just odd, but downright suicidal. Holly Black is theauthor of more than 30 fantasy novels, including Tithe, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, and her 2022 adult debut,Book of To see what your friends thought of this book, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon. finished it and I am exhausted - what a beautifully crafted story, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2017, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 4, 2014, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2015, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 27, 2014, Reviewed in Canada on November 9, 2020, Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon, Scribner; Reprint edition (July 1, 2014). The author personally knew most of the "characters" that appear in this well researched, beautifully written, appropriately humorous expose on all things Grand Canyon. Finally, you settle into silence and begin talking yourself into a mental space where you prepare for the threshold momentthe point where the world drops away, the jitters subside, and a cool resolve seizes the tissues of your chest and belly. Was it possible to compare the kayakers who made the 277-mile speed run to the previous record which was set in a wooden dory? Amazon has encountered an error. Most of them couldn't conceive of living anywhere else to do what they do. So much history and info! The Emerald Mile is so much more than the epic tale of the 1983 dory speed run through the Grand Canyon, though that adventure is brilliantly told. A superbly written, well-researched and wonderful book. The story telling (based on true events) was fantastic. From Kevin . An informative, compelling, amusing, lyrical and, yes, even spiritual narrative on the magnetic attraction of one of the most perfectly beautiful works of nature on this planetand a cautionary warning of the risks to which it is even now, more perhaps than ever, exposed. "The Emerald Mile" by Kevin Fedarko . - NY, USA | October 4, 2021 Dear Friends and family, The event I am about to reveal to you CAN NOT be explained away as coincidence. . The Emerald Mile $19.99 Qty: Quantity in Cart: None Required reading for 12th grade English elective, River and Rock In the winter of 1983, the largest El Nino event on record, a series of superstorms, battered the West. If you are interested in the Colorado Rive and the Grand Canyon, then I highly recommend it. Also, the depth and level of detail that Kevin Fedarko takes us towhile weaving much of the background story of Grand Canyon into this epic tailis fundamentally necessary to help us fully understand those moments surrounding the speed run. by Scribner. Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout. Firstly, such a project would require sponsorship (which Kenton recognized) and long-term planning. Download The Emerald Mile Books now!Available in PDF, EPUB, Mobi Format. Ive read it twice and two days from now, Im setting off on my rafting adventure on the Colorado River. This past August 2018, I had the great privilege to take a 5 day journey down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. The story telling (based on true events) was fantastic. There was a problem loading your book clubs. It's a story about how the El Nino event and the inherent wildness of the Colorado River fought against man's attempts to tame the river and almost won, almost causing a huge disaster. It's that goodFedarko will have you posied on the edge of your seat like a high-sider at in Lava Falls." Both your 1983 descent and Ben Orkins recent run required overcoming some pretty intense swims to go on and set the record. But Reality check: many (though by no means all) of Kentons hair-brained ideas turned out to be not only feasible but also practical. Overall I really enjoyed the book. if there is a point to being in the canyon, it is not to rush but to linger, suspended in a blue-and-amber haze of in-between-ness, for as long as one possibly can. Refresh and try again. The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon Paperback - July 1, 2014 by Kevin Fedarko (Author) 1,998 ratings 4.4 on Goodreads 9,369 ratings Editors' pick Best Nonfiction See all formats and editions Kindle $14.99 Read with Our Free App Hardcover For the son of a dory boatman from the Golden Age of Guiding it was a joy and vindication to read of the superheroes of my childhood in print. Publisher's Weekly"From the bottom of our planet's most awesome landscape, Kevin Fedarko has found and rescued a great American tall tale that just happens to be true. Learn how your comment data is processed. This book announces Fedarko as a major writing talent and at last sets forth the full story of an American legend--the legend of The Emerald Mile. Fedarko has supplied astonishing facts, lyrical, magical atmosphere, and extreme One of the most enthralling books I have read in a long time. He brings alive the Canyon, the Colorado River, and the people who are drawn to protect it or dam it. Hi! I mused about the majestic Colorado on steroids taking pity on this little nutshell of a boat audaciously zooming through Grand Canyon in a day and a half. Each piece of the extensive back story is assembled as lyrically as the epoch-spanning walls of the canyon itself and as assuredly as the soaring concrete face of its dams. This lost treasure still evokes wonder in what lies in Glen Canyonthe 170-mile natural paradise legendary for its secret grottoes, waterfalls, beautiful ravines and isolated side canyons like Hidden Passage before it was flooded by Lake Powell upon the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1963. Here is an instant classic of adventure literaturea story shot through with bravura but also touched by the rarest kind of grandeur." I had an 8 day journey that I will never forget. This one is, and Fedarko's book is as inspiring as a dory itself, flying down a wild river. Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2022. Kevin Fedarkos superb book presents the Grand Canyon in a way most people will never see it from the bottom up, with a strong emphasis on the river that carved the Canyons unique features and which provides the most accessible route for the much smaller number of tourists lucky enough to experience the beautiful natural and geologic features of the lower Canyon. As a boatman, Fedarko knows this world intimately. Photo by Rudi Petschek. So you see, the challenges are opposite, except for overall endurance which is common to both. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in the outdoors or natural history. Expecting a mild adventure read, I ordered this book based on some comments in the Outside book club Facebook group. Orkins Lava flip and recovery has every bit of the drama and suspense of the Emerald Miles Crystal episode in 83. And I mourn that. This book started out slowly, and I found some of the flowery prose to be ponderous, but the second half was much better than the first. The saga of The Emerald Mile is a thrilling adventure, as well as a magisterial portrait of the hidden kingdom of white water at the bottom of the greatest river canyon on earth. 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. First, the idea of breaking the record set by the Rigg brothers originated with Wally Rist as far back as 1973. Kevins book should be required reading for anyone taking a Colorado River trip. Eloquently written and well researched the boom covers many facets of the Grand Canyon all focused through the lens of the "speed run." Well written, one of those kinds of books that I couldn't wait to get back to, and I didn't want to end. I almost didn't finish this book. Once the book was talking about present day activities the pace picked up and the writing style became more casual. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. What I didn't expect was the beauty and depth of the writing. FWIW, ebook is not the same as an audio book. Fedarko was a staff writer at. So it is a great boon of Fedarko's book that he tells the story of the dam, and of the engineers and techinicians who built it with as much respect and homage as he gives to the dorymen." In the midst of this crisis, beneath the light of a full moon, a trio of river guides secretly launched a small, hand-built wooden boat, a dory named the Emerald Mile, into the Colorado just below the dam's base and rocketed toward the dark chasm downstream, where the torrents of water released by the dam engineers had created a rock-walled . The author violates the Chekhov rule (if you put a gun on the mantelpiece, it should go off by the second act) vs giving us the action (or at least a summary of it) before launching into the back story. This book is a kind of love letter to the Colorado River and its Grand Canyon. Some of it, like the struggle for protection of the grand canyon itself and how it almost got turned into a reservoir, was very cool and helped provide context for the attitude of the people who were sort of the spiritual forefathers to the rafting guides. Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2022. In 1983, Petschek, along with fellow river guides Kenton Grua and Steve Wren Reynolds, traversed the canyons entire 277-mile length in just 36 hours and 38 minutes, besting a time of 47 hours Petschek, Grua and Wally Rist set in 1980. This is a story of a super-man deliberately pushing himself physically to his limits, which the Emerald Mile story is not. Reading this book is a great escape to what feels like a simpler time with the high drama of a dam that may fail and river guides who may not survive a stunt that only those who run rivers would ever conceive of undertaking. Highly recommend. A great read. It would have been longer for better straight-line speed, and outfitted for a solo run. The author really takes you there with all the details of the history of the Grand Canyon, John Wesley Powell and his explorations, geology of the area, background of all the characters involved, the history of the Glen Canyon Dam and many others and the environmentalist fighting against their construction. For those who are not able to travel the Colorado River through The Grand Canyon, this book will take you there and show you great adventure, some incredible history and the stories of many people who have traveled there before you. A really brilliant work that encompasses both the natural and man-made history on the Colorado river. The story of this epic run became widely known through Kevin Fedarko's 2013 book also called The Emerald Mile, which relied heavily on interviews conducted with Petschek. Okay. I argued that if he were to follow this plan it would be more realistic for him to set 30 hours as a goal, but he remained adamant about a sub-24 hour run. In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named "The Emerald Mile" at the head of the Grand Canyon, just fifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, seemed not just odd, but downright suicidal. This was a book that told the story of an incredible 36 hours by backing up and providing as much context as humanly possible to make it into the length of a novel. Most of them couldn't conceive of living anywhere else to do what they do. Brilliant memories for us we rafted down the Colorado just around Easter 1989 with Colorado River & Trail. In addition to his travel narratives in Outside, where he worked as a senior editor, Fedarkos work has appeared in Esquire, National Geographic Adventure, and other publications, and has been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing in 2004 and 2006. I find this impressive beyond words, especially compared to us with our 200+ trips of combined Grand Canyon experience at the time of our record run. Wow, Fedarko is a superb storyteller. This book takes me right back there. The Emerald Mile is the exhilarating true story of that epic attempt to capture the speed record for the fastest boat ride through the Grand Canyon ever. We could intermittently relax our bodies because we took turns rowing, but not our minds because of the extreme turbulence. .orange-text-color {color: #FE971E;} Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration. I do remember the thrill it was to stand on the edge of the Canyon as both of Glen Canyon Dams spillways and all 4 jet tubes were roaring down belowTHE WHOLE CANYON SHOOK! Theres a rumor that Kenton built another dory specifically for a speed attempt. I didnt find the narrator annoying at all (neither was he fantastic). Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2022. Especially some of the descriptions of the river and its currents, eddies and rapids. A good story but way too much detail. On the latter trip, the three men took turns on the oars, rowing illegally through day and night on a flood of 72,000 cubic feet per second, the largest the Grand had seen since the construction of Glen Canyon Dam in the 1960s. The goal was to nail the all-time record for the fastest boat ever propelledby oar, by motor, or by the grace of God himselfdown the entire length . This book was hard to put down. This is almost a perfect book it combines the story of an event (a speed-run through the Grand Canyon in a dory) and backstory, both near and old in an extremely readable way. Emerald Mile : the Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon Item Length: 8.4in. This book is a kind of love letter to the Colorado River and its Grand Canyon. The Emerald Mile Quotes Showing 1-30 of 34. The Emerald Mile ties together a clear line through the tumult of the high water 1983 flood on the Colorado River of a dorys speed run through the Grand Canyon. In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named "The Emerald Mile" at the head of the Grand Canyon, just fifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, seemed not just odd, but downright suicidal. The boat flipped in a mammoth incarnation of Crystal Rapid, but through combination of luck and honed whitewater skill, the trio was able to climb back aboard the dory in the runout to the swollen rapid, right it, and go onto set the record time. What if the reward that you were chasing lay not in the result to which you were ostensibly striving, but in the simple doing of the thing? It appealed to two of my interests: engineering, with its descriptions of how the personnel at the Glen Canyon Dam dealt with the huge water inflows from the El Nino event and the damage caused to the spillways, and whitewater rafting, with its descriptions of the fastest ride and how rafting companies, their customers, and the river rangers dealt with the dang. In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named "The Emerald Mile" at the head of the Grand Canyon, just fifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, seemed not just odd, but downright suicidal. The challenges faced by kayakers attempting a Grand Canyon speed run are, for the most part, entirely different from those faced by an oar-powered row boat, so much so that it becomes a stretch to compare the two (apples and oranges). Your non-motorized record, which lasted more than 30 years, has been broken twice in three days. While some visitors undertake back-country hikes, most people are content to enjoy the views from the South Rim, and do not venture much below the rim. He writes so vividly that your favorite reading chair becomes a spray-soaked perch on a bucking boat hit hard by a river running high and fast." In the tradition of Kon Tiki or Touching the Void, The Emerald Mile is a story of adventure that transcends most writing of extreme exploits. Last June, I went and listened as Kevin Fedarko gave us a presentation and overview of the Emerald Mile. His descriptions brought every scene to life for me - even when (or especially when) he goes off on a lyrical tangent - e.g., " And peeking over the cliffs like a Chinese lantern was a swollen, yellow globe that draped the folds of the surrounding plateau in moonbeams" sigh. In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named "The Emerald Mile" at the head of the Grand Canyon, just fifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, seemed not just odd, but downright suicidal. I didnt expect it to be so dense looking! It's not really a story just about the fastest ride, which is a small part of the book. I have no doubt it will . But Kenton Grua, the captain of that dory, was determined to use the flood as a hydraulic slingshot that would hurl him and his companions through 277 miles of some of the most ferocious white water in North America and, if everything went as planned, catapult the Emerald Mile into legend as the fastest boat ever propelled - by oar, by motor . This is my first book ever listening to, and I think listening to some of the names rather than being able to see them on paper might have helped keep track of some of the names, but that's largely unimportant. Thanks for giving me a mention in your review. From dam technology and politics, to wooden dory building, to reading rapids - you name it - all tied together and culminating in the most amazing feat by an unlikely crew of 3 fascinating and very different individuals. It was fun reading it after the trip too. Having (met many of the characters as a part of my river family and) grown up hearing these legends and histories told while gathered around the Dories at cocktail hour, I enjoyed reliving this in my imagination. The saga of "The Emerald Mile" is a thrilling adventure, as well as a magisterial portrait of the hidden kingdom of white water at the bottom of the greatest river canyon on earth. Kenton Grua, Rudy Petschek, and Steve Reynolds, https://www.amazon.com/Emerald-Mile-Fastest-History-Through-ebook/dp/B00ALYY6W8/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1613844144&sr=8-1. Please note that this form cannot be used to reset your Google or Facebook password. What I didn't expect was the beauty and depth of the writing. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever. This book. -- Bob Shacochis , author of Swimming in the Volcano and Easy in the Islands, put readers inside the adventurers' boats, even if they have only ever imagined the Grand Canyon or seen it in pictures an epic-sized true-life adventure tale that appeals to both the heart and the head." Three days later as we approached the Redwall Cavern . In 1983, following a devastating flood that led to one of the most disastrous dam wreckages in history, a trio of rafters launched a small wooden dory named The Emerald Mile just 15 miles from the failed Glen Canyon Dam. Book has great history lessons as well. I deviated from the book to look up the facts of the events of the time periods. The climax of the story revolves around a speed run through the Grand Canyon in wooden dory in an attempt to break the record for how fast a boat can go through the canyon. I think this is his first, and only, book. It had been wrecked beyond repair, until it was saved from a fiery funeral pyre and lovingly rebuilt to .

How To Use Libby On Kindle Paperwhite, Timothy O'leary Obituary Revere Ma, Le Contraire De Avare, Gary Goodyear Julie Goodyear Son, Restaurants With Private Rooms For Large Parties, Hk G36 22lr Canada, How To Dispose Of Old License Plates Michigan, Multibeam Echo Sounder Vs Single Beam,