by Kevin Fedarko, 2013
Excellent, fast-paced, non-fiction book about running the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, especially focused on the 1983 run by a wooden dory named The Emerald Mile, which broke the speed record, manned by three men: Kenton Grua, Steve Reynolds, and Rudi Petschek. They ran the river when it was at almost its highest stage ever due to massive run-off from the mountains of the West during 1983, so massive the Glen Canyon Dam was almost overflowing and they had to add special plywood boards to the top and release water through the spillways with such force that they were damaged and needed millions of dollars and months of repairs after the run-off finally ended.
He goes into the history of the river, starting with 1540 when a Spaniard named Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas first viewed the canyon, John Wesley Powell’s epic adventures, the history of dam-building, the dories, and the people who were the major players in this true story.
Here’s what the “Emerald Mile” is and for which the wooden dory boat that broke the speed record was named: “And for the special boat that spawned all the rest, the one whose lines had served as the blueprint for everything that followed, Litton selected perhaps the most beautiful name of all. It was a gesture of remembrance in honor of a dense and towering stand of continuous old-growth redwoods tucked deep in the coastal forests of Northern California–an entire mountainside mantled in some of the tallest virgin trees in the world, until a chunk of it was clear-cut during the early 1960s by a logging company that was hoping to disqualify the grove from inclusion in a national park…And so she became the Emerald Mile.”
Loved this book, the adrenaline, the fascinating history and the fast-paced adventure tale, along with the beautiful descriptions of the Grand Canyon. A really special place deserving of our care and protection, although it sounds like it is a losing battle against developers and helicopter tours. I’m proud that Adam has rowed the Grand Canyon twice, the last time in 2018. He is the one who told me about this book. He wants to row a dory in the Grand Canyon. Loved this book! Love my boy!