The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon - Kindle edition by Fedarko, Kevin. Chasing A Dream, Speeding Down 'The Emerald Mile' Host Rachel Martin talks to writer Kevin Fedarko about his new book, The Emerald Mile, which tells … This book had a lot more to it than I expected. Kenton Grua in the 2000s. The Emerald Mile The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (Book) : Fedarko, Kevin : The epic story of the fastest boat ride in history, on a hand-built dory named the "Emerald Mile," through the heart of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado river. Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon: Fedarko, Kevin: Amazon.com.au: Books Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published “ ‘Be reasonable!’ they say. Lose this wild place America, and you will lose a big chunk of your soul. Fedarko's first book, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon, won the National Outdoor Book Award and the Reading the West Award, and was a New York Times bestseller. The book was well-written, informative, well-structured, and interesting, but it was not as advertised. The grade is unequaled by any major waterway in the contiguous United States and very few long stretches of river beyond the Himalayas. But I’ve never felt it did any good to be reasonable about anything in conservation, because what you give away will never come back—ever. Author (s): Kevin Fedarko (Goodreads Author) ISBN: 1439159858 (ISBN13: 9781439159859) This is a fantastic combination of storytelling and research. This was the muffled resonance of a runaway river, the sub-audible bell-tone of water surging with ungovernable force into the throat of the canyon. I also give the author props for deftly wielding suspense and drama into the story: many parts of this book were p. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It may not be much of an overstatement to say that, along with splitting the atom and sending the Voyager spacecraft beyond the solar system, Hoover is the most remarkable thing this country has ever pulled off. The Emerald Mile Bus helped us fulfill that dream. Fedarko was a staff writer at. I knew almost nothing about the Grand Canyon or the Colorado River watershed when I picked up this book, now I’m swimming in information and loving it! Unlike”. And you won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough. It is a paradox rooted in the dream that many of us share of immersing ourselves so deeply, so inextricably, into a pocket of landscape, or a stretch of river - anything that seems to embody the wildness we have lost - that we may somehow take possession of those places and make them ours. The Emerald Mile The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (Book) : Fedarko, Kevin : From one of Outside magazine's Literary All-Stars comes the thrilling true tale of the fastest boat ride ever, down the entire length of the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon, during the legendary flood of 1983. —ROBERT FROST”, “From every direction, the place is under assault—and unlike in the past, the adversary is not concentrated in a single force, such as the Bureau of Reclamation, but takes the form of separate outfits conducting smaller attacks that are, in many ways, far more insidious. 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. It was the trip of a lifetime and our skoolie was the most perfect tiny home on wheels. Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program. 05 Sep 13. The Emerald Mile is the best combination of journalistic reporting and eloquent storytelling. I was in the mood for a fast-paced, non-fiction, tale of daring-do, and instead got a masterwork in conservation-minded natural history ending in a quick tale of individuals engaged in an illega. They did not know how many turns the river would make, how many rapids there might be, or whether their supplies would sustain them through the time it would take to negotiate these obstacles. 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. Kenton Grua in the Emerald Mile, the dory used on the speed run. Kevin Fedarko lives in northern New Mexico and works as a part-time river guide in Grand Canyon National Park. To”, “And Petschek had asked—because he was genuinely puzzled by this—why so many people, Americans especially, seemed to feel that happiness was an entitlement. Having only read an excerpt in Outside magazine a few months ago, I thought the book would be entirely about the story of the speed run of the Emerald Mile; it was so much more. The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon Clearly he interviewed everyone from river guides to Bureau of Reclamation and National Park Service officials, but he never really seems to take sides. Eloquently written and well researched the boom covers many facets of the Grand Canyon all focused through the lens of the "speed run." 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. . 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 plat. Fedarko is a great writer (I've enjoyed his pieces in Outside for years), and he puts the speed run in context with the Grand Canyon's history, geology and hydrology, river-running culture, and the dam-building era. Author: Edward Abbey, John Blaustein (Photographer), Martin Litton (Introduction) Paperback Jul 2015. It was truly spectacular! But once I started reading I was enamored by the stories of the history of the canyon and those that experienced and changed it over the years. Kevin Fedarko’s 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 Canyon’s 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. I didn’t expect it to be so dense looking! The Fangs. Fedarko was a staff writer at Time magazine from 1991 to 1997, where his work helped garner an Overseas Press Club Award for a story on the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. One of the best I've seen lately. Once the book was talking about present day activities the pace picked up and the writing style became more casual. What a life it would have been to be a guide on the Colorado in th. As impressive as those other accomplishments may have been, nothing excelled the nobility of transforming one of the harshest deserts on earth into a vibrant garden. 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. Based on the initial description, I thought I was launching into another outdoor adventure tale about the wild and scenic, but the author instead does an excellent job of tying together the history of the river, the boaters, and the canyon with the epic tradition of exploration and adventure that draws people to wild places. Once the book was talking about presen. 972 reviews. The Emerald Mile, at one time slated to be destroyed, was rescued and brought back to life by Kenton Grua, the man at the oars, who intended to use this flood as a kind of hydraulic sling-shot. Overall I really enjoyed the book. He juxtaposes the Glen Canyon Dam engineers' race to avoid catastrophic failures during the huge 1983 spring runoff with what was happen. PaperBack by Kevin Fedarko Refresh and try again. Oct 1, 2014 - Kevin Fedarko -- "The Emerald Mile" | at Boulder Book Store 10.10.14 WSIRN Community; BookSync; About; I loved every minute of the book. Among many other things, those dirtbag river runners uphold the virtue of disobedience: the principle that in a free society, defiance for its own sake sometimes carries value and meaning, if only because power in all of its forms—commercial, governmental, and moral—should not always and without question be handed what it demands.”, “The English novelist J. The library is now open for browsing Monday-Friday from 10am to 6pm and Saturdays from noon to 4pm. May 7th 2013 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 maelstrom so powerful it shifted giant boulders and … The Colorado’s watershed encompasses a series of high-desert plateaus that stretch across the most austere and hostile quarter of the West, an area encompassing one-twelfth the landmass of the continental United States, whose breadth and average height are surpassed only by the highlands of Tibet. Damn, I wanted to love this 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. Hardcover May 2013. Eleven of us had gathered for a book club-style talk about The Emerald Mile, a story of the fastest boat ride down the length of the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon during the flood of 1983 (fastest, that is, until 2016). And as those days receded ever further into the rearview mirror, there were moments—right now being one of them—when Thomas was forced to wonder about it all. Overall, I really loved this, and can't wait to read whatever he writes next. Even though the whole thing is very detailed, he wrote it in a lovely, almost kind of sentimental, reverent style. And you won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough. On talk radio and cable TV, environmentalists are derided as “wackos” and “extremists.” The country has swung decisively toward something smaller and more selfish than what it once was, and in addition to ushering in a disdain for the notion that wilderness might have a value that extends beyond the metrics of economics or business, much of the nation ignorantly embraces the benefits of engineering and technology while simultaneously rejecting basic science.”, “A river so clear and transparent that the bright stones suspended within its currents could be seen with the naked eye, glittering with the traces of an incontestable radiance whose depth and distance and truth lay beyond the reaches of any terrestrial imagination.”, “It’s sometimes surprising how people can open up when you demonstrate a willingness to listen to their stories with attentiveness and respect.”, “Thou shalt not” is soon forgotten, but “Once upon a time” lasts forever.”, “And you really live by the river? The book provided the exploration history of the Grand Canyon, and while interesting, was a struggle to read through. Given the broad tides in the affairs of men, and the complexity of the fires that shape and change history, it is almost always a mistake to ascribe too much significance to the actions of a single person. (The Nile, in contrast, falls only six thousand feet in its entire four-thousand-mile trek to the Mediterranean.) Each winter, storms lumbering across the Great Basin build up a thick snowpack along the crest of the mountains that line the perimeter of this plateau—an immense, sickle-shaped curve of peaks whose summits exceed fourteen thousand feet. —NORMAN MAILER”, “Historians often minimize or discount the impact that any one individual can have on human destiny-and for good reason. The Emerald Mile Fedarko, Kevin. This is a great story interrupted for most of the book by endless meandering. The Green Guillotine. The entire first half is more of a history and geology lesson about the Grand Canyon and river rafting. 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 planet...and a cautionary warning of the risks to which it is even now, more perhaps than ever, exposed. Info/Buy. Check out The Emerald Mile by ReJoin The Team on Amazon Music. “People often tell me not to be extreme,” he would repeatedly declare. The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon Kevin Fedarko. HardCover by Kevin Fedarko Few rivers on earth can match such manic swings from benign trickle to insane torrent. The Emerald Mile is a true story told from an unbiased perspective, that is capable of mesmerizing its reader and projecting them into the story. Less than a sixth of the book told the "epic story" while the remainder described the grand canyon, its history, its dams, the politics behind the dams, and a variety of stories of other river rafters. Just”, “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. From BookOutlet (Thorold, ON, Canada) Seller Rating: Available From More Booksellers. I would have rated it higher except for the fact that the first 100 pages were a struggle. The Emerald Mile The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (Book) : Fedarko, Kevin : The epic story of the fastest boat ride in history, on a hand-built dory named the "Emerald Mile, " through the heart of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado river. That amounts to eight vertical feet per horizontal mile, an angle that is thirty-two times steeper than that of the Mississippi. 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. There is also a lot of information about dams and the environmental aspect of building them. There was also its vertical drop. For all these reasons, Hoover is regarded by many civil engineers as one of America’s most impressive achievements. From the east has come a dramatic increase in uranium-mining claims, while the once remote and untrammeled country of the North Rim now suffers from an ever-growing influx of recreational ATVs. Kevin Fedarko is a painter - he just uses words instead of paint. Just”, “And Petschek had asked—because he was genuinely puzzled by this—why so many people, Americans especially, seemed to feel that happiness was an entitlement. His 2013 release, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon, won a NOB. Impressively well-researched and very well-written. Less than a sixth of the book told the "epic story" while the remainder described the grand canyon, its history, its dams, the politics behind the dams, and a variety of stories of other river rafters. The author’s writing style was very cumbersome and he seemed to take two or three sentences to say what could have been said more simply with one. Footage from Challenge At Glen Canyon is in the public domaine. To the engineers and the technicians who belonged to the world of the dam, Glen was no dead monolith but, rather, a living and breathing thing, a creature that pulsed with energy and dynamism. 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 maelstrom so powerful it shifted giant boulders and … It was an amazing trip that I hope everyone has an opportunity to experience. B. Priestley once said that if he were an American, he would make the final test of whatever men chose to do in art, business, or politics a comparison with the Grand Canyon. The goal was to nail the all-time record for the fastest boat ever propelled—by oar, by motor, or by the grace of God himself—down the entire length of the Colorado River from Lee’s Ferry to Lake Mead. In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a smallwooden dory named the Emerald Mile at the head of the Grand Canyon, justfifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, seemed not just odd butdownright suicidal.The Emerald Mile, at one time slated to be destroyed, wasrescued and brought back to life by Kenton Grua, the man at the oars, whointended to use this flood as a kind of hydraulic … The Emerald Mile, at one time slated to be destroyed, was rescued and brought back to life by Kenton Grua, the man at the oars, who intended to use this flood as a kind of hydraulic sling-shot. The depictions of The Grand Canyon and the river running experience are stunning. 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. What a life it would have been to be a guide on the Colorado in the '70s! Yet one only need page through the dam’s elegant blueprints to realize that this is a machine that, in its own way, is as sophisticated as a Boeing 747—a marvel of engineering, of mathematics, of human thinking, of vision, and, yes, of art. Many more details than I personally cared to read. The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon by Scribner. Compare Prices. List Price: $30.00. 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