Colin Fletcher

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Colin Fletcher (born 1922) is a backpacker and writer, best known as the author of The Complete Walker, a comprehensive guide to backpacking that Field and Stream magazine has called "the hiker's Bible." In 1963, he became the first man to walk the length of Grand Canyon National Park entirely within the rim of the canyon, as chronicled in his bestselling memoir The Man Who Walked Through Time.

Born in Wales in 1922, Fletcher was educated in England and served in the Royal Marines during World War II. After spending time in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and as a prospector in Canada, he moved to the United States in 1956. Two years later, he walked the length of the state of California, a journey that was the basis for his book The Thousand Mile Summer.

In 1968, Fletcher published the first edition of The Complete Walker. (There have been three subsequent editions, the most recent co-authored by wilderness writer Chip Rawlins.) Fletcher's book is distinguished by its encyclopedic treatment of the technique and equipment of wilderness travel, as well as by what critics and readers have praised as its rousing humor and elegant, vigorous prose. While certainly comprehensive in its discussion of all aspects of wilderness travel, it also devotes a generous amount of space to Fletcher's self-confessed idiosyncrasies, ranging from his affection for walking staffs and corduroy shorts to his loathing of wilderness trail guidebooks.

In his later years, Fletcher became a prolific writer on environmental issues. He is allegedly very reclusive, rarely responding to letters or interview requests, although always willing to incorporate reader feedback into revised editions of The Complete Walker.

In 1989, Fletcher hiked and rafted the entire length of the Green/Colorado River from its source in the Wind River Range of Wyoming to the Gulf of California. He was evidently the first person ever to do this. He told the story of the journey in River, adding to his customary description of the places through which he travelled a metaphor, comparing the course of the river and its emptying into the sea, to life itself and his own life in particular.

In 2001, at the age of seventy-nine, Fletcher was struck and seriously injured by an SUV while walking to a town meeting near his home in Monterey County, 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.

[edit] Quotes

• God is light, we are told, and Hell is outer darkness. But look at a desert mountain stripped bare by the sun, and you learn only geography. Watch darkness claim it, and for a moment you may grasp why God had to create Satan--or man to create both.
  • The Thousand Mile Summer (1964)