Colin Fletcher (1) (1922–2007)

The Man Who Walked Through Time is about Colin Fletcher's 1963 solo backpacking trip through the Grand Canyon, it is considered a classic of Outdoor Literature ranked #45 in National Geographic's 100 Best Adventure Books. It was first published in January 1968, almost exactly 40 years from the date of this review - the author was 41 when he took the trip, I am 41, and Fletcher emerged from the trip declaring "life begins at 40", adding the journey had offered him the "key to contentment." show more Like Dante's descent into the Inferno in media res (age 40), Fletcher descended into the Abyss of the Canyon and emerged a spiritually changed man, changing the landscape of outdoor recreation with him.

Colin Fletcher (1922-2007) was a Welshman and WWII vet who moved to California in the 1950s. An avid backpacker, he is best known for The Complete Walker I-IV (1968-2001), which for a generation or two has been the singular bible of backpacking - "Colin was sort of the founding father of modern backpacking, the first person to write about going out for an extended period and being self-sufficient." (Annette McGivney, editor of Backpacker Magazine). In 1968, the same year he published the first edition of The Complete Walker, he also published The Man Who Walked Through Time, recounting a 1963 trip in which he was the first person to walk the length of Grand Canyon National Park 'in one go' (second to complete the whole journey). More than an adventure journal, it inspired a generation to take up (create) the backpacking lifestyle as a way to fill a spiritual void and escape the confusion and chaos of Vietnam-era America. As Backpacker Magazine contributing editor Buck Tilton recalls "After Vietnam, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. So many of my friends had died from bullet holes. I read The Man Who Walked Through Time, and it was the only thing that made sense to me. Fletcher's words gave meaning to backpacking. I loaded my pack exactly the way Fletcher did and carried a walking stick like his. He was my hero."

Fletcher wrote about what he saw in day to day events, none are death defying or edge of the seat, what set it apart was Fletcher's inner journey of discovery as a metaphor of the vast expanse of time in the geology of the Grand Canyon. "I saw that by going down into that huge fissure in the face of the earth, deep into the space and the silence and the solitude, I might come as close as we can at present to moving back and down through the smooth and apparently impenetrable face of time." Fletcher found peace and solitude in removing himself from the "piercing arrows" of the modern world.

The Man Who Walked Through Time is essentially a Romantic work in the tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), highly influential with an earlier generation of bohemians (Stevenson invented and describes the first sleep bag in outdoor literature). Fletcher re-fashioned his account for a new generation of drop-outs who wanted to find inner solitude and discovery in the outdoors. I see in Fletcher a sort of proto-hippy, he shed his clothing and walked bare naked with a bamboo cane, floppy hat and scraggly beard. He ate pemmican and lamented the loss of the martial spirit of the natives. He found value in nature and disparaged the dam builders who would destroy it. He was a key element in the burgeoning environmental movement - The Man Who Walked Through Time will be "forever" a permanent mark in time of a movement and a generation. In February 2008, almost exactly 40 years from the books publication, the National Academy of Sciences published a report saying "Camping, fishing and per capita visits to parks are all declining in a shift away from nature-based recreation.. the replacement of vigorous outdoor activities by sedentary, indoor videophilia." The times are changing and 40 years ago today seems about 180 degrees in difference. Perhaps by 2048, 40 years from now, we will see a re-awakening of Fletchers vision of vigorous outdoor challenge, solitude and self-sufficiency in nature.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd show less

This book, written in the early 1960s, traces the author's hike from the Mexican border to the Oregon border at a time when such an adventure was uncommon, to say the least. His choice of route also differed dramatically from that of the Pacific Crest Trail, a very popular route that extends all the way to the Canadian border.
While some aspects of the book do not age well, (some words are offensive today), it is amusing to note how certain aspects are dated. For example, Alaska wasn't a show more state yet, so the author commented about how close he got to the highest point in the U.S.
That said, I felt like I was sitting next to the author as he stoked his campfire. His storytelling made me feel as though I was hiking alongside him for the entire journey. Highly recommended. show less

When I first read this book I thought it was wonderful and potentially life-changing. But that was fifty years ago; I've gone elsewhere in the intervening half-century.

Fletcher's book is more about his mental journey than the hike. I'm pretty sure there are more pages devoted to his rest days than to the actual walk, though I've no intention of checking that statement. What is certainly true is that his mental state is often his actual subject; he's not so much communing with nature as he's show more contemplating the meaning of life. Or lives, I suppose; he's often musing about the differences between everyday life outside the canyon with his in-the-canyon freedom from that life.

A good book, still, and an interesting account of a journey. But I liked it better in 1970, when I was a youngster in an army uniform, stationed on Mount Tamalpias north of San Francisco. show less

Colin Fletcher's account of walking the length of the Grand Canyon (or at least that part of it that lies in the National Park) is less about the physical details of his journey and more about his quest for a change of perspective among the Canyon's solitude, and in particular his attempt to understand, fully and viscerally, the immense age of the Canyon's rocks. At times his philosophical musings may seem a bit repetitive or unoriginal, but they are appealingly honest and, I believe, quite show more valid. And some passages are highly evocative, vividly painting a mental picture of the vast evolutionary web of life, or recalling strongly to my mind the sensations and emotions of my own, infinitely less ambitious, desert hiking experiences.

One thing that is a bit disappointing, though, is the lack of pictures. Fletcher correctly points out that relying only on sight gives one a woefully incomplete feel for a landscape like the Grand Canyon's, and that taking pictures can be a bad distraction from actually living your experiences. But he does mention taking photos during the course of his trip, so the reason why they fail to appear in this 1967 paperback is almost certainly economic rather than philosophical. And it's a shame, as I think they would have helped to enhance the reader's sense of making that journey with him. show less