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Gila Descending: A Southwestern Journey

by M.H. Salmon

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1411,434,381 (4)3
Herein is the remarkable story of a 200-mile wilderness journey down the Gila River of New Mexico and Arizona. Traveling partly on foot, mostly by canoe, the author was accompanied by a hound dog and a tomcat. His trip is replete with whitewater thrills, and angling for trout, bass, and catfish; ruminations on the wilderness ethic, and the antics of two companions who promote humor, exasperation, and love. But besides being a modern-day excursion into the natural world, Gila Descending is a personal odyssey as well; and little by little that story, too, is told. "Gila Descending is a joy to read. M. H. Salmon and his feisty animal co-pilots have enough chutzpah to keep us laughing; enough literary audacity to delight and educate; and enough love of land, water, and wilderness to stir the most hardened conscience."--John Nichols ". . . a delightful book. No reader could ask for a finer river to read about than the Gila, or a better companion to explore it with than M. H. Salmon. May the Government (ugh!) and God (we hope) long preserve them both."--Edward Abbey "As you join the author--and his coyote hound and tomcat--on a float trip down the Gila, you will find a unique companion: a hunter with an informed environmental conscience; a fisherman with the sense to know that catfish are as good as trout; a wry observer whose prose owes more to local speech and the elegant essays of Aldo Leopold than to the high-tech fodder in the yuppie monthlies. Above all, he is a passionate and original defender of wilderness with its hair on."--Steve Bodio, "Bodio's Review," Gray's Sporting Journal… (more)
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This is a 1986 account of the author's journey down New Mexico's Gila River accompanied by a dog and, bizarrely, a cat. Well, it's about half an account of his trip, I'd say, and half him sharing his slightly curmudgeonly opinions about hunting, fishing, conservationism, the history of the Southwest, and various other things he happens to think about, from country music to immigration. Said opinions are complicated and diverse enough that I suspect pretty much anyone is likely to find some things to agree with, and others to get annoyed over.

Salmon isn't the most poetic of travel or nature writers, and he's a little too fond of stories about killing various kinds of animals for my personal taste (or, frankly, comfort levels). But he's certainly readable enough, opinionated gruffness and all, and I found this a moderately interesting (if probably fairly forgettable) bit of local-interest writing. Well, local-ish, anyway. I live in a different part of New Mexico, but I have very fond memories of hiking and backpacking trips in the Gila Wilderness during my college days. ( )
  bragan | Mar 15, 2017 |
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Herein is the remarkable story of a 200-mile wilderness journey down the Gila River of New Mexico and Arizona. Traveling partly on foot, mostly by canoe, the author was accompanied by a hound dog and a tomcat. His trip is replete with whitewater thrills, and angling for trout, bass, and catfish; ruminations on the wilderness ethic, and the antics of two companions who promote humor, exasperation, and love. But besides being a modern-day excursion into the natural world, Gila Descending is a personal odyssey as well; and little by little that story, too, is told. "Gila Descending is a joy to read. M. H. Salmon and his feisty animal co-pilots have enough chutzpah to keep us laughing; enough literary audacity to delight and educate; and enough love of land, water, and wilderness to stir the most hardened conscience."--John Nichols ". . . a delightful book. No reader could ask for a finer river to read about than the Gila, or a better companion to explore it with than M. H. Salmon. May the Government (ugh!) and God (we hope) long preserve them both."--Edward Abbey "As you join the author--and his coyote hound and tomcat--on a float trip down the Gila, you will find a unique companion: a hunter with an informed environmental conscience; a fisherman with the sense to know that catfish are as good as trout; a wry observer whose prose owes more to local speech and the elegant essays of Aldo Leopold than to the high-tech fodder in the yuppie monthlies. Above all, he is a passionate and original defender of wilderness with its hair on."--Steve Bodio, "Bodio's Review," Gray's Sporting Journal

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