[at-l] Colin Fletcher Passed away. :(

[South Walker]

I was thinking about Colin recently and I wondered how much longer we would have him. Now I know.

That I started backpacking was entirely due to his writing The Man Who Walked thru Time, and a mistake by my wife. In 1984 she saw the book in a used book store and  purchased it, telling me she had bought me a book about time travel. When I replied that I didn't particularly read science fiction she replied that since I enjoyed Star Trek, I would probably enjoy the book.

And I did enjoy it. So much so that I read it through in one long afternoon and night. A couple of days later I read it again. 

By 1989,  I had read all of Colin's books, had made my first backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon and was preparing for my second. I wrote Colin and thanked him for his writings, explained about my wife's mistake and told him about my experiences in the Grand Canyon.  A few weeks later I received a postal card in which he thanked me for writing and explaining that he was "eyebrow-deep' in preparation for a source to the sea trip on the Colorado River. In 1991, after Colin had finished his Colorado River adventure he sent me a hand written letter, saying he had once again read my letter and had noticed that he had indicated on it that he had  "sent a post card in great haste" and was sure he hadn't adequately thanked me for my letter. Of course that was not the case. I was surprised and delighted to receive the original post card and floored that he would follow up with a letter 2 years later. That says a lot I guess about the character of the man.

In memory of Colin I read again today his "Sample Day in the Rain." which is in the Complete Walker series.  It has always been one of my favorite stories of his.

South Walker
MEGA '99
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Paul Magnanti 
  To: AT MailingList 
  Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 10:25 AM
  Subject: [at-l] Colin Fletcher Passed away. :(




   http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_6137264

  We lost a person who was definitely one of the founding fathers of our little tribe. 

  His COMPLETE WALKER books introduced many people to backpacking.

  More importantly, in my opinion, were his writing about his journeys. It was not how many miles he hiked, or how far he went. It was about his sense of discovery, about being immersed in nature, of seeing what is around the next bend of the river, the trail or the canyon.

  There are two quotes from Colin Fletcher I always think about when I do my own long journeys and return from them:

  Before a hike:
  I also realized that I'd grown soft, Things had been going to well 
  lately. Too easily. I needed something to pare the fat off my soul, 
  to scare the sh** out of me, to make me grateful, again, for being
  alive. All I knew, deep and safe, beyond mere intellect, that there
  is nothing like a wilderness journey for re-kindling the fires of 
  life. Simplicity is part of it. Cutting the cackle. Transportation 
  reduced to leg- or arm-power, eating irons to one spoon. 
  Such simplicity, together with sweat and silence, amplify the rhythms
  of any long journey, especially through unknown, untattered 
  territory. And in the end such a journey can restore an understanding 
  of how insignificant you are - thereby set you free.
  --Colin Fletcher, RIVER


  After a hike:
  It is always there, of course, when you come back from the green world. You
  have been living by sunrise and sunset, by wind and rain, surrounded by the
  ebb and flow of lives that respond only to such simple, rhythmic elements.
  But now the tone and tempo of the days switch. Instead of harmony, jangle.
  --Colin Fletcher, WINDS OF MARA

  RIP Colin.



  ************************************************************
  The true harvest of my life is intangible.... a little stardust 
  caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched
  --Thoreau
  http://www.pmags.com


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