Fedarko, Kevin A Walk in the Park

 

                                  “The true story of a spectacular misadventure in the Grand Canyon”

                 Fedarko meets his potential readers at multiple interest levels. If the history of the human occupation of the canyon interests you, it’s there. If the long-term geology of the chasm floats your boat, it is covered in detail. If you have a penchant for exploring the environmental changes caused by the contemporary commercialization of one of our largest and oldest national parks, you can get full coverage of the various arguments. .

If you are just an adventure hound who revels in reading in great detail about the trials and tribulations of long-distance hiking in one of the world’s most inhospitable locations, you will be satisfied in spades. Although the walk described is long, dangerous, and accompanied by real pain, and several miscalculations, the ability of the human body to continue to push a dream is beautifully portrayed. 

Fedarko’s nice sense of descriptive humor is always on tap to help you over the hardships. For instance, as he and his trail companion sit down to a  dehydrated dinner of Shepherd’s Pie, he comments, “It tasted like somebody tore up a cereal box and poured ketchup on top.”

In dealing with the ancient peoples who lived in the canyon, he says, “I found myself confronting, for the first time, the notion that any understanding of this landscape that fails to embrace the story of these people and their descendants is fundamentally incomplete.”

And literally every step of his journey confronts the nature if the layers of rock that the river has cut through. That stone occasionally helps but mostly impedes the dedicated walker.

The environmental works of Edward Abbey are often cited—from Dessert Solitaire for instance, “when traces of blood begin to mark your trail, you’ll see something, maybe.”  When the day’s noise is put to rest, the author concludes, perhaps they weren’t meant to see or learn anything. Perhaps, they were just supposed to listen.  “What “we were meant to hear was silence.” He ends by citing his father, a Pennsylvania coalminer, who believed that any day spent outdoors walking, even if it was on spilly piles, was a good day . . .”

It is a slog at over 400 pages and some may find the preamble takes up too many pages. I still had a hard time putting it down once the group was out and walking.

I give it a good solid 4.