Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher

In books such as The Complete Walker and The Man Who Walked Through Time, Colin Fletcher has established a reputation as a literate and witty apostle of roughing it. Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher is a highly personal celebration of solitary backpacking (and day walking, too), in the wild places of the world, and of all the attendant pleasures: of finding a foothold in difficult terrain, of catching a glimpse of an unsuspecting coyote, of healing the wounds that civilization inevitably inflicts on human nature—of simply “mucking about.” Overflowing with fresh descriptions of nature and with the wisdom of a curmudgeonly Thoreau, this book is a must for backpackers and all unconstrained spirits.

Colin Fletcher (1922–2007) was born in Wales and educated in England. He moved to California in 1956 after serving in the Royal Marines, farming in Kenya, surveying in Zimbabwe, and prospecting in northern and western Canada. He is the first man to have walked the length of Grand Canyon National Park within the canyon’s rim. He is the author of numerous books on walking and the outdoors, including The Thousand-Mile Summer, The Man Who Walked Through Time, River, The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher, and three previous editions of The Complete Walker.