The Man Who Walked Through Time : The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through the Grand Canyon

by Collin Fletcher

Release Date: 14 May, 1989

Edition: Paperback

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Seems forced

Fletcher, supposedly the first man to walk the length of the Grand Canyon, below the Rim (seems unlikely), wrote a book about it. I must say I'm sorely disappointed in the result. It's horribly repetitive and boring, to begin with (he repeats his descriptions of how the Canyon formed again and again, for example). But my main objection is that Fletcher was determined before the trip began to have some sort of "break" with his old self, to become a new man, to have new heights of understanding. So every time he had some new impression of the Canyon, he would go on and on about how "now I had finally escaped the trivia of everyday life. Now at last I no longer needed to scrutinize the wildlife; I had become part of it," and so forth. And each time he would then begin to scrutinize the Canyon and have another grand Moment, and repeat himself about escaping the trivia again. All very tiresome; still there are some good scenes here, and his final chapter, consisting of his ruminations on Man, is pretty interesting. I just wish we had more of a memoir of what it was like to walk and live in the Canyon, not a diary of forced mystical epiphanies.

The Man Who Walked Through Time

The Man Who Walked Through Time, Colin Fletcher, United States: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., January 15, 1968. 247pg.

The book, "The Man Who Walked Through time" by Colin Fletcher is an amazing book about how Colin Fletcher himself attempts to be the first person to walk the length of the canyon. Colin Fletcher really goes into detail about what he was thinking and feeling along the way. Not to say that he never talks about what he actually does, he just includes more about what his mindset was. You would think that a book about a man and his journey's would start out as the boring day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4, then day 5, but Colin Fletcher throws away this idea and beautify pieces together a flowing natural story. He never bores you with every single detail, but instead talks about the most exiting things. The book "The Man Who Walked Though Time" is meant for any reader interested in the canyon or anyone that would want to follow in Colin's footsteps.

I myself live at the canyon, and when reading about how Colin Fletcher walked the length of the canyons National Park I was awe struck. Later I was relieved to find out that the Grand Canyon National Park boundary was a lot shorter. It was also nerve racking to thinks of how he is going to lug his food around for 3 months, but I was soon to read that he was going to have airplanes drop his food off at certain locations. "That's crazy" I though, "you would have to spend millions of dollars to be able to do that". That is when I learned that Colin Fletcher had walked that canyon in the 60's and back then it must have been inexpensive to have an airplane drop off your food or you had connections.

While I was reading the book, Colin Fletcher was talking about the Rhythm of the rocks and how he needed to connect with the beaver, and "be the beaver" and be one with all of the animals. I literally thought that he was going crazy, that he has been in the canyon way to long and has gone nuts, but then I started to realize what type of mindset he is in. He has been alone for so long in such a beautiful and amazing place. When I start to think about what Colin Fletcher was saying about the rhythm of the rocks and how our time and the canyons time is way different I really admired the way Colin put his thoughts together. It was just beautiful writing, that is all there is to it.

I personally thought that the book was amazingly well written, and like I had said before, the way Colin doesn't use the writing format of what he did every single day. He just points out the main facts about his journey.

The book really inspired me to just go out and walk the Grand Canyons length myself. Since Colin explained that he wasn't the fittest guy in the world it really showed that if you worked hard enough you yourself could walk the Grand Canyon. I can't think of anything that Colin Fletcher left out in his book. I mean sure he left out all the little details, which is good otherwise it would have been horribly slow and dreadful. I have never really read any other books about the canyon so I don't have anything to compare this book to. Don't worry though; I still thought that the book was great.

I have walked in and around the canyon a lot but not for very long periods of time. Colin Fletcher, in the book was talking about how Beaver Sandbar (a place in the canyon) really affected him and moved him. I thought that to be a little odd, but since I wasn't walking in his shoes I pass to much judgment. Other that that little oddity the book "The Man Who Walked Through Time" was brilliant. Go read it!