The Emerald Mile
The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon
"From the bottom of our planet's most awesome landscape, Kevin Fedarko has found and rescued a great American tall tale that just happens to be true. As a boatman, Fedarko knows this world intimately. As a writer, he'll make you understand it, savor it, and ultimately love it as you never have before. Here is an instant classic of adventure literature - a story shot through with bravura but also touched by the rarest kind of grandeur."
-Hampton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers
The Emerald Mile
In the winter of 1983, the largest El Nino event on record - a chain of "superstorms" that swept in from the Pacific Ocean - battered the entire West. That spring a massive snowmelt sent runoff racing down the Colorado River toward the Glen Canyon Dam, which sat at the head of the most iconic landscape feature of America, the Grand Canyon. As federal officials scrambled to avoid one of the dramatic dam failures in history, they began releasing enormous torrents of water that created a maelstrom so powerful that the river was soon choked with the wreckage of commercial rafting trips.
In the midst of the crisis, a trio of river guides secretly launched a hand-built wooden dory named Emerald Mile into the Colorado River. A river run under such conditions bordered on the suicidal. But, Kenton Grua, the captain of that dory, was determined to use the flood as a hydraulic slingshot that would hurl him and his two companions through 277 miles of some of the most ferocious white water in North America and, if everything went as planned, catapult the Emerald Mile into legend as the fastest boat ever propelled - by oar, by motor, or by the grace of God - through the heart of the Grand Canyon.The saga of the Emerald Mile is a thrilling adventure, as well as magisterial portrait of the hidden kingdom of white water at the bottom of the greatest river canyon on earth.
Praise for The Emerald Mile
"The Emerald Mile is the rarest of creations - a magical convergence of words and paper, wood and water, rock and sky, human character and cosmic caprice. Can an adventure story be as beautiful as it is heart-stopping and exciting? This one is, and Fedarko's book is as inspiring as a dory itself, flying down a wild river. I have no doubt it will become an instant classic, a timeless chronicle of what can still be legitimately called the American spirit."-Bob Shacochis, author of Swimming in the Volcano and Easy in the Islands
Kenton Grua on the Emerald Mile
"Kevin Fedarko's remarkable The Emerald Mile re-creates an incredible voyage through the flood-swollen Grand Canyon in such heart-pounding detail that you need to pause every few pages to catch your breath... He writes so vividly that your favorite reading chair becomes a spray-soaked perch on a bucking boat hit hard by a river running high and fast."-Dallas Morning News
"His poetic and descriptive writing should only brighten his accolades and helps his non-fiction book read like a fast-paced fiction adventure...It isn't necessary to be a history buff or whitewater expert to enjoy this story... With meticulous research, notes and epilogue, Fedarko tells a satisfying story that is quite an entertaining ride."-Deseret News
Photos: Grua on the Emerald Mile - Rudi Petschek
Kenton Grua in the Grand Canyon - John Blaustein