California Hiking: Colin Fletcher's The Thousand-Mile Summer. California Serendipity

Overview

In the grand tradition of the travel memoir, Andreas M. Cohrs presents an awesome guide to the less visited regions of California, as well as a glance into what makes up the Golden state and its glittering mentality.
Through a chain of serendipitous events, Cohrs gained access to the belongings of the late backpacking icon, Colin Fletcher. Based on the outdoor guru’s original maps, notes, and photos, fifty years later he retraced The Walker’s hitherto untraceable thousand-mile journey along the lengthy spine of California, across the state’s enchanting deserts and over the snow-laden high sierra.

With maps accompanying each chapter, drawn by Fletcher’s cartographer david Lindroth, more than 100 photos, and with stories from the trail, Cohrs tells a compelling tale of one of the most varied and fascinating regions on our planet.

Yet, as the title reveals, California serendipity is more than a hiking guide that lays Fletcher’s original route at your feet for the first time. It takes the reader on a crash course through the state’s early history and its unique nature into finding the only true answer to Fletcher’s concern whether his 1958-trip could ever be repeated.

With his narrative travel writing, Cohrs conveys the intimate sensations of what it means to venture upon a four-month trek, unpretentious but up close and affective, and why serendipity will travel with you, rewarding you with the most unexpected encounters, when you take the right turn.

In desert and high Sierra. Ten chapters:

Contents:
1 Along The Colorado (Algodones, MEXICO, paralleling the river where possible to Needles)
2 Across The Mojave (Sacramento Hills to Goffs, home of the MDHCA, crossing the Mojave preserve to the Silurian Hills)
3 The Valley Called Death (Saratoga Springs, Amargosa Valley and Death Valley to Stovepipe Wells)
4 Over The Panamints (Lemoigne & Cottonwood Canyons, Hunter Mt., Saline & Eureka Valleys to Deep Springs)
5 On The White Mountains (Wyman Canyon, Bristlecone Pine Forest, White Mountain Summit, Silver Canyon to Bishop)
6 In High Sierra (Owen’s Valley, Piute Pass, Selden Pass, Silver Pass, Mammoth Pass to Mammoth Lakes)
7 Craters Of History (Mono Craters, Mono Lake to Bodie)
8 The Northern Sierra (East Walker River, Buckeye Canyon, West Walker River, Sonora, Silver King to Markleeville)
9 Tahoe Donner (Lake Tahoe, Donner Pass, Truckee to Honey Lake)
10 Warner Mountain Surprise (South Warner Wilderness, Summit Trail, Surprise Valley, Highgrade to New Pine Creek, OREGON)

Sample map

Overview and first of ten maps

Route / Photos

I Along the Colorado
II Across the Mojave
III The Valley Called Death
IV Over the Panamints
V On the White Mountains
VI In High Sierra
VII Craters of History
VIII The Northern Sierra
IX Tahoe Donner
X Warner Mountains Surprise

Flora & Fauna / Photos

Desert Fauna

Desert Flora

Desert Cacti

Mountain Fauna

Mountain Flora

WebLinks

Colin Fletcher & Memorabilia

Description & Photos, The Thousand-Mile Summer

Online Store

Cow photography

Guided tours

Check for tours in the footsteps of Colin Fletcher

• A walk to the cave

• Across the Mojave Desert

and others ...

TOURS

50 years ago

Colin Fletcher's original The Thousand-Mile Summer, (Howell North Books)

Images

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