# Favorite Whitewater Reads?



## seantana (Mar 5, 2015)

Emerald Mile
Anything Worth Doing
River of Doubt
Down the Great Unknown


----------



## CBow (Aug 26, 2007)

Running The Amazon - Joe Kane
At The Mercy of The River - Peter Stark
Hell or High Water - Peter Heller


----------



## shappattack (Jul 17, 2008)

Eyoung said:


> Looking for some good river running books to read. Suggestions please?


Not sure how any river running top-10 list of books could not include Up Shit Creek
https://www.amazon.com/Shit-Creek-Collection-Horrifyingly-Misadventures/dp/0898159393


----------



## Andy H. (Oct 13, 2003)

Westwater Lost and Found
The Doing of the Thing (Buzz Holstrom's biography)
If you've got a short attention span, read the essays in the guidebook Western Whitewater

-AH


----------



## Conundrum (Aug 23, 2004)

Doing of the Thing
American Buffalo-definitely not boating centric but a little of it in there and a healthy dose of adventure and history.


----------



## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

The doing of the thing
The monkey wrench gang
Desert Solitaire
The Emerald Mile
Hijacking a river (very dry, and hard to get thru but perfect for a rainy layover day)
The adventures of Huckleberry Finn


----------



## atg200 (Apr 24, 2007)

Brothers on the Bashkaus


----------



## DoStep (Jun 26, 2012)

We swam it by Bill Beer


----------



## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

A few more:
A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia - Blaine Harden
Never Turn Back: The Life of Whitewater Pioneer Walt Blackadar - Ron Watters
River Runners of the Grand Canyon - David Lavender
Big Water, Little Boats - Tom Martin

But the Emerald Mile is at the very, very top of my list.


----------



## MontanaLaz (Feb 15, 2018)

There's This River...Grand Canyon Boatman Stories edited by Christa Sadler

And of course...........

Exploration Of The Colorado River Of The West And Its Tributaries: Explored in 1869-1872 by John Wesley Powell


----------



## cataraftbetty (Sep 27, 2010)

Riding the Dragon's Back
Liquid Locomotive


----------



## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

Andy H. said:


> If you've got a short attention span, read the essays in the guidebook Western Whitewater
> 
> -AH



I lost my copy (lent it to someone and forgot who) after my last Selway trip, does anyone have a copy they want to part with, or know where I can lay my hands on one? We used to call it the "River Bible". Yes, I know it's outdated, but I still loved it.


----------



## 90Duck (Nov 19, 2012)

I have a whole bookshelf full of winter whitewater reading to get my rafting Jones during the cold months. Most of the books mentioned I've got in my library, but some good additional leads to look into.

My all-time personal favorite is Colin Fletcher's River: One Man's Journey Down the Colorado River, Source to Sea

I really like the contrast and balance between adrenaline-filled whitewater passages with quiet contemplation and observation in camp (much like an actual river trip).

Fletcher passed away a few years ago, but is most famous as a backpacker with The Man Who Walked Through Time and The Complete Walker. He does the Colorado rafting trip in his late 60's as his last great solo adventure.


----------



## Waterhopper (Jul 3, 2017)

Try Ron Watters's biography of Walt Blackadar, _Never Turn Back._


----------



## Chandan (Mar 26, 2018)

Living the Best Day Ever by Hendri Coetzee.

http://livingthebestdayever.com

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Mountain Buzz mobile app


----------



## NightFloater (Oct 17, 2018)

Siddhartha


----------



## k2andcannoli (Feb 28, 2012)

Comrades on the Colca: A Race for Adventure and Incan Treasure in One of the World's Last Unexplored Canyons - Eugene Buchanan

https://www.amazon.com/Comrades-Colca-Adventure-Treasure-Unexplored/dp/1942280351


----------



## daairguy (Nov 11, 2013)

Requiem for a River Rat


----------



## 90Duck (Nov 19, 2012)

Damn, you really know it is the dead of winter when "Favorite White Water Reads" shows up in the Buzz' weekly highlights summary.


----------



## Will Amette (Jan 28, 2017)

Another vote for Emerald Mile and The Doing of thing. I've read each of them at least twice. I took Emerald Mile down the canyon a few years ago, and I'd read aloud from the parts of the book describing what we'd done that day. One of our folks said she really wanted me to read about Lava after we were below that. I told her it would be boring because... Well, you know. You've read the book.


Another favorite is Hell's Half Mile edited by Michael Engelhard. 



And the obligatory shout-out for Soggy Sneakers!


----------



## rivh2o (Jan 17, 2013)

Dangerous River - Adventures on the Nahanni, R.M. Patterson


----------



## noot (Jan 24, 2012)

Anything Worth Doing by Jo Deurbrouck. Super good read about running the Salmon River all the way from the head waters to the ocean and also a high flow river run


----------



## cataraftbetty (Sep 27, 2010)

I forgot to add Running the Amazon by Joe Kane


----------



## seantana (Mar 5, 2015)

Impressive list so far, I personally have only read about half of these, so I started a list with Amazon links. I'll update if more people chime in.


The Emerald Mile - Kevin Fedarko
Anything Worth Doing - Jo Deurbrouck
River of Doubt - Candice Millard
Down the Great Unknown - Edward Dolnick 
Running the Amazon - Joe Kane 
At the Mercy of the River - Peter Stark
Hell or High Water - Peter Heller 
Up Shit Creek - Joe Lindsay
Westwater Lost and Found - Mike Milligan
The Doing of the Thing - Vince Welch
Western Whitewater - Jim Cassady
American Buffalo - Steven Rinella
The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey
Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey
Hijacking a River - Jeff Ingram
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
Brothers on the Bashkaus - Eugene Buchanan
We Swam the Grand Canyon - Bill Beer
A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia - Blaine Harden
Never Turn Back - Ron Watters
River Runners of the Grand Canyon - David Lavendar
Big Water, Little Boats - Tom Martin
There's This River… - Christa Sadler
Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries: Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, Under the Direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution - Smithsonian Institution
Riding the Dragon's Back - Richard Bangs 
Liquid Locomotive - John Long
River : One Man's Journey Down the Colorado, Source to Sea - Colin Fletcher
Living the Best Day Ever - Hendri Coetzee 
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse 
Comrades on the Colca - Eugene Buchanan 
Requiem for a River Rat - Neal Ekker
Hell's Half Mile - Michael Engelhard
Soggy Sneakers - Willamette Kayak & Canoe Club
The Dangerous River - R.M. Patterson


----------



## eddie (Apr 12, 2005)

I don't think anyone has mentioned 'The Lost River' by Richard Bangs. Good read about the early days of Sobek rafting in Ethiopia. 

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-River-R...7730&sr=1-1&keywords=lost+river+richard+bangs


----------



## skixc (May 16, 2009)

Better add "Beyond the Hundredth Meridian" by Wallace Stegner. A readable biography of J Wesley Powell with Grand Canyon trips and his subsequent career with the USGS and Bureau of Ethnology. Powell understood the west and its limits based on water better than anyone of his era. He was a true public servant. Think about running the Grand as a unknown river and only having one arm to swim and scramble up canyon walls with. You can't get much of a swelled head boating with an intact body and all the gear and info we have now in comparison. Sorry Emerald Mile pales .


----------



## Tom Martin (Dec 5, 2004)

Powell To Power; A Recounting Of The First One Hundred River Runners Through The Grand Canyon, by Otis "Dock" Marston


----------



## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

Tom Martin said:


> Powell To Power; A Recounting Of The First One Hundred River Runners Through The Grand Canyon, by Otis "Dock" Marston



Nothing like the Author engaging in shameless self promotion:roll:


It is a good read though, in his defense, albeit a pricey read..


----------



## Tom Martin (Dec 5, 2004)

Mongo, thank you for your good words for the book "From Powell To Power." Thank you for mistaking the author, Otis "Dock" Marston, with the books editor. "Shameless self promotion"? Ho hum... the author has been dead for thirty years. Yes, $30 gets you a 532 page book researched over 3 decades, the research resulting in a quarter million piece collection housed at The Huntington Library in over 430 boxes of Colorado River History. Good Day to you too!


----------



## Will Amette (Jan 28, 2017)

*Newer edition of Soggy*

Thanks seantana for compiling the list of links to purchase these books!


Be aware; however, that there's a newer edition of Soggy Sneakers published in 2016. It was reorganized and, in my opinion, improved over the fourth edition. Each section has a small map showing what the actual region covered consists of. New runs were added. Due to size limitations from the publisher, some runs were deleted. Some were moved to a section with VERY BRIEF descriptions. 



Full disclosure: I'm a long time member of the WKCC, so I am biased.


I'll offer another read that's Oregon-centric. Tim Palmer's "Field Guide to Oregon Rivers." It's not a paddling guide, but a look at several longer rivers. It's actually fun to sit down and read.


And why not Travis Williams (Willamette Riverkeeper) book, Willamette River Field Guide. You could note that my user name is Will Amette; it's my home river, though my name is NOT Will. Sorry to confuse so many folks on the Buzz. Actually -- not sorry


----------



## John_in_Loveland (Jun 9, 2011)

OK reading through this list, I see some I have read and some I should read. But there are a couple classics that are a must. "Beyond the Hundredth Meridian" by Wallace Stegner is a classic. Not only a story of the Powell Expeditions, but he goes further into Powells elevation to head of the USGS. One of his most controversial ideas was to base western counties on watersheds instead of random boundaries. 

The other that is not mentioned here is "THE BIG DROPS." It's a bit outdated given the ability to run big water with new gear. But it's was a classic description of BIG whitewater in 1978.


Sent from my SCH-I545 using Mountain Buzz mobile app


----------



## NativeDiver (Jun 7, 2017)

Read them ALL!! 8)


----------



## Altahills (Feb 5, 2013)

Another one is, The Very Hard Way:Bert Loper and the Colorado River by Brad Dinock.


----------



## Johnny Yuma (Mar 8, 2017)

The book, Any time, any place, any river: The Nevills of Mexican Hat, is a great read about the early days on the San Juan. It lead me to shout YOGI! everytime I shove off for a trip.


----------



## lhowemt (Apr 5, 2007)

Anything worth doing.....
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAMegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw3AmdsmMvNVZSCohKJyQK8q

All my rivers are gone
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAMegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw0ltwL6LfzBaAH4gvQTmYv7


----------



## kayakingphotog (May 25, 2007)

Yes thanks Sentana for compiling a list with links. Here are a couple more. Some dry and obscure and some you have to read.


Great River – Paul Horgan 
Basin and Range - John McPhee – (All of his books!)
Goodbye to a River - John Graves – (All of his books!)
River Reflections – Verne Huser
Undaunted Courage – Stephen E. Ambrose
Down The River – Edward Abbey – (All of his books!)
Into The Wild – Jon Krakauer
Downriver – A Yellowstone Journey – Dean Krakel II
Run River Run & Downcanyon– Ann Zwinger
Tales from the Grand Canyon – Edna Evans
The Man Who Walked Through Time – Colin Fletcher

Enjoy Folks


----------

