Colin Fletcher - The Complete Walker

[ATMouse]

In Passing

 

Okay, I'll admit it - I'm one of those who read his book - again and again and again - and modified many of his techniques into my backpacking style.

 

I recall when he was injured. TBI (traumatic brain injury) is a terrible thing - much like having a stroke. It steals you from yourself. I kept hoping he would recover enough to publish again. I eagerly purchased the most recent The Complete Walker, but it was just the last edition before that with some other person's over-commentaries. Almost nothing new.

 

I feel like I've lost an uncle, or an older brother, or a friend. I don't think I ever met him, tho' rumor had it that he liked to pop up on trails, rarely telling anyone who he was. My husband insists that Colin was that older man we met on the AT in 1987. I was afraid to ask him, thinking if it was Colin that he valued his anonymity and that I was loath to intrude or invade. Now I wish....I wish....

 

Anyone else want to add to a tribute to a man justly called one of the "patron saints" of backpacking in the US?

[+briansnat]

I've never read any of his books, but the Complete Walker and The Man Who Walked Through Time have been on my to read list for years.

 

He was influential enough however that I'm sure he influenced the way I hike and backpack in ways I don't even know

[luckykoi]

I tried to read the book. I bought it at a thrift shop and when I got it home I found out the middle of all the pages had been cut out. Someone had used the book to stash something in. I don't know what though, the book just smells like mold.

[+Monkeybrad]

ATMouse, thank you for bringing this to our attention. On your advice I picked up The Complete Walker IV last weekend, and I have not been able to put it down. We spent the weekend doing dayhikes in the mountains of North Carolina, but as tired as I was, when I curled up with this book, I just kept reading. I can see why his writing has been so influential, I am truly enjoying it, so thank you for introducing me to it.

[+yumitori]

Colin Fletcher's books, including The Complete Walker were vastly inspirational when I first started backpacking. Lightweight backpacking has moved beyond his teachings, but he was one of the first to suggest that we could enter the backcountry without carrying enough break a mule's back.

 

I will always be indebted to him.

[+imajeep]

Thanks for the post. I hadn't thought about Colin Fletcher since "The Complete Walker" came out in 1968, in the backpacking days of my youth. I didn't realize he had died.

[crainsworth]

There is a little article about him in the August issue of Backpacker. I was unframiliar with him untill reading the article. I want to pick up a copy of his book(s) it sounds like a must read for anyone in the sport.