The Emerald Mile
by Kevin Fedarko
Summary: The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko is a novel about the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon. The climax of the story revolves around a speed run through the Grand Canyon in wooden dory in an attempt to break the record for how fast a boat can go through the canyon. While telling the story of the wooden dory named the Emerald smile, the author also shows the significance of natural places and how all people have a call-to-action to save them.
The story starts off with an in-depth analysis of the history of the Grand Canyon. It goes back and talks about some of the first explorers of the canyon such as John Wesley Powell and his crew. Powell and his team were some of the first to travel down the river into the canyon but eventually hiked out of the canyon because they were not doing well on food and supplies. It then continues by naming many historical figures that helped shape the river boating community. In the past. The river had no dams on it and the full strength of the Colorado could flow down the canyon. As society grew however, dams were put in to crest hydropower and the flow of the river was severely changed. The major part of the story occurred when a freak storm in 1983 caused runoff from the mountains to fill several of the dams. Therefore, the dams had to use their spillways to release thousands of gallons of water so the dams would not overflow. At Glen Canyon Dam, the spillways we’re faulty and caused cement barriers to be destroyed and so more water had to be released in order to secure the dam. All of this extra runoff paved the way for a crew of three men in a wooden dory to attempt a speed record going through the Grand Canyon.
The wooden dories used in the story are very similar to drift boats except that they are built with their bow and stern covered. These dories were created by Martin Litton as a way to encase the natural side of boating on the Grand Canyon. Dories are notoriously harder to control in white water but also very fast. The first wooden dory guides in the Grand Canyon were Litton’s own men that learned as the years went by how to tackle white water in a wooden boat.
The three main characters of the story are Rudi Petschek, Steve Reynolds, and Kenton Grua. These three were all seasoned guides on the Grand Canyon in wooden dories and all were possessed with the same awe that led them to attempt and illegal but brave run down the Grand Canyon at its highest water mark in years.
The speed run took place in the summer of 1983 and started at 11:00 p.m. The plan was to row through the nights to accomplish a record that would possibly never be beaten. There was a lot of danger from the trip because the river had changed so much because of the high flows and the three men would be running the river nonstop. There would be obstacles and rapids that were not usually there and would have to be navigated blind. Nevertheless, the illegal trip took off and headed into the Grand Canyon. The major failure of the run was a rapid called Crystal. Crystal has caused deaths to more than a few rafters and it was even more immense in the new flows. The wooden dory flipped in this rapid and it’s crew were sent overboard. Eventually, they got back aboard and continued but had lost a valuable amount of time. Still, after several long days and nights, they achieved a record run of 36 hours 38 minutes and 29 seconds. Not only was it a record, but it best the old record by almost 10 hours. All in all it was an extremely impressive trip and one that took bravery, rebellion, and a lot of craziness to be part of. And it was all done in a wooden dory called the Emerald Mile.
The story starts off with an in-depth analysis of the history of the Grand Canyon. It goes back and talks about some of the first explorers of the canyon such as John Wesley Powell and his crew. Powell and his team were some of the first to travel down the river into the canyon but eventually hiked out of the canyon because they were not doing well on food and supplies. It then continues by naming many historical figures that helped shape the river boating community. In the past. The river had no dams on it and the full strength of the Colorado could flow down the canyon. As society grew however, dams were put in to crest hydropower and the flow of the river was severely changed. The major part of the story occurred when a freak storm in 1983 caused runoff from the mountains to fill several of the dams. Therefore, the dams had to use their spillways to release thousands of gallons of water so the dams would not overflow. At Glen Canyon Dam, the spillways we’re faulty and caused cement barriers to be destroyed and so more water had to be released in order to secure the dam. All of this extra runoff paved the way for a crew of three men in a wooden dory to attempt a speed record going through the Grand Canyon.
The wooden dories used in the story are very similar to drift boats except that they are built with their bow and stern covered. These dories were created by Martin Litton as a way to encase the natural side of boating on the Grand Canyon. Dories are notoriously harder to control in white water but also very fast. The first wooden dory guides in the Grand Canyon were Litton’s own men that learned as the years went by how to tackle white water in a wooden boat.
The three main characters of the story are Rudi Petschek, Steve Reynolds, and Kenton Grua. These three were all seasoned guides on the Grand Canyon in wooden dories and all were possessed with the same awe that led them to attempt and illegal but brave run down the Grand Canyon at its highest water mark in years.
The speed run took place in the summer of 1983 and started at 11:00 p.m. The plan was to row through the nights to accomplish a record that would possibly never be beaten. There was a lot of danger from the trip because the river had changed so much because of the high flows and the three men would be running the river nonstop. There would be obstacles and rapids that were not usually there and would have to be navigated blind. Nevertheless, the illegal trip took off and headed into the Grand Canyon. The major failure of the run was a rapid called Crystal. Crystal has caused deaths to more than a few rafters and it was even more immense in the new flows. The wooden dory flipped in this rapid and it’s crew were sent overboard. Eventually, they got back aboard and continued but had lost a valuable amount of time. Still, after several long days and nights, they achieved a record run of 36 hours 38 minutes and 29 seconds. Not only was it a record, but it best the old record by almost 10 hours. All in all it was an extremely impressive trip and one that took bravery, rebellion, and a lot of craziness to be part of. And it was all done in a wooden dory called the Emerald Mile.