Alfred A. Knopf

Walking and floating the entire Colorado River from its Rocky Mountain headwaters to the Sea of Cortez — a journey almost no one has done, through some of the most contested water in the West.

The backpacking bible — updated and expanded, covering every piece of gear, every technique, every consideration for walking in the wilderness. Fletcher invented the genre of the long walk, and this book is the manual.

The second McCarthy border novel — a young man crosses into Mexico to return a wolf to the wild. The wolf doesn't survive. Neither does the old world McCarthy is eulogizing. The prose is as good as anything written in the twentieth century.

The first person to hike the entire length of the Grand Canyon — rim to rim, through the inner gorge. Fletcher did it alone in 1963, and his account invented the genre of the long contemplative walk.

While there’s no telling how many long-distance hiking dreams have sprung from its wake, Strayed’s memoir detailing the heartbreaking circumstances that inspired her now-famous ramble along the Pacific Crest Trail (and a Hollywood movie, to boot) is less a love letter to the backcountry than it is an ode to a more internal sort of adventure. Turns out you really can find yourself out there, if you’re willing to trade some sweat equity for the revelation.