When Colin Fletcher set out to walk the length of California in March of 1958, he started two outdoor trends that are now commonplace: long-distance backpacking, and trail memoir.
At the time Fletcher had a spotty resume for normal life, and the perfect one for a long thru-hike. He had been a captain in the Royal Marine Commandos during World War II. From there he farmed in Kenya and did surveying in Southern Rhodesia. Then he crossed the Atlantic and spent several years prospecting and laying out roads in northwestern Canada before relocating to California.
Though Fletcher didn’t follow an existing trail for most of his walk, his path nevertheless foreshadowed some of the route and much of the spirit of the Pacific Crest Trail. He followed the Colorado River, crossed the Mojave Desert, walked through Death Valley, entered the White Mountains, crossed over into the High Sierra, and finally finished on the Oregon border in northern California.
Along the way Fletcher had the iconic experiences of a long-distance hike: encounters with wild animals and memorable characters, severe weather, water shortages, and witnessing the unspoiled and occasionally spoiled beauty of the American west.
Fletcher is memorable for his eloquent pen and salty British observations on the state of the natural world. He saw himself as a writer who happened to walk. But he’s also memorable for his hiking prowess. He covered long distances across the desert between water caches in an era long before trail angels. And he traveled cross-country in the rugged Sierra long before GPS.
Trail Memoir 