We Swam the Grand Canyon: The True Story of a Cheap Vacation that Got a Little Out of Hand
The true story of a cheap vacation that got a little out of hand. In 1955 Bill Beer and John Daggett, at the time both recently out of the military, and in their mid 20s, footloose, and more or less unemployed conceived the idea of swimming the Colorado River through the 279 miles of the Grand Canyon-principally because they couldn’t afford a boat. This simple idea escalated into a national news story and has been one of the legends of the Grand Canyon ever since. Never equalled nor duplicated,
List Price: $ 24.00
Price: $ 24.00
"frostedchocopups" says:
A must-read for anyone planning a Grand Canyon river trip.,
We Swam the Grand Canyon is a personal account of a “vacation” that Mr. Beer and a friend took through the Grand Canyon via the Colorado River. Unlike Major John Wesley Powell, who is credited with the first boat descent through “The Big Ditch”, Beer and his companion decided to do the trip, for various reasons that he goes into in his book, without boats! His writing style is straightforward and unadorned, peppered with humor and self-depricating modesty and well suited for a tale of this proportion. He tells of overcoming the pair’s most difficult challenge; not the terrifying rapids, but the continual bone-numbing cold of the water. He also covers their trip’s near-fatal brush with the Grand Canyon authorities, and how the swimmers convinced the skeptical rangers to let them continue their unusual tour. In all, a delightful read, especially for someone planning a trip down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon themselves. Informative and entertaining, this book is also a great confidence-builder for those who fear they may flip their boat in the Colorado rapids. Also, if Mr. Beer is accurate in his Amazon comment, this book will shortly be difficult to acquire; he died this summer after a long retirement in the Virgin Islands.
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|"kajabooks" says:
Ridiculous & charming,
This account of a unique 1950’s trip down the Grand Canyon is highly entertaining, especially because the whole thing seems like such a bad idea. Beers and his friend’s equipment & preparation were laughable, and they had no escape plan or backup. But they plunge into the Colorado River (pre-Glen Canyon Dam, even), validate every stereotype about 50’s American optimism/naivety, and somehow don’t die. Beers’ writing is not fancy, but the unaffected prose is well-matched to detailing the no-frills style of his incredible boatless river run.
I enjoyed this book a lot, and admired the author’s courage at least as often as I laughed out loud at his actions.
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|Anonymous says:
Great adventure story,
One of the best modern American adventure stories. A relatively easy read. These guys swam more than 100 rapids on the frigid Colorado River wearing nothing but rubber shirts and wool longjohns – carrying thier sleeping bags, food and camera equipment in rubber boxes. Absolutely amazing – and their story had me with butterflys in my stomach just reading about what they did.
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