Into the Unknown

Michael P. Ghiglieri has worked as a professional wilderness river guide for fifty years on forty rivers around the world. His books include Canyon and, with Thomas M. Myers, Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon, winner of the National Outdoor Book Award.

• AcknowledgmentsPreface. What Could These Guides Be Thinking?Chapter 1. The Stanislaus: Paradise LostChapter 2. Kidnapped (and Derailed)Chapter 3. Mission Impossible: The Vanishing EuphratesChapter 4. Kilombero-Rufiji: East Africa’s BiggestChapter 5. Gorilla CountryChapter 6. The Omo: Back to the Stone AgeChapter 7. 1983: High Water in the Great UnknownChapter 8. Over the Edge in New GuineaChapter 9. “Stardom” on the Alas, SumatraChapter 10. Alsek: Ice Age JackpotChapter 11. The Most Overpriced OarboatThe UpshotIndexAbout the Author

“What a venturesome life Michael Ghiglieri has lived—most of it in or on water—and what a gorgeous rhapsody to rivers he’s written! You can’t read this book without feeling a twinge of envy, but Ghiglieri’s wise and spirited accounts of his aquatic adventures just may inspire you to get out there more often, with an open mind and an explorer’s heart, to float the bold rivers of the world.”—Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook “Michael Ghiglieri has spent the last half-century running forty of the world’s wild rivers, from the iconic Euphrates and Colorado to thrillingly unknown cataracts in New Guinea, uncharted stretches of white water in East Africa, and meltwater-flooded canyons in the Sierra Nevada. Along the way he’s faced a host of exotic dangers, from charging hippos to malaria and rapid runs gone awry. Whether you’re an armchair traveler or a longtime river rat, you’ll be glad to have Ghiglieri as your guide journeying into the unknown, with thrills, spills, and hair-raising tales of high adventure.”—Gregory McNamee, author of Gila: The Life and Death of an American River“Storytelling through the words of a scientist with an excellent hand is the best kind of storytelling. Ghiglieri’s adventures are hard won and deeply considered, swashbuckling and relevant.”—Craig Childs, author of Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau“Wild rivers are merely reservoirs postponed. Yet without their currents, the stitches that hold the world together come undone. Michael Ghiglieri, equal parts adventurer, guide, and scholar, makes the compelling case for the freedom of flows, for the great unfathomable rides that rouse our lives and stir us into wonder and joy.”—Richard Bangs, author of The Art of Living Dangerously: True Stories from a Life on the Edge