Into the Unknown

Veteran wilderness guide Michael P. Ghiglieri takes you into the unknownamong white-water rapids, crocodiles, hippos, gorillas, lions, and impossible waterfalls. His riveting memoir not only serves up true high adventure, it also presents the ecology, natural history, conservation (or the lack of it), and exploration history of nine far-flung wilderness regions across the globeincluding the never-to-be-repeated white-water run on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon during the Bureau of Reclamations 1983 super flood of ninety-seven thousand cubic feet per second; the first summit-to-sea descent of the Alas River exploring Sumatras new Gunung Leuser National Park, a last redoubt for wild orangutans and other rare species; and the impossible run of the Alsek River from the Yukon to Alaska in the worlds largest international conservation area.Into the Unknown reveals what the natural world looks like through a professionals eyes during adventure travel, when things start sliding toward the edge. This insider memoir recounts ten sagas of extreme expeditions into Earths most amazing wilderness regions to illustrate their realities, science, allure, history, risks to life and limb, and ultimate fates. Many of these regions have now vanished to progress. Others are imperiled. Only a few are protected. But all are, or were, places where exotic beauty and danger are inseparable.