Half Mile Down

Excerpt from Half Mile Down The present volume describes the various descents made by Dr. Beebe and Mr. Barton in the steel ball known as the Bathysphere, to an extreme depth in the ocean of over half a mile. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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“A high-water mark in river running humor from the guides and the misguided.” —Tim Cahill, author of Pass the Butterworms and Pecked to Death by Ducks “Full of great tales, funny stories, and river lore, it will make some river runners eager to get back into the boats—and some wishing they had stayed home.” —Peter Stark, author of Last Breath and Driving to Greenland “Just when you thought whitewater mayhem was no laughing matter, Michael Engelhard serves up Hell’s Half Mile, a potpourri of ticklish adventures and misadventures.” —Michael P. Ghiglieri, author of Canyon, Over the Edge, and First Through Grand Canyon “Represents the best in humorous outdoors writing and the lowest in guide culture.” —John Weisheit, co-founder of Colorado River Guides and Conservation Director of Living Rivers River wisdom postulates that there are two kinds of boaters: Those who have flipped and those who will. Most of the contributors to this anthology fall into the former category. You will find stories of rafters, canoeists, kayakers, and dory men. You will meet two brave youths swimming the entire Grand Canyon, a bear hitching a ride in a boat, naked canoeists, egg-slinging river guides, a floating turkey, and rangers assassinating a goat. You will witness epic wrecks, strange games and vehicles, and tourists getting lost on the river. They are all here: The misfits and misanthropes, the dreamers and daredevils, weekend warriors and professional guides, nataphobes and bibliophiles, “established voices” and undiscovered gems. Hell’s Half Mile is likely to become a classic in the genre of humorous adventure writing. ________ Michael Engelhard works as an outdoors instructor and river guide on the Colorado Plateau. He is the author of an essay collection, Where the Rain Children Sleep, and has contributed to a number of magazines. His most recent project is a book of stories about the western horse.

For nine days in early May, Ryan Watkins along with two brothers, Jeremy and Chris Jones, backpack the world-famous Appalachian Trail through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. From his very first steps into the Smokies, Ryan quickly learns the seventy-mile stretch of trail is far more difficult than he ever imagined. The trio battles through torrential rains, lightning, snow, fatigue, multiple encounters with bears and a standoff with a timber rattlesnake as they march more than eighty miles from Standing Bear Farms, a small hostel north of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, to Fontana Dam on the park’s southern tip. Along the way, the group meets a colorful cast of hikers while experiencing the most physically demanding and personally rewarding nine days of their lives. This story is a painfully honest, unadulterated and sometimes raunchy retelling of a hike that is definitely not suitable for readers of all ages.

When Caleb Williamson, a career officer with the CIA, disappears, officials are left wondering whether he is a spy who has defected or the victim of a crime. Meanwhile, Williamson's friend, FBI agent Tyler Bannister, is focused on catching an extortionist who has threatened to unleash a biological poison if a multimillion dollar demand is not met. When Williamson turns up dead alongside the corpses of two women near a northern Virginia highway, Bannister is assigned to a task force to identify what looks to be a cunning serial killer. While Bannister becomes obsessed with finding the murderer before he strikes again, a fourth body is discovered. The stakes become more personal when the killer targets Bannister's new love interest.