Herein is the remarkable story of a 200-mile wilderness journey down the Gila River of New Mexico and Arizona. Traveling partly on foot, mostly by canoe, the author was accompanied by a hound dog and a tomcat. His trip is replete with whitewater thrills, and angling for trout, bass, and catfish; ruminations on the wilderness ethic, and the antics of two companions who promote humor, exasperation, and love. But besides being a modern-day excursion into the natural world, Gila Descending is a personal odyssey as well; and little by little that story, too, is told. " Gila Descending is a joy to read. M. H. Salmon and his feisty animal co-pilots have enough chutzpah to keep us laughing; enough literary audacity to delight and educate; and enough love of land, water, and wilderness to stir the most hardened conscience."--John Nichols ". . . a delightful book. No reader could ask for a finer river to read about than the Gila, or a better companion to explore it with than M. H. Salmon. May the Government (ugh!) and God (we hope) long preserve them both."--Edward Abbey "As you join the author--and his coyote hound and tomcat--on a float trip down the Gila, you will find a unique companion: a hunter with an informed environmental conscience; a fisherman with the sense to know that catfish are as good as trout; a wry observer whose prose owes more to local speech and the elegant essays of Aldo Leopold than to the high-tech fodder in the yuppie monthlies. Above all, he is a passionate and original defender of wilderness with its hair on ."--Steve Bodio, "Bodio's Review," Gray's Sporting Journal ...a delightful book. No reader could ask for a finer river to read about than the Gila, or a better companion to explore it with than M.H. Salmon. May the Government (ugh!) and God (we hope) long preserve them both. -- Edward Abbey Gila Descending is a joy to read. M.H. Salmon and his fiesty animal co-pilots have enough chutzpah to keep us laughing; enough literary audacity to delight and educate; and enough love of land, water and wilderness to stir the most hardened conscience. -- John Nichols As you join the author -- and his coyote hound and tomcat -- on a float trip down the Gila, you will find a unique companion: a hunter with an informed environmental conscience; a fisherman with the sense to know that catfish are as good as trout; a wry observer whose prose owes more to local speech and the elegant essays of Also Leopold than to the high-tech fodder in the yuppie monthlies. Above all, he is a passionate and original defender of wilderness with its hair on. -- Steve Bodio, Bodio's Review, Gray's Sporting Journal "No reader could ask for a finer river to read about than the Gila, or a better companion to explore it with than M. H. Salmon."--Edward Abbey "No reader could ask for a finer river to read about than the Gila, or a better companion to explore it with than M. H. Salmon."--Edward Abbey M. H. Salmon is publisher of High-Lonesome Books and the author of The Catfish as Metaphor: A Fisherman's American Journey . He lives near Silver City, New Mexico. Used Book in Good Condition