Summary of Ben McGrath's Riverman EPUB

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

#1 The most wonderful day in the full, topsy-turvy life of Richard Perry Conant occurred in 1999. He had quit his job as a janitor at the VA hospital in Boise, and was now camped in a grove on the east bank of the Yellowstone River, downstream of Yankee Jim Canyon. He had capsized a couple of days earlier while struggling with a rapid known as Boateater, and been fortunate to lose only a machete and a hat.

#2 After a week afloat, he began to feel unsteady on his feet. The ground seemed to be rising and falling beneath him, as though carried by waves. He learned to avoid the gunpowder-gray sand, which was deceptively yielding, and instead chose gravel bars.

#3 After the wreck, Conant had to deal with bugs constantly biting him, and he had to find a way to protect himself from them. He started applying Bag Balm to his face and hands, and found that it repelled moisture just as effectively as shoe grease.

#4 Conant’s trip was rough from the start, with thick fog, screeching ravens, and a thick cloud fountain over the Lower Brule Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. But he enjoyed vivid dreams and learned to stow primo driftwood in his cooler so that he’d have dry kindling even when it rained.