In This Article
- The Book and the Journey Behind It
- Who Is Involved
- Why Adventure Memoirs of This Kind Matter to Readers
- What to Watch
Kevin Fedarko, author of the Carnegie Medal-winning memoir A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure, is touring the Pacific Northwest this June in support of the book. Bend Source confirmed that Fedarko will appear at Roundabout Books in Bend, Oregon on June 11, followed by a conversation with travel writer Tim Cahill at Elk River Books on June 21. The tour also includes a Western National Parks partnership event.
The Book and the Journey Behind It
A Walk in the Park chronicles the expedition Fedarko undertook alongside photographer Pete McBride, who set out on September 28, 2015, to thru-hike the Grand Canyon, as National Geographic reported. The pair aimed to traverse roughly 750 miles of the canyon on foot — terrain National Geographic describes as dangerous, dry wilderness with no continuous trail. According to Fedarko's own website, the journey stretched across more than a year of struggling through "a vertical labyrinth of thousand-foot cliffs and crumbling ledges where water is measured out by the teaspoon." The title is an intentional irony: as one reviewer at johnwalterswriter.com notes, the phrase "a walk in the park" signifies ease — the opposite of what the expedition delivered. The Atlantic has observed that Fedarko's title appears to nod to Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, and that the author initially approaches his undertaking with a similarly unprepared disposition. For the book's full critical assessment, see our review.
Who Is Involved
Fedarko is a former Outside magazine editor and the author of the earlier award-winning book The Emerald Mile, according to Trail Memoir. His touring partner for the June 21 event is Tim Cahill, described by Bend Source as a "legendary travel writer." The Elk River Books appearance is billed as a conversation between the two, rather than a standard author reading. The tour's Western National Parks partnership component signals an institutional dimension beyond standard bookshop appearances, though the specific nature of that partnership was not detailed in available sources.
Beyond Fedarko and McBride themselves, the book draws in a wider cast. Fedarko's website notes that veteran long-distance hikers guided the pair into seldom-seen corners of the canyon, and that members of the canyon's eleven Native American tribes became part of the journey. Simon & Schuster highlights that the book gives particular attention to the ancestral history of the land and to Indigenous voices engaged in ongoing fights against overdevelopment.
Why Adventure Memoirs of This Kind Matter to Readers
The tour arrives at a moment when publishers and booksellers are actively promoting the adventure memoir genre. The Atlantic's April 2026 recommendations piece positions books like A Walk in the Park within a broader appetite for what it calls "transportive stories about ordinary people attempting extraordinary things" — narratives that allow readers to experience extreme landscapes and physical ordeals vicariously. The piece explicitly mentions Fedarko's book in this context, noting its Bryson-esque opening posture before the canyon's reality asserts itself.
The National Geographic expedition that preceded the memoir also carried an explicit conservation purpose: National Geographic reported that Fedarko and McBride undertook the hike in part to raise awareness about development projects that could alter the Grand Canyon permanently. That backdrop gives the book a dimension beyond personal adventure, situating it within ongoing debates about public lands.
What to Watch
The Bend Source report indicates the June tour coincides with what appears to be a new paperback edition of A Walk in the Park, though details of that release were not confirmed in available sources. The June 11 Roundabout Books event in Bend and the June 21 Elk River Books conversation with Tim Cahill are the two confirmed public appearances. Readers in the Pacific Northwest can find further details via Bend Source's original report.