Jonathan Waterman is the author of the book Running Dry about the Colorado River. Waterman, who infected his feet in the polluted remains of the drying river, walked with the photographer Pete McBride down the last 60 miles of delta. The once rich estuary and its wetlands have been reduced by 95 percent since dam construction. The river has not reached the Sea of Cortez for more than a decade, with the exception of several days of rare flooding combined with cancelled farm orders. Still, conservationists on either side of the border are working to bring pulse flows to the delta and …

Jonathan Waterman is the author of the book Running Dry about the Colorado River. He began his journey at the river's headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park, hiking with Brad Udall, director of Western Water Assessment, to La Poudre Pass on the Continental Divide. Along with his packraft and snowshoes, the author carries the ashes of his recently diseased mother in his pack, to join him on his 1,450-mile paddle (and snowshoe) from source to sea. The following is the first of two excerpts from the book. The high altitude, opaque stream water beside us turns chocolate as the temperature …