A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

It's been several years since I read this book, but it still annoys me. Bryson neatly avoids the truth: he can't hack it. He quits. He gives up. But along the way he's sure to make fun of other hikers. He's going to get it done in his jeans, he tells us as he drags along his friend that he mocks incessantly. He sure showed us.

This is not a how-to hike the Appalachian Trail book. This not a serious hikers diary of thru hiking the whole AT either. I'm not even sure it's nonfiction. It was historically informative in spots and funny in spots.
Ecology info was shocking. Yes humans are destroying the world. That's an undisputable fact. I know you don't want to hear it. Neither do I, which is why I had to stop subscribing to National Geographic, Audubon, Outside...
I still give to National Wildlife and Nature Conservancy but I don't dare read the mags. Too depressing. So I understand not wanting to hear about the bad things: but you can't condemn the book for that.
The first four chapters are good. After that its spotty. As for the actual hike I'm not sure I believe it all happened.

I've done a fair amount of backpacking since 1967 (most all Yosemite, parts of Pacific Crest Trail-oregon, Trinity Alps Wilderness, Marble Mts.etc..
So I took Stephen Katz right away as Bryson's IMAGINARY travelling companion, and a lot of the situations and people as made up. No one tosses equipment or food. I've never seen it anyway. You don't live off of snickers bars and all the garbage they supposedly took with them. Of course maybe the east coast hiker is different.

Hiking can be explained only so much. It can be intoxicating at times, taxing to the extreme (i remember half way down Benton pass in Yosemite breaking down in tears of frustration, my knees wobbling in pain unable to take any more down hill but scared to stop for fear they'd seize up on me), exciting (running to get off of bare granite hills during a fabulously beautiful & booming electric storm), hot always hot, water always cold as ice BUT walking is walking. There's not much excitment nor is there much wildlife (just imagine all the wildlife in the West before 1800).
Bryson describes the first days wonderfully on pages 35 and 36. After that it's weak and unreal. Not near as good as his other works.

Two memorable paragraphs

"I was especially riveted by an amateur photograph in Herrero's book, taken late at night by a camper with a flash at a campground out West. The photograph caught four black bears as they puzzled over a suspended food bag. The bears were clearly startled but not remotely alarmed by the flash. It was not the size or demeanor of the bears that troubled me - they looked almost comically unaggressive, like four guys who had gotten a Frisbee caught up a tree - but their numbers. Up to that moment it had not occurred to me that bears might prowl in parties. What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die, of course. I would blow my sphincter out my backside like one of those unrolling paper streamers you get at children's parties."

"When, after ages and ages, you finally reach the tell-tale world of truly high ground, where the chilled air smells of pine sap and the vegetation is gnarled and tough and wind-bent, and push through to the mountain's open pinnacle, you are, alas, past caring. You sprawl face down on a sloping pavement of granite, pressed to the rock by the weight of your pack, and lie there for some minutes, reflecting in a distant, out-of-body way that you have never before looked this closely at lichen, not in fact looked this closely at anything in the natural world since you were four years old and had your first magnifying glass. Finally, with a weary puff, you roll over, unhook yourself from your pack, struggle to your feet and realise-- this is the barest fraction of what you will traverse before you've finished."

Other Bill Bryon books I've read: I'm a Stranger Here Myself: GREAT! In a Sunburned Country GOOD, A Short History of Nearly Everything: GOOD

Ever read TIM CAHILL? He's good, he's funny, he's the real deal (hiker) and surprisingly he looks like he could be Brysons younger brother (weird). Anyway I highly recommend all Cahills travel books (except for 'Pass the Butterworms' and maybe 'Road Fever'). 'Dolphins' and 'Lost in my own Backyard' I haven't read yet.

Despite all the references to people dying on the trail, reading this book made me want to hike the Appalachian Trail. This book is a hilarious travelogue of hiking in the Eastern United States. It also includes interesting information about the history of the trail. Recommended for light entertaining reading.

Don't read this book while you're trying to eat. Or where people might look at you funny if you start to laugh out loud. Because this is a very funny book. Bryson has an understated humor that will only make you chuckle at first, and just when you think it's safe to take another bite, you'll read a bit more, and start laughing out loud! He has a keen eye for description of both his surroundings and his company and conveys both wonderfully well.

This book hits a bit of a sour note, though, the numerous times that Bryson castigates the National Park Service for general incompetence. I won't presume to say that he's entirely wrong in his criticisms, but I do think that he takes it a bit too far, and that an organization with tries to do so much good with so few resources deserves a bit more respect.

Bill Bryson could probably produce a best seller if he did a detailed analysis of paint-drying and grass-growing, so it was certainly no surprise that this was a good read. While it doesn't contain the constant hyperbolic hilarity of some of his other works, it is highly entertaining as well as being historically and geographically educational. Although Bryson's creative genius is evident throughout, the second half of the book is somewhat more methodical than the first. A warning for parents: The language in some passages is PG-13 - at best. In the end, it's an enjoyable adventure that teaches many lessons about HUMAN nature as well as nature in general.