On the Trail
Spring is around the corner, are you ready to hit the trail? Take a hike with these great reads that all feature real life adventures on some of America's best known long-distance trails.
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscover America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson
Bryson share his experiences hiking the Appalachian Trail with a childhood friend. The two encounter eccentric characters, a blizzard, getting lost, and rude yuppies along the way.
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed
A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.
Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail, by Ben Montgomery
Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail.
Almost Somewhere: Twenty-eight Days on the John Muir Trail, by Suzanne Roberts
Muir had written of the Sierra Nevada as a vast range of light, and this was exactly what Roberts was looking for. Her story of a month in the backcountry confronting bears, snowy passes, broken equipment, injuries, and strange men is as much about finding a woman's way into outdoor experience as it is about the natural world she so eloquently describes.
I Promise Not to Suffer: A Fool for Love Hikes the Pacific Crest Trail, by Gail D. Storey
With comfortable urban lives in Houston, Texas, and career and life goals mostly accomplished, Gail D. Storey and her husband were in their fifties when they decided it was time to test themselves on a new path - a 2,663-mile path known as the Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches from Mexico to Canada.
Girl in the Woods: A Memoir, by Aspen Matis
In this important and inspiring memoir, Aspen chronicles an ambitious five-month trek on the Pacific Crest Trail that was as dangerous as it was transformative.
Walking on the Wild Side: Long Distance Hiking on the Appalachian Trail, by Kristi M. Fondren
Walking on the Wild Side traces the stories of forty-six men and women who, for their own personal reasons, set out to hike America's most well-known, and arguably most social, long-distance hiking trail.
Four Boots, One Journey: A Story of Survival, Awareness, and Rejuvenation on the John Muir Trail, by Jeff Alt
Jeff Alt takes you vicariously along the John Muir Trail, on an entertaining adventure, with his new wife, Beth. Jeff is compelled to take Beth on a hike after her brother tragically dies by suicide. They walk in her brother's memory as a depression awareness campaign.
Called Again: A Story of Love and Triumph, by Jennifer Pharr Davis
In 2011, Jennifer Pharr Davis became the overall record holder on the Appalachian Trail. By hiking 2,181 miles in 46 days - an average of 47 miles per day - she became the first female to ever set that mark. But this is not a book about records or numbers; this is a book about endurance and faith, and most of all love.
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