Book Review: Awol on the Appalachian Trail

Lately I’ve turned to a few outdoor adventure stories, and this is the second I’ve recently read (a few weeks back I read "Into the Wild" and I recently read Bryson's "Walk in the Woods"). Like "Into the Wild," I picked this up at Evergreen Outfitters in Luray.

Thinking back on the experience of preparing for some longer day hikes I was especially curious about the motivation for a thru-hike, so I picked up Miller’s well-written book – it’s one of quite a few books and web journals out there but I’d rate it the best I’ve read on this topic so far.

He does a great job of describing the trail experience – the people he meets and the natural world the trail moves through; for example, how a community naturally forms around the annual class of thru-hikers as they make their way north or south, how one is always fairly close to civilization (they call it the “outside world” while they are on the trail) yet far enough away so that there could be real trouble with even a slight injury or other accident.

The jacket blurb says it is a book about “liberation, motivation, and perseverance;” that comes through in the telling. The book may help those thinking about taking on an AT thru-hike to make a decision about doing it. But, it was enough for me to read the story to know that section hiking is the way I’ll go…for now.