A Walk in the Woods

Bill Bryson

The Appalachian Trail runs north to south from Maine to Georgia. It is the longest continuous hiking path in the world. Bill Bryson recently moved his family from North Yorkshire, England, to New Hampshire. The Trail runs near to the town where they moved. He has hiked for years, and the lure of the Appalachian Trail caught him. He decided to hike the complete trail, over 2,200 miles, from Georgia.

As he is preparing for the trip, and beginning to wonder why he is going alone, an old friend calls him. Stephen Katz wants to join Bryson. By now Bryson has read a lot of books, including the ones on all the ways a person can die on the Trail.Yes, Katz, please come! So these two men in their 40's fly down to Georgia in the spring to start walking north. This is the chronicle of their journey, clear through to Maine.

The book isn't what you'd expect. It's full of history, both of the Appalachian Trail and the areas near it, such as Centralia, Pennsylvania. The town sat on top of a deep coal mine that caught fire and smouldered underground - and is still burning almost 40 years later. The town finally had to be demolished because it is no longer safe to live there. Light smoke covers most of the area. Bryson tells the story with both humor and pathos. He also mentions that the fire will likely burn for a 1000 years.

He describes the beauty of the Shenandoah National Park and the cold peaks of the mountains in New Hampshire in July. He describes how Katz is out of shape (not that Bryson is in athletic physical shape) and wants to spend the nights in motels and not miss X-Files. He talks about his own fears, like the night some large animal came snuffling around their tents. Katz rolls over and goes back to sleep. Bryson is awake over two hours in case the animal comes back and is a black bear ready to eat him.

A Walk in the Woods is a true tale that will make you laugh. And it will make you think. Bryson describes how nature in America is changing - the loss of the American Chestnut tree to an insect, the decline of the number of songbirds, and the scarring of the land. He also describes the Smokey Mountains in the early morning with the mist rising out of the valleys, the dense darkness of the Maine woods, and the beauties to be found along the Appalachian Trail. Bryson and Katz are the main people in the book - but the real main character is the Appalachian Trail itself. The hiker and outdoors people will love this book. So will anyone else because Bryson is a first rate storyteller in this book.

You can also find A Walk in the Woods at your local library. One other amusing note - Bryson may have grown up in Iowa, but he lived in England over 20 years. The reader can tell that immediately because of some of his terminology. For example, the cars in A Walk in the Woods park in car parks, not in parking lots. The English terms rather than the American ones appear throughout the book.