From beginners to thru-hikers, Discovering the Appalachian Trail has something for anyone that wants a connection with the nation’s longest marked footpath at approximately 2,181 miles. Starting at Springer Mountain in Georgia and finishing far to the north in Maine’s Mount Katahdin, the A.T. crosses 14 states, 6 national parks, and 8 national forests. Taking on the A.T. is a pilgrimage because of both its beauty and accessibility. Let Joshua Niven and Amber Adams guide you across the best trails that the Appalachian Trail has to offer. Complete with full-color photography, you’ll also have hikes suited to every ability, mile-by-mile directional cues, sidebars, and maps.
Hiking 2,159 miles from Georgia to Maine was not my idea...I was not a lost youth searching for an identity. I was not retired and looking for a new way to spend my time. I was not sorting through death or divorce. I was not recently fired from a job. The truth is, my boyfriend asked me on a date. So begins the story of one young woman's journey along the legendary Appalachian Trail. What starts as a date turns into the experience of a lifetime as Adrienne Hall faces blinding snowstorms, flooded rivers, and seemingly endless mountaintops. Yet despite the physical and mental hardships, she finds her commitment to her hiking companion and the AT experience growing with every mile. When she emerges from her trip - a million footsteps, countless candy bars, and one engagement proposal later - Adrienne has lived an adventure that few will ever know. Written with warmth, insight, and a keen sense of observation, A Journey North is a personal story about discovering what it means to hike the amazing corridor of wilderness that is the Appalachian Trail. (6 x 9 1/4, 224 pages, case bound)
The Appalachian Trail is America’s most beloved trek, with millions of hikers setting foot on it every year. Yet few are aware of the fascinating backstory of the dreamers and builders who helped bring it to life over the past century. The conception and building of the Appalachian Trail is a story of unforgettable characters who explored it, defined it, and captured national attention by hiking it. From Grandma Gatewood—a mother of eleven who thru-hiked in canvas sneakers and a drawstring duffle—to Bill Bryson, author of the best-selling A Walk in the Woods, the AT has seized the American imagination like no other hiking path. The 2,000-mile-long hike from Georgia to Maine is not just a trail through the woods, but a set of ideas about nature etched in the forest floor. This character-driven biography of the trail is a must-read not just for ambitious hikers, but for anyone who wonders about our relationship with the great outdoors and dreams of getting away from urban life for a pilgrimage in the wild.
270 Hiking Days, Over 2,175 Miles -- and 95 Flip-Flops. Robert A. Callaway learned about the Appalachian Trail when he was eight years old, while listening to his mother talk about how his grandfather had always wanted to hike it. That was in 1953, and it would be fifty-five years before Robert followed his grandfather's dream of thru-hiking the trail. In 2008, after he'd done much group cycling and taken a few test hikes in previous years, sixty-three-year-old Robert and his reluctant, late-fifties brother Tommy, both retired, set off to hike the trail in its entirety. Their trail names, assigned to them by a pair of younger and faster hikers at Fontana, were Slow (Tommy) and Steady (Robert). Using an old Buick and an Isuzu pickup, Robert and Tommy flip-flopped their way along the trail, taking rest days when tired or injured and enjoying Tommy's cabin in Georgia while on the southern part of the trail. They gained speed and stamina as they developed their "trail legs," but Tommy was still slow, lonely for his family and rapidly losing enthusiasm. Tommy dropped off the trail after 300 miles, leaving Robert to continue on by himself, and he worried that introverted Robert would not fare well alone. But "Steady" Robert persevered and completed the entire hike and, despite Tommy's concerns, made many friends and did well along the way. Slow and Steady: Hiking the Appalachian Trail is Robert's account of the journey, and it details the vehicle and hiking flip-flop sites and strategies, zero-day locations, eateries and accommodations, injuries and equipment failures, memorable trail details, camp adventures, characters encountered, and more, along the fourteen-state historic trail. It's an excellent starting book for older and especially introverted readers who want to do the trail but who also want ready access back into civilization to wash up, rest and eat real food when needed.
A 41-year-old engineer quits his job to hike the Appalachian Trail. This is a true account of his hike from Georgia to Maine, bringing to the reader the life of the towns and the people he meets along the way.
The only illustrated book officially published with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, The Appalachian Trail explores this legendary footpath in detail: with a foreword by Bill Bryson and filled with more than 300 spectacular contemporary images, as well as unpublished historical photos, documents, and maps from the ATC archives. Once inspired by this wonderful celebration of the A.T., readers can plan their own hike using the removable and full-size copy of the official National Park Service’s map of the entire Appalachian Trail included inside each book. In celebration of the Appalachian Trail’s seventy-fifth anniversary, this official book documents in text and photos the history, beauty, and significance of America’s most iconic hiking trail. With fascinating essays on topics ranging from the trail’s history to the day-by-day hiking experience, this book is perfect for anyone interested in conservation, outdoor recreation, or American history, and for all those who dream of one day becoming thru-hikers themselves. Completed in 1937 by a small cadre of volunteers, the Appalachian Trail spans fourteen states, from Maine to Georgia, and is more than 2,000 miles long. Now, seventy-five years after its completion, the A.T. remains America’s premier hiking trail and is known as "the people’s path." Visitors from all over the world are drawn to the trail for a variety of reasons, whether to reconnect with nature and see its beauty and wildlife, or to challenge oneself—for two miles or 2,000. Out of three million annual visitors, almost 2,000 attempt each year to earn the distinction of "thru-hiker" by walking all five million footsteps in one continuous journey.
From the author of the bestseller Eat and Run, a thrilling memoir about his grueling, exhilarating, and immensely inspiring 46-day run to break the speed record for the Appalachian Trail. Scott Jurek is one of the world's best known and most beloved ultrarunners. Renowned for his remarkable endurance and speed, accomplished on a vegan diet, he's finished first in nearly all of ultrarunning's elite events over the course of his career. But after two decades of racing, training, speaking, and touring, Jurek felt an urgent need to discover something new about himself. He embarked on a wholly unique challenge, one that would force him to grow as a person and as an athlete: breaking the speed record for the Appalachian Trail. North is the story of the 2,189-mile journey that nearly shattered him. When he set out in the spring of 2015, Jurek anticipated punishing terrain, forbidding weather, and inevitable injuries. He would have to run nearly 50 miles a day, every day, for almost seven weeks. He knew he would be pushing himself to the limit, that comfort and rest would be in short supply -- but he couldn't have imagined the physical and emotional toll the trip would exact, nor the rewards it would offer. With his wife, Jenny, friends, and the kindness of strangers supporting him, Jurek ran, hiked, and stumbled his way north, one white blaze at a time. A stunning narrative of perseverance and personal transformation, North is a portrait of a man stripped bare on the most demanding and transcendent effort of his life. It will inspire runners and non-runners alike to keep striving for their personal best.
