Zach Davis' long awaited (and much hyped) book has finally been released in both softcover and ebook format. While thru hiking long trails like the Appalachian Trail is seen by many as a tough physical and logistical feat, experienced thru-hikers know that it is much more of a mental one - Dealing with the psychological effects of getting up day after day, eating your oatmeal, packing your stuff and putting one foot in front of the other five million times, with little discernible progress, towards an all-too-distant goal ...(Why am I doing this again?)
There are lots of books about hiking the AT. Most of them day-by-day accounts of the writer's trek, advice on what to bring, what shoes to wear, how to cook ramen over alcohol stoves, filter water, plan mail drops ... All the mundane stuff that one needs to know - Except how to avoid the pitfalls that cause a majority of otherwise well-prepared thru hikers to fail.
Zach Davis drew from his own Appalachian Trail experience, and wrote about the psychological challenges, how to recognize them, and how to hike through them, and he does it with his engaging wit and humor. Oh, he writes about the other stuff too, but the focus of this book is the tougher stuff. And that makes this the one essential book for anyone planning to attempt a long trail thru hike.
So take time off from your stair master with the 30lb pack routine, and exercise the one muscle that'll get you 2184 miles from Georgia to Maine. And like it!
Ordered my copy from Amazon just now... I haven't been a regular reader of the Good Badger, but I think the book sounds super interesting. We'll see if it lives up to the hype. :)
ReplyDeleteBill. You are the man! Thanks so much for the feedback.
ReplyDeleteI will be living through you vicariously on your trek this year. Please post often :)
Thanks Zach, and congratulations on the success of your first book.
DeleteI got this on my Kindle and I'm glad to have any resource that will help me make it. I've only read a few pages so far, but it looks like it's just the kind of mental exercise that will help me build my mental muscle. So much to do in these last two weeks before starting my Thru, but I plan to be reading this on the train to GA. Thanks, Bill for the heads up and thank you Zach for sharing.
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