In my early 50s, I thru-hiked the Ice Age Trail, one of just 11 National Scenic Trails in the U.S. The experience was so rewarding—in many different ways—that I vowed to hike the other 10. To date, I’ve thru-hiked six of the 11 and am in the midst of section-hiking two more. My enthusiasm for long-distance hiking and its numerous benefits also inspired me to transform my freelance writing business to one centered around hiking, whether that’s penning fitness articles for CNN, giving talks on long-distance trails, or writing articles I hope will inspire others to lace up their hiking shoes.
I wrote
Thousand-Miler: Adventures Hiking the Ice Age Trail
This book has been stuck in my heart for more than 40 years. While I don’t remember much of its details—I read it as part of a middle school book club—I can still feel this book.
When I was a kid, our family was never able to travel. Abbey’s book instilled in me the deep desire to one day explore our national parks and varied natural spaces, especially desert terrain. And ever since I reached adulthood, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.
'My favourite book about the wilderness' Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild
In this shimmering masterpiece of American nature writing, Edward Abbey ventures alone into the canyonlands of Moab, Utah, to work as a seasonal ranger for the United States National Park Service.
Living out of a trailer, Abbey captures in rapt, poetic prose the landscape of the desert; a world of terracotta earth, empty skies, arching rock formations, cliffrose, juniper, pinyon pine and sand sage. His summers become spirit quests, taking him in search of wild horses and Ancient Puebloan petroglyphs, up mountains and across tribal lands, and down the…
This one scared me. Who wants to think about dying during a hiking trip?! Yet, while I’d never wanted to conquer Mount Everest, I did long to undertake other (less extreme) adventures.
Reading Jon Krakauer’s account of his Everest experience inspired me to continue to dream big about other outdoor excursions more suited to my personality. I credit this book as one reason I wasn’t afraid to start hiking and backpacking long-distance trails—mostly solo—when I was in my 50s.
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The epic account of the storm on the summit of Mt. Everest that claimed five lives and left countless more—including Krakauer's—in guilt-ridden disarray.
"A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism." —PEOPLE
A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong.
By writing Into Thin Air, Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons…
An advance copy of this book appeared in my mailbox one day, courtesy of a publishing company hoping for a book review. Unfortunately for the publishers, my freelance writing gigs didn’t include book reviews. I didn’t pitch it in the trash, however, because I’d long been intrigued by the book’s subject matter—thru-hiking a long-distance trail.
This book gave me great insights into what such a feat would entail, both in preparation and on the trail, plus showcased experiences I could expect along the way, especially as a woman hiking solo.
After graduating from college, Jennifer isn't sure what she wants to do with her life. She is drawn to the Appalachian Trail, a 2175-mile footpath that stretches from Georgia to Maine. Though her friends and family think she's crazy, she sets out alone to hike the trail, hoping it will give her time to think about what she wants to do next. The next four months are the most physically and emotionally challenging of her life. She quickly discovers that thru-hiking is harder than she had imagined: coping with blisters and aching shoulders from the 30-pound pack she carries; sleeping…
It’s fun to read about someone else’s miscalculations and mishaps when they’re trying something new. That’s because it makes us feel better about the miscalculations and mishaps we’re sure to have when we attempt something novel.
I read Bill Bryson’s famous book while I was deep in the planning of my first thru-hike. His descriptions of all of the crazy situations he and his hiking buddy, Katz, found themselves in were hilarious (if exaggerated for humor’s sake). More importantly, their experiences prepared me for the fact that my journey would likely entail joys and sorrows, bravery and fear, faith and misgivings. But despite all of that, I could do it!
'Short of doing it yourself, the best way of escaping into nature is to read a book like A Walk in the Woods.' New York Times
In the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set off to hike the Appalachian Trail, the longest continuous footpath in the world.
Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing tics, the occasional chuckling murderer and - perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of…
The day after I finished hiking the 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail, a friend put this book in my hand and said, “You’re the Cheryl Strayed of the Ice Age Trail!” During my five-week hike, friends had been constantly texting me about this book, so I was eager to dig in.
Unlike other hiking books, this one is as much about the healing powers of nature as it is about what it’s like to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. I’d just experienced a lot of these (unexpected) healing powers myself, so this book confirmed that what I loved about my IAT adventure was not just the hike itself, but how being outside all day, every day, for weeks on end was a balm for the soul.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the…
A decade ago, I discovered the joy of long-distance hiking while on the 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail. Although one of just 11 U.S. National Scenic Trails, including the famous Appalachian Trail, this path was little known back then. So, after completing my trek, I wrote my book to encourage others to explore this magical path and enjoy the healing power of nature.
Thousand-Miler is not a trail journal. Instead, I use anecdotes from my hike as the thread connecting other chapters on the trail’s history and relation to the last Ice Age, plus the unique journeys of other thru-hikers I met along the way. The book also showcases the experiences of IAT luminaries such as Jason Dorgan, who set the first IAT speed record.
