Walking the Appalachian Trail (Official Guides to the Appalachian Trail)
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List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $6.00
Your Save: $ 13.95 ( 70% )
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Brand: STACKPOLE BOOKS
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.510974
EAN: 9780811730952
Feature: BOOK, WALKING THRE APPALACHIAN TRAIL
ISBN: 0811730956
Label: Stackpole Books
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 266
Publication Date: 1994-10
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Studio: Stackpole Books
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Features
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BOOK, WALKING THRE APPALACHIAN TRAIL
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: SOLID BOOK!
Comment: GOOD book a lot about the history and first hand experience. The AT is sweet and they did a great job describing the overall experience! it was also cool to get an understanding of the people and culture. great book get it if you want to learn about the trail:)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Keen insights into the Appalachian Trail hiker
Comment: Larry Luxenberg is an excellent public speaker, deeply committed to the outdoors and to the community of people who have hiked the Appalachian Trail from end to end. This book is an excellent survey of the history of the AT and into the personalities of many of those hikers, at least through the early 1990s.
Luxenberg interviewed over 200 hikers for this book, and it is a great joy to pick it up, read a chapter or two, and think about the personalities. Luxenberg emphasizes that there is no single model; people from all walks of life, men and women, many different motivations have taken on the challenge. He argues that usually people take on the challenge at important turning points of their lives: loss of a spouse, divorce, loss of a job, a search of identity. He is less clear on his own motivation, but didn't have to ask permission to go -- he met his wife three years after he completed his hike.
There are some really appealing people who have made the journey. For example, Isis and Jackrabbit, two sisters from Maine, also known as Susan Letcher and Lucy Letcher hiked the entire Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia and then "yo-yoed," turned around and headed back the other way. (They are planning to release a book early next year on their experiences, Barefoot Sisters Walking Home.) "Trail names" are worthy of a special study; some people are known only by those names, others deny that they use one (but insiders disagree).
Factoids fascinated me:
A pound of boots "cost" as much as five pounds on your back; barefoot hiking makes sense except in the snow.
Food was an overwhelming concern; 3500 calories a day in summer, 6000 in winter. Luxenberg was one of the few hikers to gain weight on the trail; most lose 20 to 50 and as much as 75 pounds.
Early hikers were hermits, rarely meeting other people; nowadays, hikers hike in informal packs developing strong relationships with each other and with the trail itself.
Many through hikers develop a strong relationship with the trail, starting guiding services, or businesses, or becoming trail maintainers after their return. Luxenberg is devoting much of his time to establishing the Appalachian Trail Museum at Harpers Ferry (go to [...] if you are interested).
This book is a treasure trove of information about the Appalachian Trail and many of the people who have walked it. Luxenberg's enthusiasm, excellent writing and outstanding bibliography make it a joy to read for anyone interested in the AT.
Robert C. Ross 2008
Customer Rating:
Summary: A little outdated...
Comment: Luxenberg's AT Guide delves into many aspects of hiking the trail. It examines the art of trail names, named notables, life on the trail, as well as its history. It serves as a decent historical guide to the AT.
However, it was published in 1994. Luxenberg spends a great deal of time outlining the best of/fastest/slowest/etc, and much of this has changed in the past 14 years. It understandably spends a great deal of time on named notables on the trail in the 70s and 80s, which was applicable when written in the early 1990s.
If you want a current review of life on the AT, this guide isn't it. If you want a decent history of the AT, then go for it. :)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Totally related to why he was there
Comment: I totally related to the author and why he was out there on the trail. Well written and although the historical commentary sometimes bored me which I admit I skipped sometimes, I could not put this book down. The author's recollection and re cantering of being on the trail, it's hardships, on and off again friendships, losing 75 pounds, why he was out there in the first place, trying to find himself... well, again, I totally related to how he felt. I also give his wife a lot of kudos for sticking it out and letting the author do what he needed to do at that time of his life. I really liked how the book ended or should I say the author's quest ended? Those last few pages when he went to Trail Days in Damascus..said it all. I recommend this book to anyone considering the hike, thru, section, or day hiking does not matter. It's all still hiking isn't it?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Walking the Appalachian Trail
Comment: This was a book that was hard to put down once I got started reading, because I waned to know more about the trail and how to get started
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Editorial Reviews:
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Accounts by thru-hikers, organized by topic. Foreword by hiker Maurice Forrester and stunning color photos by Mike Warren.
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