A Walk in the Woods

“Running more than 2,100 miles along America’s eastern seaboard, through the serene and beckoning Appalachian Mountains, the AT is the granddaddy of long hikes. From Georgia to Maine, it wanders across fourteen states, through plump, comely hills whose very names—Blue Ridge, Smokies, Cumberlands, Green Mountains, White Mountains—seem an invitation to amble.”

In Chapter 1, Bill Bryson explains stumbling upon the idea to hike the Appalachian Trail. Not long after moving with his family to Hanover, New Hampshire, he discovers a footpath on the edge of town with a sign indicating that it’s part of the famed trail. The idea that it’s possible to walk from Georgia to Maine strikes him as extraordinary, so he begins making plans to do it.

“The Appalachian Trail was formally completed on August 14, 1937, with the clearing of a two-mile stretch of woods in a remote part of Maine. Remarkably, the building of the longest footpath in the world attracted almost no attention.”

In Chapter 3, Bryson provides a detailed history of the AT. The trail was the brainchild of Benton MacKaye, an employee of the US Labor Department, who envisioned it as a thread connecting mountaintop communities and work camps where urban workers could come to “refresh themselves” by enjoying the wonders of nature.

“Every year between early March and late April, about 2,000 hikers set off from Springer, most of them intending to go all the way to Katahdin. No more than 10 percent actually make it. Half don’t make it past central Virginia, less than a third of the way. A quarter get no farther than North Carolina, the next state. As many as 20 percent drop out the first week.”

As Bryson and Stephen Katz begin their adventure, they find a man named Wes Wisson who shuttles hikers from Atlanta to Amicalola Falls State Park near the trail’s starting point, Springer Mountain, for a fee. On the drive there, Wisson explains how he has seen so many hikers over the years that he can typically guess which ones will drop out early and which will make it the whole way.