Finished Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods last week. What a good book! I could really relate to the sometimes comical things that happened to him as he prepared for and embarked on his journey along the Appalachian Trail. His observation of the progression of the states of filth you go through on the trail are right on. (I’ve never hiked the AT, as Bryson calls it, for any serious length but I did spend time in the Mt. Rainier back-country which I’ll have to blog about when I get some time).
The description of Bryson’s early encounter with Katz, a man Bryson hadn’t seen in many years and who would turn out to be his companion on the trail, had me rolling in laughter.
The book is a good mix of facts about the famous trail and its environs as well as a humorous travel narrative. Don’t expect a nail-biting, life-or-death, man-against-nature, survival-against-all-odds story.