After living in England for 20 years, Bill Bryson and his family move to Hanover, New Hampshire, where he soon discovers that the Appalachian Trail (AT) runs nearby. He decides to hike the whole trail, from Georgia to Maine. To purchase backpacking and camping gear for the trek, he visits a local sporting goods store, where he’s bemused by the complexity and expense of the recommendations but nonetheless leaves with most of the items. In addition, he buys some relevant books. Fearful of making the trek alone, he begins inviting friends to come along. None respond, but one old pal, Stephen Katz, hears of his plan and asks to come along. While Bryson is glad that he won’t be traveling alone, he’s slightly worried that Katz isn’t disciplined or healthy enough for the trek. The pair fly to Atlanta and make their way to Springer Mountain to begin their routine of hiking by day and camping by night. During their adventure, they encounter numerous interesting people and experience both hilarious and challenging, even harrowing, moments involving curious black bears and getting lost. At intervals along the trail, they descend into towns (including Hiawassee, Georgia; Franklin, North Carolina; Gatlinburg, Tennessee; and Waynesboro, Virginia) to do laundry, have a real meal, and sleep in a bed for a night.
After a brush with tourism and commercialism in Gatlinburg, near Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Bryson and Katz decide to rent a car and drive to Roanoke, Virginia, effectively skipping more than 200 miles of the trail. After trekking through Shenandoah National Park, they take a planned summer break and return to their normal lives—a book tour for Bryson and a summer construction job back in Iowa for Katz—but agree to meet up again in August to hike the final leg of the trail, the famous Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine. During their hiatus, Bryson continues to hike small portions of the trail but is unfulfilled because he’s now hiking by car instead of camping. He drives to spots along the trail (such as Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia; Centralia, Pennsylvania; the Delaware Water Gap; and Adams, Massachusetts) but stays in motels after a day of hiking. Once he works his way to New England, he begins doing day hikes along the trail, driving to locations such as Stratton Mountain in Vermont and Mount Washington in New Hampshire but returning home every night.
Katz returns to New Hampshire in August, and the two set out to finish the trail by hiking all 282 miles of the Maine portion, ending at Mount Katahdin. Located in Maine, this final portion of the AT is known as the remotest and most rugged of its 2,100 miles. Once in Maine, Bryson and Katz face a difficult 38-mile hike just to get to the starting point of the Hundred Mile Wilderness. Having completed the 38 miles, they start stocking food for the more difficult section but have a falling out because Katz, a reformed drinker, starts drinking again. Back on the trail, they make up but then face disaster when Katz gets lost with no water in extreme heat. They don’t find each other again until the next day, after which they both agree that it’s time for them to go home. Back in New Hampshire, Bryson calculates his trek distances and realizes that he completed a respectable 870 total miles but that this is only 39.5% of the AT. Bryson includes a plethora of information about the AT, such as, environmental change, flora and fauna, and many small towns traversed with a with that will keep you glued to the book.

Anyone who likes a documentary style book about the AT and memoirs in general.

The section in which they come to the town of Waynesboro and Katz meets a woman called 'Beulah' who's husband later tries to chase him down for trying to go out with his wife.

I live near the Appalachian Trail so the book has motivated me to hike a few miles one day.

Bill Bryson

It is a documentary style book but it is hilarious and informative at the same time.

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Created Jun 29, 2025 at 4:24am • Submit your own review...