Letters from the trail: Excerpts from a collection of letters written by a 50+ year old woman from Maine and Maryland as she pursued a life goal of hiking the entire 2,170+ miles on the Appalachian Trail.

This book is filled with information people always ask about hiking the AT, including where she slept, what she ate, how she stayed safe, how she planned her hike, what she carried for equipment. This is an inspirational book for those who want to hike, an information book for the questions people ask, and a tribute to life in the outdoors- - -all rolled into one.

Letters from the trail: Excerpts from a collection of letters written by a 50+ year old woman from Maine and Maryland as she pursued a life goal of hiking the entire 2,170+ miles on the Appalachian Trail.

This book is filled with information people always ask about hiking the AT, including where she slept, what she ate, how she stayed safe, how she planned her hike, what she carried for equipment. This is an inspirational book for those who want to hike, an information book for the questions people ask, and a tribute to life in the outdoors- - -all rolled into one.

Letters from the trail: Excerpts from a collection of letters written by a 50+ year old woman from Maine and Maryland as she pursued a life goal of hiking the entire 2,170+ miles on the Appalachian Trail.

This book is filled with information people always ask about hiking the AT, including where she slept, what she ate, how she stayed safe, how she planned her hike, what she carried for equipment. This is an inspirational book for those who want to hike, an information book for the questions people ask, and a tribute to life in the outdoors- - -all rolled into one.

Pilgrimage to the Edge details a four year odyssey hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with unique insights gained from thirty-three years of public service. It showcases the hard-won fight to preserve America’s public lands and the diversity of people who continue to use and work them. It vividly displays the contemporary challenges of caring for our nation’s national forests from a field perspective while weaving over a century of history and culture into a 2,650 mile trek. Finally it gives clear advice on how to hike this world-class national scenic trail in a series of easy stages instead of in one continuous trek.

Pilgrimage to the Edge details a four year odyssey hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with unique insights gained from thirty-three years of public service. It showcases the hard-won fight to preserve America’s public lands and the diversity of people who continue to use and work them. It vividly displays the contemporary challenges of caring for our nation’s national forests from a field perspective while weaving over a century of history and culture into a 2,650 mile trek. Finally it gives clear advice on how to hike this world-class national scenic trail in a series of easy stages instead of in one continuous trek.

Pilgrimage to the Edge details a four year odyssey hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with unique insights gained from thirty-three years of public service. It showcases the hard-won fight to preserve America’s public lands and the diversity of people who continue to use and work them. It vividly displays the contemporary challenges of caring for our nation’s national forests from a field perspective while weaving over a century of history and culture into a 2,650 mile trek. Finally it gives clear advice on how to hike this world-class national scenic trail in a series of easy stages instead of in one continuous trek.

When Terry Croteau was twelve years old, tromping around the woods on family outings, looking under leaves for frogs and salamanders, and relieving herself behind trees, she had no idea she’d end up spending over half year doing the same thing from Georgia to Maine. . . in her fifties! What causes a midlife baby boomer to leave her job, sell the house, farm out the furniture and cram all the leftovers in a ten by ten foot storage unit and carry thirty-five plus pounds on her back over 2174 miles? Well, your guess is as good as mine, but that’s what she did. Join Terry, (trail name ‘Bluebird’) as she prepares, then walks, crawls, trips, and falls her way up the Appalachian Trail, (AT) from Springer Mountain, GA to Baxter Park’s Katahdin, in ME. Allow yourself the experience of hiking the AT by living vicariously through Bluebird’s journal entries and reflections. Experience the routine and the totally unexpected, in the life of a long distance thru hiker. Learn where a good sense of humor, sweat, tears and a ‘Don’t give up!’ attitude might take you. Realize how success can be measured more keenly by your attitude than by your accomplishments, that believing in ‘you’ is half the battle, the other half is putting one foot in front of the other. According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, approximately 1,150 northbound thru hikers began their trek in 2006 (GA to ME) of the 1,150 hikers, 659 individuals, a little over half, made it to Harpers Ferry, W.Va. (Bluebird was number 501) Maine’s Katahdin greeted 30% of the original 1,150 hikers, with a total of 349 completions in 2006. You will connect with some of those people in Terry’s journal. It doesn’t matter if you’re young, old, male or female, you will appreciate what you find between the cover pages of this book. The author reminds us that, “Life isn’t over till your six foot under and if you’re on this side of the dirt and breathing, you’re alive! So, for God sake and your own, live!”

When Terry Croteau was twelve years old, tromping around the woods on family outings, looking under leaves for frogs and salamanders, and relieving herself behind trees, she had no idea she’d end up spending over half year doing the same thing from Georgia to Maine. . . in her fifties! What causes a midlife baby boomer to leave her job, sell the house, farm out the furniture and cram all the leftovers in a ten by ten foot storage unit and carry thirty-five plus pounds on her back over 2174 miles? Well, your guess is as good as mine, but that’s what she did. Join Terry, (trail name ‘Bluebird’) as she prepares, then walks, crawls, trips, and falls her way up the Appalachian Trail, (AT) from Springer Mountain, GA to Baxter Park’s Katahdin, in ME. Allow yourself the experience of hiking the AT by living vicariously through Bluebird’s journal entries and reflections. Experience the routine and the totally unexpected, in the life of a long distance thru hiker. Learn where a good sense of humor, sweat, tears and a ‘Don’t give up!’ attitude might take you. Realize how success can be measured more keenly by your attitude than by your accomplishments, that believing in ‘you’ is half the battle, the other half is putting one foot in front of the other. According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, approximately 1,150 northbound thru hikers began their trek in 2006 (GA to ME) of the 1,150 hikers, 659 individuals, a little over half, made it to Harpers Ferry, W.Va. (Bluebird was number 501) Maine’s Katahdin greeted 30% of the original 1,150 hikers, with a total of 349 completions in 2006. You will connect with some of those people in Terry’s journal. It doesn’t matter if you’re young, old, male or female, you will appreciate what you find between the cover pages of this book. The author reminds us that, “Life isn’t over till your six foot under and if you’re on this side of the dirt and breathing, you’re alive! So, for God sake and your own, live!”

When Terry Croteau was twelve years old, tromping around the woods on family outings, looking under leaves for frogs and salamanders, and relieving herself behind trees, she had no idea she’d end up spending over half year doing the same thing from Georgia to Maine. . . in her fifties! What causes a midlife baby boomer to leave her job, sell the house, farm out the furniture and cram all the leftovers in a ten by ten foot storage unit and carry thirty-five plus pounds on her back over 2174 miles? Well, your guess is as good as mine, but that’s what she did. Join Terry, (trail name ‘Bluebird’) as she prepares, then walks, crawls, trips, and falls her way up the Appalachian Trail, (AT) from Springer Mountain, GA to Baxter Park’s Katahdin, in ME. Allow yourself the experience of hiking the AT by living vicariously through Bluebird’s journal entries and reflections. Experience the routine and the totally unexpected, in the life of a long distance thru hiker. Learn where a good sense of humor, sweat, tears and a ‘Don’t give up!’ attitude might take you. Realize how success can be measured more keenly by your attitude than by your accomplishments, that believing in ‘you’ is half the battle, the other half is putting one foot in front of the other. According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, approximately 1,150 northbound thru hikers began their trek in 2006 (GA to ME) of the 1,150 hikers, 659 individuals, a little over half, made it to Harpers Ferry, W.Va. (Bluebird was number 501) Maine’s Katahdin greeted 30% of the original 1,150 hikers, with a total of 349 completions in 2006. You will connect with some of those people in Terry’s journal. It doesn’t matter if you’re young, old, male or female, you will appreciate what you find between the cover pages of this book. The author reminds us that, “Life isn’t over till your six foot under and if you’re on this side of the dirt and breathing, you’re alive! So, for God sake and your own, live!”

Oct 09 News! Nettie Does the NCT: North Country Trail by Lorana A. Jinkerson, illustrated by Toby Mikle is an Award-Winning Finalist in the Children´s Picture Book: Softcover Non-Fiction category of the National Best Books 2009 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News. Nettie Does the NCT: North Country Trail is a children�s book about four friends who are members of the North Country Trail Association and love to hike the North Country National Scenic Trail. As the story of their adventures unfolds, Blue Blazes provide the reader with interesting and useful facts about the North Country Trail and hiking it, thus making this book a teaching tool for parents and teachers as well as a fun book to read. As Richard Louv�s Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder notes, we need to encourage parents to expose their children to the wonders of our natural environment. This can be accomplished through hiking on the NCT with Nettie and her friends since sixty-five million people, "21 percent of the U.S. population," are within a single day´s drive of this amazing trail - the North Country National Scenic Trail, that is!

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The idea for this book came to me on my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 1994. Every state that I walked through presented me with a different story. Some were pleasant and easy, while others were pleasant, somehow, in spite of being extremely difficult. With each passing state boundary a different realization would occur. This thing, this trail, works its stuff on everyone who walks along it, like a character in life or story. We don´t affect it, it changes us. It´s a much larger whole than any of its components or any of us who walk it.

So, each chapter represents a reality that is unique to the hike as told by Ivy Burbank Mann. From the time he starts to the end, six months later, he encounters strange characters, survives three seasons of rain, heat and humidity, and endures violent storms. The trail itself becomes a character in this novel set in the most spectacular scenery in the east.

The idea for this book came to me on my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 1994. Every state that I walked through presented me with a different story. Some were pleasant and easy, while others were pleasant, somehow, in spite of being extremely difficult. With each passing state boundary a different realization would occur. This thing, this trail, works its stuff on everyone who walks along it, like a character in life or story. We don´t affect it, it changes us. It´s a much larger whole than any of its components or any of us who walk it.

So, each chapter represents a reality that is unique to the hike as told by Ivy Burbank Mann. From the time he starts to the end, six months later, he encounters strange characters, survives three seasons of rain, heat and humidity, and endures violent storms. The trail itself becomes a character in this novel set in the most spectacular scenery in the east.

The idea for this book came to me on my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 1994. Every state that I walked through presented me with a different story. Some were pleasant and easy, while others were pleasant, somehow, in spite of being extremely difficult. With each passing state boundary a different realization would occur. This thing, this trail, works its stuff on everyone who walks along it, like a character in life or story. We don´t affect it, it changes us. It´s a much larger whole than any of its components or any of us who walk it.

So, each chapter represents a reality that is unique to the hike as told by Ivy Burbank Mann. From the time he starts to the end, six months later, he encounters strange characters, survives three seasons of rain, heat and humidity, and endures violent storms. The trail itself becomes a character in this novel set in the most spectacular scenery in the east.

Day 88 – 1,130 trail miles north,
Ward Peak, Northern California

"Boy that was a long way up!" exclaims the day-hiker, a mile or two from the road. "Where are you coming from?"
"Oh, Mexico," I say coolly, and saunter on by.

Faced with the prospect of a nine-to-five job, Natasha Carver instead decided to walk from Mexico to Canada. She followed the Pacific Crest Trail – 2,658 miles through the wildernesses of California, Oregon and Washington – encountering rattlesnakes and bears, and learning to survive with her own company. Based on her journals, Walking Down a Dream is a humorous account of despair, excitement and resolve. The book describes a geographical and personal journey through desert, snow, blisters and rehydrated pasta, and introduces several eccentric characters, including Staggering Willy, Wonderwoman and the Wolfpack.