This book is basically the trail journal of ‘Mountain Slayer”
(Bill Schuette) on his Appalachian Trail hike in 2000 – with very little
editing. Although it is a bit of a “rough cut” generally it is well written
– especially considering most of it was written on the trail.
The author presents his experiences on the trail in a very open and honest
way. I think making it quite easy for the reader to get the feel of the day
to day life on the trail. Don’t expect this book to be like “A Walk in
the Woods” – Bill Bryson has nothing to worry about. At times it may get a
bit monotonous (as life on the trail can be at times) but as I continued to
read it I found myself walking along with the author. By the end I was
actually wishing he turn around on Katahdin and start walking back to
Georgia – I wanted to keep reading.
For people who really love to hike and when they can’t hike love to read
about hiking – I would recommend this book. It is a straight forward, first
person view of the day in and day out life on the AT. For people who have
not read many hiking books before, I would not recommend starting with this
one, there are several better (start with “A Walk in the Woods”).
