Writing a book on long-distant hiking is a difficult task. Hiking is mostly many hours a day with the sound of crunching under your feet and eating uninteresting food. Hikers spend most of their thoughts on their feet, water, and food. Not a compelling read without some effort. Writing about the trail can be misleading. Books and blogs and journals tend to focus on the only events such as storms, animals, or weird encounters with people in towns. This focus can make hiking seem like a constant stream of events - exciting, ever changing and stimulating. Long hikes are not this way. Most of the time, it is crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch - feet moving for hours and hours and hours. Readers of these adventures will often make a decision to hike and find most of hiking is "not what they thought it would be." It is monotonous, painful, and often lonely. As a section hiker on the PCT, I have (so far) hiked only the first 700 miles of the PCT (only is a relative thing if you are a short day hiker). When I started reading, I suspected I would not be compelled to read further once the portion of the trail I had hiked was covered in the story (I enjoyed being able to visual each stop, each section). I was wrong - I digested the book cover to cover..
I have read many hiking books, A Blistered Kind of Love, The Fastest Hike, of course A Walk In The Woods, and others. The "others" titles escape my mind for a reason. Like I said, it is difficult to write on this topic and be interesting.
I could feel the authors writing style and her willingness to expose a little more of herself evolving as the book progressed, likely evolving along with her spirit as the trail tends to do this to a person. For people that are not avid hikers, I suggest you stick with this book until Ramen is introduced. Much like Katz in a walk in the woods, this fortunate addition adds a depth of humanity that extends beyond trail life.
I fell in love with Carrot and her honesty. Along the trail she tackles difficult subjects like lost childhood, existential questions about what we are doing with our lives, and the complexity of love and sexuality. The subjects are not explored in high-minded philosophical language or over wrought terms, but in a style that mimics how we all actually think "in real life". It is honest and gentle.
In summary I can tell you this book is worth the read for hikers and non hikers alike. Thank you Ms Quinn
Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart: An Adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail
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Last update: 01-02-2025
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W. batchelorWorth The Read - Hikers and Non-Hikers Alike
W. batchelor
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2016
I have read many hiking books, A Blistered Kind of Love, The Fastest Hike, of course A Walk In The Woods, and others. The "others" titles escape my mind for a reason. Like I said, it is difficult to write on this topic and be interesting.
I could feel the authors writing style and her willingness to expose a little more of herself evolving as the book progressed, likely evolving along with her spirit as the trail tends to do this to a person. For people that are not avid hikers, I suggest you stick with this book until Ramen is introduced. Much like Katz in a walk in the woods, this fortunate addition adds a depth of humanity that extends beyond trail life.
I fell in love with Carrot and her honesty. Along the trail she tackles difficult subjects like lost childhood, existential questions about what we are doing with our lives, and the complexity of love and sexuality. The subjects are not explored in high-minded philosophical language or over wrought terms, but in a style that mimics how we all actually think "in real life". It is honest and gentle.
In summary I can tell you this book is worth the read for hikers and non hikers alike. Thank you Ms Quinn
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Norbert Haupt