Recollections of grueling climbs, knee-wrecking descents, mountaintop thunderstorms, snakes underfoot, and the myriad characters encountered on an AT thru-hike.
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Recollections of grueling climbs, knee-wrecking descents, mountaintop thunderstorms, snakes underfoot, and the myriad characters encountered on an AT thru-hike.
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This book is definitely a 'Five Star' work in my book! Author 'Model-T' (his trail name) writes with wit, humor, class, style, intelligence, and obvious love for life and people. After retiring from the Marines, he and his mental 'alter ego' get the hike bug and decide to hike the 2,150-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. The first obstacle is to convince his wife, which undertaking all married folk will recognize. Once on the trail, the reader is immediately drawn into the characters, the footpath, the natural world, and the humor. And there is no stopping; it goes on for over 2,000 miles! This is a laugh-out-loud, get teary-eyed, feel hungry, cold and wet, or hot, thirsty, and faint epic. Oh, for a while it was hard for me to figure out when it was Model-T and when it was his alter ego talking, but that was a worthwhile challenge, given the quality of the craftmanship with words and conversations and his good personal character that shown through.
KEKB
Nov 2, 2007
What I Found is....
When I first started this book, I didn't care for it and almost put it down. I got the feeling that Mr. J. R. Tate didn't care for women too much, especially his wife. He would talk about "THE LOOK" that woman would give that would put men in their places. It also was confusing at first, because he talks to himself throughout the whole book. His trail name is Model-T, but then he gives his ego a name too, and they talk back and forth, at first I thought that three different people started out on the trail together, I found that bothered me, mostly in the beginning, but I guess that is one way to make the long trail more interesting. I kept reading, and found that he really was a softy and loved his wife, also one of his best friends on the trail was a gal named Skate, although I did get tired at times of him referring to "THE LOOK" that women gave men. I found his detailed description of how hard and how much he endured, or how much the hikers endured very realistic, and made me realize it was probably something I could never do. Sleeping in rain, almost drowning in a river, going without food, feeling starved. Thinking about food so much was something I would have never thought such a problem. Not to mention wearing the same clothes for days on end, washing them in a river and having to put them on wet when it wasn't that warm out, really gave me the chills! All in all, I considered the book very entertaining, I learned a lot, and would definitely recomend this book for anyone wanting to hike the AT.