View Full Version : Best Outdoor Books of All Time
What are your all time favorite outdoor books, not just A.T. but all outdoor genres?
To get this started, I'll list several of my faves:
Walking With Spring by Earl Shaffer
True North by Elliot Merrick
Dangerous River by E. M. Patterson
K2 The Savage Mountain by Houston and Bates
Great Heart by Rugge and Davidson
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
Coming Into The Country by John McPhee
The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
Lone Wolf
12-01-2004, 09:46
My Side of the Mountain by Jean George
Anything by Ed Abbey
Anything by Farley Mowat
Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Nothing by Thoreau
poison_ivy
12-01-2004, 10:29
Desert Soliatire by Edward Abbey
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Mawson's Will by Lennard Bickel
Endurance by Worsley
In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods by Galen Rowell
Coming into the Country by John McPhee
The Long Walk by Slavomir Raswicz
- Ivy
The Solemates
12-01-2004, 10:43
I like this thread...
Into the Wild by John Krakauer
A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins
The Thousand Mile Summer by Colin Fletcher
The Man Who Walked Through Time by Colin Fletcher
anything by Jack London
BookBurner
12-01-2004, 10:52
The Long Walk by Rawicz will humble even the most accomplished long-distance backpacker! He was the original ultra-light hiker.
Another favorite, Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl.
- BookBurner
www.enlightenedthruhiker.com (http://www.enlightenedthruhiker.com)
Jonathan Ley's CDT Journal (not in print, better than most of the stuff that is).
Desert Solitaire, Abbey (Abbey's fiction is crap, but his nonfiction is great).
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, Newby.
Seven Years in Tibet, Harrer (don't watch the movie).
The Pioneers, Cooper (the only Leatherstocking that didn't make me hurl).
Western Trilogy, DeVoto (Course of Empire, Across the Wide Missouri, 1846: The Year of Decision, all are history).
Desert Cadillac, Reisner.
grizzlyadam
12-01-2004, 11:10
wolf- i love that you listed My Side of the Mountain.
man, that book changed it all for me when i was a kid.
steve hiker
12-01-2004, 13:12
Endurance: Shackelton’s Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing. This is about Ernest Shackelton’s doomed 1914 voyage to Antarctica, in which his ship was shattered by ice, leaving him and his crew stranded on ice floes. It’s a fascinating read. For the next year they floated on the Antarctic current and eventually worked their way north until Shackelton was able to reach New Zealand. No backpacker has ever endured conditions like this. Most impressive of all is Shackelton’s amazing leadership skills. He made correct decisions under very adverse conditions, when morale and hope were virtually non-existent. If I remember correctly, he didn’t lose a man.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078670621X/qid=1101919965/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-0362235-2882545 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078670621X/qid=1101919965/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-0362235-2882545)
Grizzly Years, by Doug Peacock. After serving 18 months in Vietman, Green Beret medic Doug Peacock headed west to clear his head, roaming the wild grizzly bear country of Montana and Wyoming. He has many close encounters with bears, some dangerous and some outright funny. But more important is the insight into bears that he gained during those years. I’ve promoted this book before, so I’ll just say it's one of the best books I’ve read.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805045430/ref%3Dpd%5Fsxp%5Felt%5Fl1/102-0362235-2882545 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805045430/ref%3Dpd%5Fsxp%5Felt%5Fl1/102-0362235-2882545)
I second The Long Walk. Very good read.
Also, there are several other threads on good outdoor books.
smokymtnsteve
12-01-2004, 13:22
Desert Solitaire, Abbey (Abbey's fiction is crap, but his nonfiction is great).
PLEASE STAND FOR THE GOSPEL OF ABBEY!
"It is true that some of my fiction was based on actual events. But the events took place after the fiction was written."
~
~
"this book, though fictional in form, is based strictly on historical fact. everything in it is real or actually happened. and it all began just one year from today."
THANKS BE TO ABBEY!
steve hiker
12-01-2004, 13:39
One thing about Edward Abbey should be cleared up. His fictional character George Hayduke in The Monkey Wrench Gang is supposedly based on Doug Peacock. While Peacock may have served as the inspiration for Hayduke, Peacock is not like the fictional George Hayduke. Peacock did "lose it" in a hilarious manner a couple of times as he wrote in Grizzly Years, but he was not the out-of-control, self-destructive character portrayed by Hayduke. Peacock was very careful in his actions, especially in grizzly country.
In a recent National Geographic interview (link posted in a recent thread about Doug Peacock), Peacock comments on the Hayduke character and explains that he never engaged in wholesale sabatoge like in The Monkey Wrench Gang. He and Abbey once let loose the brake on a dozer, and dropped tools down an oilwell hole like in the book, but that's it. Which is good, since Peacock is too valuable a contributor to the environmental cause to be locked up for however many years for industrial sabatoge that just would be paid for by an insurance company anyway and have no impact on industry's insatiable rape of the land.
PLEASE STAND FOR THE GOSPEL OF ABBEY!
"It is true that some of my fiction was based on actual events. But the events took place after the fiction was written."
~
~
"this book, though fictional in form, is based strictly on historical fact. everything in it is real or actually happened. and it all began just one year from today."
THANKS BE TO ABBEY!
While, at times, entertaining, books like the Monkey Wrench Gang or Black Sun just don't have much literary merit in my eyes. Sort of Tom Clancy-esque, in that regard, I supose. However, books like Desert Solitaire or The Journey Home are very well crafted, both from a subject point of view and a literary one. I was rather surprised in the vast difference in quality between the fictional and nonfictional works of Abbey.
smokymtnsteve
12-01-2004, 14:01
I agree Chris, the real Abbey is found in his essays and polemics, his fiction is not as good, even though I have read most of his fiction and have enjoyed it.
I like his non fiction best ,,,but I think a lot of folks 'meet' Abbey through his fiction. and everyone needs to know about Abbey!
BLACK SUN is my favorite Abbey fiction,,,which I do suspect is somewhat based on "truth" or at least Eddie's fantasies. ;)
TJ aka Teej
12-01-2004, 15:13
add these to this great list;
Appalachian Hiker, Ed Garvey
A Season On The AT, Lynn Setzer
Arundel, Kenneth Roberts (And you thought AT hikers had it tough in Maine!)
Lost On A Mountain In Maine, Donn Fendler - True tale of a twelve year old boy who takes the wrong trail down off Katahdin in 1939. He wanders the backcountry for nine days, telling the tale as only a young boy could.
We Took To The Woods, Louise Rich
Silent Spring, Rachel Carson
A Woman's Jouney, Cindy Ross
Solophile & Micah's AT journal, one of the very first online journals, a wonderful tale of a girl and her dog
Trail Years, Brian King, Rhymin'Worm, Judith Jenner
All of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels
Endurance: Shackelton’s Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing.
If you like sea-going, try The Solitary Slocum, by Robert Blondin. Solo-Sailing.
A great adventure story is Wilfred Theisenger's ARABIAN SANDS.... great descriptions of Bedouin culture.
Tim Cahill's collections of essays: PECKED TO DEATH BY DUCKS, JAGUARS RIPPED MY FLESH, OR PASS THE BUTTERWORKS are three pretty good ones.
ERIC NEWBY (mentioned below) A SHORT WALK IN THE HINDU KUSH is funny, but you have to appreciate early British humor....
Books by Chris Bonnington are usually good reads....
smokymtnsteve
12-01-2004, 18:13
If you like sea-going, try The Solitary Slocum, by Robert Blondin. Solo-Sailing.
If U enjoyed the story of J. Slocum try reading the original by Slocum himself
SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD.
by Joshua Slocum
MisterSweetie
12-01-2004, 19:18
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold should probably be on this list somewhere.
Jack Tarlin
12-01-2004, 20:13
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence
The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
I May be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination by Francis Spufford
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton by Edward Rice
A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E. Lawrence by John Mack
The Endurance by Caroline Alexander
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
Narrative of Cabeza De Vaca
Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey....by E. Dolnick
Annapurna by Maurice Herzog
And several already mentioned, the three greatest adventure stories I can think of:
Mawson's Will by Lennard Bickel
The Long Walk by Rawicz
Walking With Spring by E. Shaffer
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold should probably be on this list somewhere.
It's my fave. Note my signature below.
As far as kids books go, you can't beat Robert McCloskey. I read Blueberries for Sal and One Morning in Maine so many times to my kids that I lost count.
My personal fave as a kid was The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward.
Pole Climber
12-01-2004, 20:42
Sojourn In The Wilderness By Kenneth Wadness
Blind Courage By Bill Erwin
J
Desert Cadillac, Reisner.
Chris, did you mean CADILLAC DESERT?
It is one of my favorite books in understading the politics of the American West. Water..Water..and Water.
It is a very appropriate book for anyone about to do the PCT or the CDT! Get a history of the land you walk through.
Other favorites of mine:
AN EMPIRE WILDERNESS by Robert Kaplan
--Interesting travelouge/social history/political thought about the changing landscape and political nature of America and the American West in paticular. Good companion piece to this volume is the NINE NATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA by Garreau. Written in the late 1970s, but amazing how prescient the author was. It is out of print, but well worth picking up.
Non-fiction Abbey (thought, I did enjoy THE FOOLS PROGRESS)
BADLANDS by Jonathan Raban. Another travelogue through the American west that, like Kaplan, delves into history, politics and social aspects that have made up this vague geographic boundary called "The West".
APPALACHIAN TRAIL READER: My favorite book by far on the Appalachian Trail. The editor described it as a patchwork quilt. And it is. History, geology, recollections of "old timers" from the mountains, the eloquent voices of Thoreau, Emerson and Leopold, and the more raw but equally heartfelt voices of hikers like you and I
NICK ADAMS stories - The short stories by Pappa H that take place in the U.P. of Michigan (mainly). If anything else, read BIG TWO HEARTED RIVER.
Finally, anything else by Kaplan! He is one of my favorite authors by far!
Endurance: Shackelton’s Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing. This is about Ernest Shackelton’s doomed 1914 voyage to Antarctica, in which his ship was shattered by ice, leaving him and his crew stranded on ice floes.
You beat me to it. What a story. Five months drifting on ice floes? Those guys were tough!
Rain Man
12-02-2004, 00:02
Walking With Spring by E. Shaffer
Jack,
Know any way to get this book in hardback?
Rain Man
.
TakeABreak
12-02-2004, 00:17
AS first mentioned My Side of the Mountain was a teenage favorite.
Next, Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bruson was quite funny
A Sand County Almanac was also very enlightning.
I Just purchased and copy of; Where Less the Path is Worn by Nimblewill Nomad (M.J. Eberhart) I have only read about 10 pages and am really enjoying it ( I Plan to do the keywest to Gaspe Bay one day, the ECT)
I'd like to put in another plug for Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" -- a book about the Lewis and Clarke expedition.
Also, a book by NYTIMES book critic Richard Bernstein -- "Ultimate Journey: Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk Who Crossed Asia in Search of Enlightenment" -- is VERY good. In 629AD, Chinese Buddhist monk Hsuan Tsang set off on a journey that basically went from central China north through Anhui province, then west to the edges of Xinjiang province, then south through Tibet and into India, then north back to central China. No clue how many thousands and thousands of miles he walked, but his journey was incredible and the book does a great job of telling his story.
SavageLlama
12-02-2004, 10:14
The River Why by David James Duncan
Fire by Sebastian Junger
I've read most of the suggestions and all strike me as excellent outdoor books. But "best" depends on where I am and the mood. "Walden" remains a favorite, though Thoreau's "The Maine Woods" is perhaps a better "outdoor" book.
My fall project has been building book shelves and as I have filled them up with books tucked here and there I rediscovered Eliot Porter's "In Wildness....", one of the original Sierra Club "coffee table" books.
Eliot Porter's photos are supurb and his choice of Henry's words to go with them is excellent. No book of photographs that I have seen equals the print quality of "In Wildness....", at least as reproduced in the original hard cover editon.
I recommend it especially to those who complain that the trail is mostly a "long green tunnel", for examples of what can be seen by those who train themselves to look.
The title, of course, is a reference to Henry's oft repeated observation that "In wildness is the preservation of the world." The book was published in 1962 and is long out of print. But it's worth seeking out.
Weary
steve hiker
12-02-2004, 11:10
"Walden" remains a favorite, though Thoreau's "The Maine Woods" is perhaps a better "outdoor" book.
I've heard Thoreau was scared *****litts by the wild Maine woods.
Chris, did you mean CADILLAC DESERT?
It is one of my favorite books in understading the politics of the American West. Water..Water..and Water.
It is a very appropriate book for anyone about to do the PCT or the CDT! Get a history of the land you walk through.
Yeah, that's it. PBS made a really good documentary by the same name, but I haven't seen it in many stores.
smokymtnsteve
12-02-2004, 13:25
the Classic southern Appalachian work...
OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS
by Horace Kephart
Kephart was a early supporter of the AT.
Tha Wookie
12-02-2004, 13:30
The Lorax: Dr. Suess
The Bible
Fool's Progress (only after reading his others): Ed
My First Summer in the Sierra: John Muir
I've heard Thoreau was scared .... by the wild Maine woods.
I know of no evidence of that. It was not the gentle wilderness he was used to praising in his journeys through the Concord woodlots and paddling rivers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
But I've read all of his books, most of his journals and several biographies. Henry was not easily scared.
Weary
I know of no evidence of that. It was not the gentle wilderness he was used to praising in his journeys through the Concord woodlots and paddling rivers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
But I've read all of his books, most of his journals and several biographies. Henry was not easily scared.
Weary
Ah..but he seemed a bit disturbed on Katahdin. Woud not say "scared sh**less*, but he was certainly out of his element. Henry was in a much different area than the agrarian confine on his cabin on Walden. This was true wilderness. Herny experienced what the generation prior to his would have called "The Sublime". A mixture of fear and awe. Being a well read person, sure HDT was aware of this type of literature..and I am sure it influenced his writing below:
"Nature here was something savage and awful, though beautiful…here was no
man’s garden, but the unhandselled globe. It was not lawn, or pasture, nor mead,
nor woodland, nor lea, nor arable, nor waste land. It was the fresh and natural
surface of the planet Earth, as it was made forever and ever, -- to be the dwelling
of man, we say, -- so Nature made it and man may use it if he can. Man was not
to be associated with it. It was Matter, vast, terrific, -- not his Mother Earth that
we have heard of…there was clearly felt the presence of a force not bound to be
kind to man. It was a place of heathenism and superstitious rites…I stand in awe
of my body, this matter to which I am bound has become so strange to me. I fear
not spirits, ghosts, of which I am one, -- that my body might, -- but I fear bodies, I
tremble to meet them…think of our life in Nature, -- daily to be shown matter, to
come into contact with it, -- rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The Solid Earth!
The Actual World! The common Sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? Where
are we?"
So..when confronted with true wilderness, Henry was certainly a bit out of place.
But, then again, most of us are a bit out of place in true wilerness. Sure more than a few of us had a sense of "The Sublime" when immersed in nature.
Yeah, that's it. PBS made a really good documentary by the same name, but I haven't seen it in many stores.
Seems to be a popular read out in the arid West, though. Being an East Coast transplant,
the whole concept of water rights was alien to me. As many of the boundary lines of the states and how the water was to be divided up were done by people who were also East coast based, explains A LOT about the quriky situation of life past the 100th meridian.
Take Colorado for example. The eastern plains belong to a much different landscape (culturally and physically) than the rest of the state. Denver can arguably be called a border city between the farming country of the great plains and the mineral belt of the Rockies. But..I am getting way off subject. :)
Anyway, if you want to understand the western landscape, read CADILLAC DESSERT.
The Solemates
12-02-2004, 18:37
I Just purchased and copy of; Where Less the Path is Worn by Nimblewill Nomad (M.J. Eberhart) I have only read about 10 pages and am really enjoying it ( I Plan to do the keywest to Gaspe Bay one day, the ECT)
I found this rather bland reading. So monotonous.
Ah..but he seemed a bit disturbed on Katahdin. Woud not say "scared sh**less*, but he was certainly out of his element. Henry was in a much different area than the agrarian confine on his cabin on Walden. This was true wilderness. Herny experienced what the generation prior to his would have called "The Sublime". A mixture of fear and awe. Being a well read person, sure HDT was aware of this type of literature..and I am sure it influenced his writing below:
"Nature here was something savage and awful, though beautiful…here was no
man’s garden, but the unhandselled globe. It was not lawn, or pasture, nor mead,
nor woodland, nor lea, nor arable, nor waste land. It was the fresh and natural
surface of the planet Earth, as it was made forever and ever, -- to be the dwelling
of man, we say, -- so Nature made it and man may use it if he can. Man was not
to be associated with it. It was Matter, vast, terrific, -- not his Mother Earth that
we have heard of…there was clearly felt the presence of a force not bound to be
kind to man. It was a place of heathenism and superstitious rites…I stand in awe
of my body, this matter to which I am bound has become so strange to me. I fear
not spirits, ghosts, of which I am one, -- that my body might, -- but I fear bodies, I
tremble to meet them…think of our life in Nature, -- daily to be shown matter, to
come into contact with it, -- rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The Solid Earth!
The Actual World! The common Sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? Where
are we?"
So..when confronted with true wilderness, Henry was certainly a bit out of place.
But, then again, most of us are a bit out of place in true wilderness. Sure more than a few of us had a sense of "The Sublime" when immersed in nature.
Many thanks to a very wise and industrious Mags for doing the research into Henry's reaction to his experiences on Katahdin. I had read these passages many times. I lacked the time and enthusiasm to look them up and post them.
But before and after his experiences on Katahdin Thoreau faithfully recorded his thoughts and reactions to what he observed and experienced.
As near as I can tell he managed at all times to keep his ***** undercontrol.
Weary
steve hiker
12-02-2004, 19:08
Ah..but he seemed a bit disturbed on Katahdin. Woud not say "scared sh**less*, but he was certainly out of his element. Henry was in a much different area than the agrarian confine on his cabin on Walden. This was true wilderness. Herny experienced what the generation prior to his would have called "The Sublime". A mixture of fear and awe. He was scared of b-b-:eek: B-BEARS
As near as I can tell he managed at all times to keep his ***** undercontrol.
Weary
True. But one can be scared and be under control at the same time. I honestly think Thoreau had romantic ideal of "the sublime" when that passage was written. Picture Henry above treeline being in awe of what is around him: the beauty, the grandeur, the raw elements. But, the same passage also shows we was a bit scared as well. But, as Weary so eloqently put it, he probably did keep his ***** under control.
Good book though for reading about Maine.
:)
Jack Tarlin
12-02-2004, 21:10
Rain Man---
Unless I'm mistaken, or unless it's been re-issued again in hardcover, you're only going to find Walking With Spring in paper. The only hardcover version I've seen is the first edition, which is probably pretty hard to come by.
If anyone would know more about this, you might ask Laurie Potteiger at the ATC.
Rain Man---
Unless I'm mistaken, or unless it's been re-issued again in hardcover, you're only going to find Walking With Spring in paper. The only hardcover version I've seen is the first edition, which is probably pretty hard to come by. If anyone would know more about this, you might ask Laurie Potteiger at the ATC.
Actually, the first edition was not in hardcover either. It was hand bound by Earl himself, after he failed to find a commercial publisher. The covers are two pieces of what feels like 24 pound light green paper, protected front and back by a piece of heavy, sort of pebbly surfaced, translucent plastic. There is no copyright notice. The front cover appears to be hand drawn, showing
Earl with his World War II Army Rucksack in black and white and the words, "Walking with Spring" and a subhead reading "on the Appalachian Trail." The author's name is simply a handwritten signature in Earl's own handwriting.
The back cover was created by an unskilled typist. It reads, simply, "Dedicated to Benton MacKaye, the Dreamer and to the Trail People who made the Dream come true."
A final note reads, "Privately printed 1981"
Inside the text is even more fascinating. It's all handwritten, complete with numerous spelling and other errors, in a tiny hand script.
I can't remember when or how I got my copy. For years I thought I must have purchased it at the 1979 biennial ATC meeting held in Maine. But I notice the cover date says 1881. Maybe I ordered it at the conference and it arrived by mail two years later. I simply can't remember.
I did have Earl autograph my copy during one of his visits to The Cabin hostel in Andover after his 50th anniversary hike.
Earl's brother gave me a metal case to protect the original edition at the Pennsylvania Ruck that Earl attended a few years ago. At that time I think a few original sheets had been found and were being assembled for sale.
But my copy is one of the original few hundred that Earl assembled by hand and sold. It's one of my most valued possessions.
Weary
SavageLlama
12-02-2004, 23:12
But my copy is one of the original few hundred that Earl assembled by hand and sold. It's one of my most valued possessions.
WearyVery cool. I wish there was a book of Earl's photographs from his first thru-hike. I photos in "Walking with Spring" are fascinating. I'd love to see more.
MisterSweetie
12-02-2004, 23:48
Actually, the first edition was not in hardcover either. It was hand bound by Earl himself....
Inside the text is even more fascinating. It's all handwritten, complete with numerous spelling and other errors, in a tiny hand script.
I'd love to see pictures of this!
Rain Man
12-02-2004, 23:59
If anyone would know more about this, you might ask Laurie Potteiger at the ATC.
Thank you, Sir. I will do that.
It was fun to read the other posts, too, about Earl's book! Enlightening. The reason I come to WhiteBlaze.net.
:sun
Rain Man
.
Ramble~On
12-03-2004, 06:28
Weary that is really cool.
No doubt a piece of trail history.
With the autographs that ranks up there with Grandma Gatewoods shoes.
Rain Man
12-03-2004, 19:32
If anyone would know more about this, you might ask Laurie Potteiger at the ATC.
Here's what she had to say (I guess I buy it in paperback!) ---
Hi, Rain Man--
Sorry, but Walking With Spring, throughout all of its editions, has only been
available as a paperback.
Hope you have some time for hiking through the holidays. If you just
happen to be up this way, stop by for our Open House at ATC Headquarters
December 11.
Regards,
Laurie Potteiger
Information Services Coordinator
Appalachian Trail Conference
P.O. Box 807
Harpers Ferry, WV 25425
(304) 535-6331 x128
A couple more outdoor book suggestions come to mind. First, most anything by Bernd Heinrich. who I think recently retired from teaching biology at the University of Vermont.
Heinrich divides his time between Vermont and a cabin in Maine. He's one of the few authors whose books I buy when they first come out in hard cover. I rarely can wait for the paperbacks. Especially good are "The trees in my forest," "A Year in the Maine Woods," "Mind of the Raven," and "Winter World." Also fascinating is "Why We Run," an account of his running experiences and observations, beginning as a child in a German forest during World War II, and continuing through becoming a world champion in an ultra marathon(?) I forget the exact distance and name of the event, but it was through the streets of Chicago.
The book that inspired me most 55 years ago was "The Gentle Art of Tramping," by Stephen Graham, published in 1926 by D. Appleton & Company. I bought the book in a Chicago used book store around 1948. That copy disappeared over the years. I searched for a replacement for years before I found another. But I now occasionally see copies offered for sale on the internet.
It covers all the standard long distance hiking concerns, boots, the knapsack, clothes, carrying money, companions, "the art of idleness", fire, beds, skinny dipping, rain, "scrounging" and shelter. But from a different era.
I love the prose style: "It is a gentle art; know how to tramp and you know how to live...." The camel groans, the soldier grouses, but the tramp puts ever something more into his capacious rucksack for pleasure or profit... his danger is putting in too much and not putting in the right things...."
Tramping "is to be recommended as an admirable preparation for married life...If you have to carry your beloved, you will probably have to carry her the rest of your life. You cannot tell untill you've spent a night in the rain, or lost the way in the mountains, and eaten all the food, whether you both have ... a readiness for every fate."
Anyway. I enjoyed the book as a teenager and I still think it's a delightful book.
Weary
tlbj6142
12-06-2004, 15:15
Just read "The Long Walk" this weekend. Its a quick read. Great story, but the book is rather boring.
Too much of the time, I never felt like he really had it all that bad. While, I sure he did, it just didn't come across in the book. Having written (actually recorded) the book 15 years after the experience, I'm sure this resulted in a loss of details. And/or the painful memories prevented him from expanding the details, except during the "good" points (finding water, food, etc.).
Grab the book from the library. Spend a couple of nights with it.
Now onto Desert Solitare. This one had better be good, otherwise I'm going to give SMS an earfull.:D
Midway Sam
12-06-2004, 15:30
I just read "Into the Wild" by Jon Kraukauer this weekend. A really great read about an interesting fellow. McCandless strikes me as a person I would have loved to have spent the night around a campfire with listening to stories. Such a shame.
walking with spring by earl shaffer:)
appalachian hiker by ed garvey:)
walking on the happy side of misery by model t:bse :jump
you gotta read these 3:D
Smooth03
12-07-2004, 16:32
The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen(kids book)
Into The Wild
On The Road(captures much of the Thru-hiker spirit albeit not about)
The AT Data Book(gotta be the best one here!)
Undaunted Courage(written before Ambrose got sloppy and started plagiarizing)
Rain Man
12-07-2004, 17:50
Just read "The Long Walk" this weekend. Its a quick read. Great story, but the book is rather boring.
Too much of the time, I never felt like he really had it all that bad.....
Grab the book from the library. Spend a couple of nights with it.
I got "The Long Walk" from the library this weekend. Finished it this afternoon. It was a fast, interesting read, and sure makes AT hikers look like major wussies. (Sorry, guys.)
I recommend it for a great trekking story. For those of you who don't know, the author and a few friends escape from a Soviet labor camp in Siberia and head for India across Siberia, Mongolia, the Gobi desert, Tibet, and the Himalayas in the 1940s. WOW. No mail drops and no blue or yellow blazing for them!!! But very timely trail magic now and again.
BTW,... the book explains how horrible they had it. It was so bad, it verged on being unbelieveable, but painfully true at the same time.
:sun
Rain Man
.
Need to mention Guy and Laura Waterman
While Paul Theroux isn't specifically an outdoors writer, he captures something of the traveling spirit and restlessness to discover the world, similar to the spirit that I see in the thru-hikers. His most outdoorsie book was The Happy Isles of Oceania. He sea kyaked (sp?) all around Australia, New Zealand and the Islands.
He's also written about taking a train continuously from Boston to Patigonia, riding a train from London to China's Pacific Coast, walking and training the peremiter of the UK and one of my favorites, traveling from Egypt overland in Africa to Capetown. I heard him speak about the trip in DC a while back, and having lived in Africa myself, thought it was fantastic!
I love a lot of the other books the folks on here have posted...too many books, not enough time.
Too bad Paul Theroux didn't get to the AT before Bryson did!
This thread makes me want to go back and read Call of the Wild, and White Fang. I am not sure if they are as good as I remember them, but those books sparked something in me as a kid that made a difference.
Rick B
steve hiker
12-17-2004, 01:40
He's also written about taking a train continuously from Boston to Patigonia, riding a train from London to China's Pacific Coast .
Then after all that riding he forgot how to walk and slipped off the platform and got RUN OVER BY A DAMNED OLD TRAAAAAAAAIN. :banana
Tha Wookie
12-17-2004, 01:48
Has anyone read Ray Jardine's new book?
Ah..but he seemed a bit disturbed on Katahdin. Woud not say "scared sh**less*, but he was certainly out of his element. Henry was in a much different area than the agrarian confine on his cabin on Walden. This was true wilderness. Herny experienced what the generation prior to his would have called "The Sublime". A mixture of fear and awe. Being a well read person, sure HDT was aware of this type of literature..and I am sure it influenced his writing ....when confronted with true wilderness, Henry was certainly a bit out of place.
But, then again, most of us are a bit out of place in true wilerness. Sure more than a few of us had a sense of "The Sublime" when immersed in nature.
I've recently been reading "Thoreau In the Mountains" a collection from Thoreau's essays and journals edited with commentary by William Howarth. The book provides a whole new understanding of the depths of Thoreau's exploration of the New England mountains. I especially liked Henry's accounts of his excursions in the White Mountains, which I have been exploring all my life.
Howarth's notes pinpoint precisely where Thoreau was when he recounts the details of his mountain excursions. I'm guessing the book is out of print. It was published in 1982. I don't remember when or where I got my copy. It was one of the books that showed up again after I built another 30 feet of book shelves a few weeks ago.
But I recommend it highly. It is well worth searching out.
Weary
If beavers stir something within you...
Lily Pond by Hope Ryden
is a wonderful read. To my way of thinking, it may be possible to learn as much from a rodent as a philosopher.
Rick B
I've recently been reading "Thoreau In the Mountains" a collection from Thoreau's essays and journals edited with commentary by William Howarth. ...
But I recommend it highly. It is well worth searching out.
Weary
That sounds like a good read. Walking with Thoreau: A Literary Guide to the New England Mountains is also by the same editor and was published recently. Looks to be an updated version of the book you mentioned. Revised bibliography, for example. I cut my backpacking teeth in the Whites...it has been on my TO READ list for a while. Time to head over to the bookstore and pick it up!
Also, speaking of good books out of print, rec'd your book a week or so ago. Now that I have a chance to play catchup will be reading your book more thoroughly. A check to the Maine Land Trust is on the way, too. Thanks again!
I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread. As a result of your suggestions, I now have 5 new books (Christmas presents) on my bedstand: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, Annapurna, Mawson's Will, Desert Solitaire, and West With The Night. I'd like to add another that I haven't seen mentioned: The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Happy New Year to you all!
I got Earl Shaffer's "Walking With Spring" for Christmas. What a simple, elegant story! The photos really surprised me. I don't know why, but seeing him standing on Katahdin in '48 just about took my breath away.
Does anyone know if his original color slides still exist? They would be an absolute treasure.
That sounds like a good read. Walking with Thoreau: A Literary Guide to the New England Mountains is also by the same editor and was published recently. Looks to be an updated version of the book you mentioned. Revised bibliography, for example. I cut my backpacking teeth in the Whites...it has been on my TO READ list for a while. Time to head over to the bookstore and pick it up!
Also, speaking of good books out of print, rec'd your book a week or so ago. Now that I have a chance to play catchup will be reading your book more thoroughly. A check to the Maine (Appalachian Trail) Land Trust is on the way, too. Thanks again!
I checked my shelf of Thoreau books after your reply. Sure enough. "Walking with Thoreau: A Literary Guide to the New England Mountains" is virtually identical to "Thoreau in the Mountains." and was published with the permission of the original publisher.
An outdated foreword was left out of the new paperback edition and I noticed some minor changes to the introduction. The major difference is that the original had some 19th century woodcuts of some of the places Henry walked through. The new version omits these.
Because editions of books about Thoreau don't tend to remain in the bookstores very long, I have developed the habit of buying those that look interesting, even if I don't have time to read them right away. Thus it took me 22 years to get to the original Thoreau in the Mountains! The new edition came out in 2001.
BTW I still have a few copies of my energy book, "Housewarming" that I picked up at used book sales last summer. Send me an address and I'll send them out as long as they last. They're free. But as Mags noted I do include a Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust brochure that you can use as a bookmark, or whatever.
Or if you just want to see the pretty brochure, you can open:
www.matlt.org
Weary
The Journals of Lewis and Clark, Edited by Frank Bergon, Penguin Books, 1989. This is a great read. You get a good sense of what this country was like before it was developed, and for what the natives enjoyed for thousands of years, before our arrival.
Jack Tarlin
01-26-2005, 19:37
I noticed that a lot of folks have listed books on the great polar expeditions of the early twentieth century.
I'm reading a new book by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who is, incidentally, considered by some to be the world's greatest living explorer.
The book is a re-assessment of the life and career of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, who died in March 1912 attempting to return from the South Pole.
The book is (at least so far) excellent.
I also highly recommend Fiennes book "Mind Over Matter", an account of the first attempt to make an unsupported foot crossing of the Antarctic continent.
Dances with Mice
01-26-2005, 19:59
Those are the kind of books I like to read in the summer...
A few more that I didn't see so far on this thread:
"The Secret Knowledge of Water" by Craig Childs, great essays and stories about water in the desert
"Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard, explorations of nature in SW Virginia (really excellent, won a Pulitzer Prize)
"The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac, has a lot of the energy of "On the Road" but with a lot of hiking and nature
I want to thank L. Wolf, poison ivy, chris, and Smokymtnsteve for recommending Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey. I read a little of it every day over the last couple of weeks and finished it last night. I savored every page.
For those of you who have spent any time in a canoe (or even if you haven't), I strongly urge you find a copy of Great Heart, by Rugge and Davidson. It's a true story of epic proportions, with elements of courage, foolhardiness, true love, forbidden love, race, gender, privation, redemption, tragedy and triumph. The A.T. is a cakewalk compared to what the Hubbards, Wallace, George Elson, et al attempt to accomplish.
Another book with Labrador as a setting: True North, by Elliot Merrick. A reviewer in the New York Times wrote, "This is a book of very high quality." An understatement, I'd say.
walkin' wally
02-19-2005, 19:11
If you like Maine and wonder what it was like in the Maine woods along the Penobscot region many years ago try Penobscot Man by Fannie Hardy Eckstorm. Life was certainly different back then. You will probably have to go to the library for this one. It has been out of print a long time.
There is another book by the same title at bookstores but not the same author. It is not the same material.
If you like Maine and wonder what it was like in the Maine woods along the Penobscot region many years ago try Penobscot Man by Fannie Hardy Eckstorm. Life was certainly different back then. You will probably have to go to the library for this one. It has been out of print a long time. .
A 1972 facsimile edition of the 1924 original is listed on the internet for $70.
I think the seller was Abesbooks or something like that.
Weary
walkin' wally
02-20-2005, 19:47
Thanks Weary,
I found the website.This is interesting. I did not know that these books appreciated in value like that. I thought it was a great book.
Desert Solitaire by Abbey
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin.
Tristes Tropiques by Claude Levi-Strauss. Structuralist anthropology and an amazonian expedition. Beautiful descriptions of lush, buggy, humid south american jungles.
Walking with Spring, Walden, The Dharma Bums, many more I can't recall at the moment. Most Robert Frost poems.
AT Data book... very handy :)
A couple years ago I had an english class that incorporated hiking, camping, literature, and writing. Its was a real treat. If only I could find that reading list...
Many thanks to poison ivy for recommending Beryl Markham's West With The Night. My wife and I very much enjoyed it.
Here is a book I recently added to my outdoor section of books-
Indian Creek Chronicles by Pete Fromm
I believe it was first published in 1994, relatively new by "Greatest Outdoor Books of All Time' standards, but I enjoyed it as much as any of my outdoor books. It is an account of a college grads 7 month stay in the Bitteroots guarding salmon eggs. Well written, short (192 pages) and full of adventure solitare style by a novice. It spoke to me on many levels and I think I just might get it out for a re-read.:sun
Nearly Normal
03-15-2005, 23:27
Hemingway
Try the short story "Big Two-Hearted River".
pete
oliander
08-12-2005, 22:40
TOP 5:
Savages (Joe Kane) - Stunning story of adventure, nature, politics, ecology, and nearly uncontacted Indigenous peoples in Ecuador. (If you are an environmentalist, you will never again give a cent of your money to the Natural Resources Defense Council and the other sell-out Big Ten national enviro groups, after hearing how they screwed over the people & environment in the Amazon.)
Touching the Void (Joe Simpson). See the documentary film based on the book, too - it is VERY true to the book. In his afterword, Simpson writes that this mountanous area of northern Peru is still the most beautiful area he's ever been to in his life, besting the Himalayas, the Alps and everything else.
Swimming to Antarctica (Lynne Cox) - extraordinary stories about a swimmer with unusual tolerance for cold sea water. I like that she is a big woman with a more than usual amount of fat (like me) and that it hasn't stopped her from breaking world records in swims.
The Long Walk (Rawicz). I used to work in Siberia, China and Mongolia myself so I have some appreciation for the terrain these people confronted.
The Journey Home (Ed Abbey) - I agree that his nonfiction is far superior to his fiction works. This book in particular I can read over and over, without getting tired of it.
In no particular order.
One Man's Wilderness by Sam Keith / Dick Proenneke
A River Lost by Blaine Harden
Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock
In The Shining Mountains by David Thomson
Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner
Our Southern Highlanders by Horace Kephart
Desert Solitaire by Edward Ebbey
The Journey Home by Edward Abbey
Jumping Fire by Murry Taylor
teachergal
08-16-2005, 23:05
Follow the River by James Alexander Thom - it's about a white settler woman, Mary Ingalls (not be confused with Laura Ingalls Wilder's sister) whose small settlement in the southwest VA/West VA Mts was raided by Indians. Mary and one other woman were kidnapped and taken all the way to what is now Northern KY (near Cincinnati). Mary then escapes and "follows the river" - the Ohio and New - to get back home. Mary was one hard core woman.....
Also on the historical fiction note, Jean Craighead George - the author of My Side of the Mountain - has written several other books. Can't remember titles off the top of my head, but look her up on Amazon.com. Also, I believe there is a sequal to My Side of the Mountain - but can't recall the title.
I also second the Gary Paulsen - granted he is a "young adult" author he's written some great stuff that keeps your interest - even a grown ups!
fiddlehead
08-17-2005, 00:01
Ah so many great ones listed above that i enjoyed so much like: Ed Abbey (anything) "Touching the void" and so many great mountaineering books, and Shackeltons amazing journey. I love all the sailing around the world books as well as hiking books including Thoreau (most anything)
But i think my favorite is a book called "Yak Butter and Black Tea, a Journey into Tibet" by Wade Brackenbury.
because this is a book that i can relate to as he travels the same way i always wanted to: go where you want, learn how to fool the border guards into sending you back where they think you came from, where it is really where you are trying to go. I eventually lucked into meetin Wade in Thailand rock climbing and we talked many hours about our travels. He is my kind of traveller and always searching out the true indigenous people and spending quality time with them. We talked about possibly walking across Bhutan and Burma together,with his method of travelling. Perhaps someday. I think that would be one incredible journey.
Here's one on the Pacific Crest Trail...
Dances With Marmots - A pacific Crest Trail Adventure
(ISBN 1-4116-5618-0)
A look at the US and its wilderness through the eyes of a New Zealander. ;)
Thanks to Ed Bell for suggesting Indian Creek Chronicles, by Pete Fromm. Pete's a guy who's not afraid to admit his mistakes, and he makes plenty of them. Along with Ed, I recommend this one, it's a good read.
I'm currently reading my way thru Dead Reckoning, Tales of the Great Explorers 1800-1900, edited by Helen Whybrow. The first tale I read was an excerpt from A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, by Isabella Bird. Has anybody read this book? Top notch writing.
Although it's not an outdoor book, The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion is a great one to pick up if you have recently lost loved ones, or even if you haven't.
Cookerhiker
01-03-2006, 10:24
Nothing apart from what's been mentioned above. I read Desert Solitare years ago and still peruse it from time to time. Abbey's Journey Home is similarly inspirational.
Last month, I finally for the first time read Sand County Almanac and agree it's a classic.
Sorry if I can't remember all of the authors:
Berastien Bears Nature guide(my first)
My side of the MOuntian
A walk in the WOods
Living of the earth(a 70's commune guide)
One mans wilderness
the life of Souix
Sorry if I can't remember all of the authors:
Berastien Bears Nature guide(my first)
My side of the MOuntian
A walk in the WOods
Living of the earth(a 70's commune guide)
One mans wilderness
the life of Souix
I'm reading "One Man's Wilderness" right now. I got it for christmas.
(By Sam Keith from the journals and photographs of Richard Proenneke)
It's interesting how a guy could go up to Alaska and live in a small log cabin all by himself for over 30 years. He also hiked thousands of miles of the surrounding countryside while living there. His cabin is now a historic site preserved by the Park Service.
Panzer
leeki pole
01-04-2006, 11:45
"As Far as the Eye Can See" by David Brill
Great read...my daughter gave it to me for Christmas along with a wildflower identification book..doesn't get much better than that!:sun
[quote=Cookerhiker]Nothing apart from what's been mentioned above. I read Desert Solitare years ago and still peruse it from time to time. Abbey's Journey Home is similarly inspirational.
I would have to agree.......Abbey is always a great read or re-read.
"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds."--Edward Abbey
I'm reading "One Man's Wilderness" right now. I got it for christmas.
(By Sam Keith from the journals and photographs of Richard Proenneke)
It's interesting how a guy could go up to Alaska and live in a small log cabin all by himself for over 30 years. He also hiked thousands of miles of the surrounding countryside while living there. His cabin is now a historic site preserved by the Park Service.
(Couldn't get my quote thingy to work)
If you ever get a chance, PBS runs Proennekes film as a documentry when they are doing their pledge drives......it's really amazing to watch him build his home with all materials from the wilderness
I just finished reading "Walking the Ridge Between Life and Death: A climbing life reexamined" by David Roberts. Kind of like Jon Krakauer's "Eiger Dreams", but the author goes into a great deal of self inspection trying to understand what drives extreme mountaineers like himself to do the death defying climbs they do.
Even though I'm far from a rock climber / mountaineer, I found the book fascinating.
oh, I forgot to mention my latest! I received as a gift this yar "How to **** in the Woods" It has a suprising amount of info.....but if nothig else, it super funny
I remember really enjoying 'Cold Mountain' by Frazier. The movie doesn't compare (they rarely do).. Thought it was really well written, and that it provided a great sense of time and place.. Seemed like the wilderness played as big a role in the book as any character did.
oh, I forgot to mention my latest! I received as a gift this yar "How to **** in the Woods" It has a suprising amount of info.....but if nothig else, it super funny
Yea, I got that one as a birthday gift. Everyone thought it was real funny. Over 300,000 copies in print. But I thought there wasn't much in there that I didn't already know about taking a **** in the woods. But it does make a funny gift.
Panzer
This has been a great thread for me - I've picked up several of the books mentioned and enjoyed them. The Long Walk by Rawicz in particular is incredible.
A few of the titles were about Alaska and set me off on a jag of books about that region, and subsequently books about the grizzlies. The books about Timothy Treadwell and his tragic end were very interesting, and last night we watched "Grizzly Man", a worthwhile documentary done posthumously from his footage.
On the grizzly subject, a woman named Patricia Van Tighem who was attacked by a grizzly in 1983 committed suicide on December 14:
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-vantighem25dec25,1,7511627.story?coll=la-news-obituaries
She wrote a book "The Bear's Embrace" which deals mostly with her issues in the years since the attack. It's not really an outdoor book but is a very good read and I reccomend it.
Thank you to all who shared in this thread.
HikerHobo
01-08-2006, 14:03
I'll have to second the "Indian Creek Chronicles". One of my all time favorites.
Another favorite is “Great Wyoming Bear Stories” by Tom Reed.
Green Bean
01-08-2006, 16:57
Into the WIld
Eiger Dreams All three are by JON KRAKAUER
Into thin air
High Exposure~David Breashers
Last Place on Earth~Roland Huntfard
Rain Man
01-08-2006, 23:20
This has been a great thread for me - I've picked up several of the books mentioned and enjoyed them. The Long Walk by Rawicz in particular is incredible...
I agree 100%. Got it from the library last year and read it in about one sitting. Puts a lot of the petty whining about AT difficulties into a whole new universe of perspective.
Also, I got "How to S**t in the Woods" for Christmas. That's an interesting read.
Rain:sunMan
.
Bernard Mines
01-08-2006, 23:34
Winterdance by Gary Paulsen
AbeHikes
02-11-2006, 16:04
River Horse by William Heat Least-Moon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395636264/qid=1139688028/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-5337807-9218329?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Not sure the traveling purists will appreciate it, but the ambition to travel across the USA by river was really intriguing to me. I'll probably grab Blue Highways next... or maybe some from this thread I've never heard of.
Cookerhiker
02-11-2006, 18:09
I'm about 1/3 through Bill McKibben's The End of Nature and find it quite compelling. Its basic theme is that we (humankind) have ended nature in that we control and influence everything except the rotation of the earth. All of nature i.e. wildlife will survive only as we allow and manage it. He wrote the book in 1989 citing global warming as the chief manifestation of our dominance. Things haven't changed.
For the majority of you on WhiteBlaze who care about the environment, you'll find this book sobering. Self-styled "conservatives" will dismiss it of course.
I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread. This has succeeded beyond what I expected.
As reward, give yourselves a gift. Pick up a copy of Dead Reckoning, Tales of the Great Explorers 1800-1900, Edited by Helen Whybrow, copywrite 2003. One reviewer wrote:
"A deep sense of awe runs through every single account collected here."
In it, you'll find the writings of Meriwether Lewis, Fridtjof Nansen, Joshua Slocum, Francis Parkman, Dillon Wallace, Mary Kingsley, and 26 others. The great thing about this collection of stories is that it can lead you to the longer versions of each tale.
LostInSpace
08-27-2006, 22:25
"Terra Incognita: Travels in <st1:place w:st="on">Antarctica</st1:place>" by Sara Wheeler<o:p></o:p>
Accounts of the epic <st1:place w:st="on">Antarctica</st1:place> expeditions of Cook, Amundsen, Shackleford, et. al., alternate with Sara Wheeler's own adventures in <st1:place w:st="on">Antarctica</st1:place>. The accounts are intelligent, articulate, and fascinating. This lady can write!
As Far As The Eye Can See... David Brill
Too bad Paul Theroux didn't get to the AT before Bryson did!
This thread makes me want to go back and read Call of the Wild, and White Fang. I am not sure if they are as good as I remember them, but those books sparked something in me as a kid that made a difference.
Rick B
I make it a practice to reread things as I progress through this life. Kind of funny as I just recently reread some Jack London short stories. 'To Build A Fire' is every bit as riveting today for me at 53 as it was 40 some years ago. Things read as a mature adult take on whole new meaning as opposed to earlier in life. Give old Jack another try. I would be willing to bet you will find lots to value there.
CrumbSnatcher
02-08-2008, 18:29
Awols And Bearfoots Books Are Very Good Reads!
Don't know if it has been mentioned, but
The Ascent of Run Doodle by W.E. Bowman is the funniest book I've read in a long time. I've not laughed so much, so hard, or so long since Peter Hiassen's "Nature Girl."
Here is a book I recently added to my outdoor section of books-
Indian Creek Chronicles by Pete Fromm
I believe it was first published in 1994, relatively new by "Greatest Outdoor Books of All Time' standards, but I enjoyed it as much as any of my outdoor books. It is an account of a college grads 7 month stay in the Bitteroots guarding salmon eggs. Well written, short (192 pages) and full of adventure solitare style by a novice. It spoke to me on many levels and I think I just might get it out for a re-read.:sun
Thanks to Ed Bell for suggesting Indian Creek Chronicles, by Pete Fromm. Pete's a guy who's not afraid to admit his mistakes, and he makes plenty of them. Along with Ed, I recommend this one, it's a good read......
I'll have to second the "Indian Creek Chronicles". One of my all time favorites.....
Has anyone else checked this out? I'm gonna hunt for it to re-read it. Great thread. BTW, "The Man Who Walked Through Time" by Colin Fletcher was excellent. I think the Soulmates suggested it, and Colin passed away last year. R.I.P.
Leon Smith
02-08-2008, 20:57
Proenneke, Richard: One's Man's Wilderness Alaska 1968
Frederickson, Olive: The Silence of the North Canada's North Country 1912-
Irwin, William: Blind Courage Appalachian Trail 1992
I will second "Indian Creek Chronicles" by Pete Fromm. Here is a short excerpt:
"That evening I stood outside my tent, looking up through a blizzard at what I could see of the mountains. In glimpses between the waves of cloud the trunks of the trees, plastered with sticky snow, stood out starkly white. I studied the width of my meadow, trying to picture the thundering walls of snow, wondering how much of the open they could cross. I went back into my tent and stood beside the stove, my soggy clothes steaming, and I thought the avalanches would probably peter out before they reached my thin canvas walls."
Or:
"I shouted. I raised my fists above my head and shouted. As I continued my demented circling on that spire, I knew that everywhere I could see, and far beyond that, on everything the sun had just transformed, the only footprint on the land that wasn't some animal's was mine. I shouted again, big enough to burst.
Short book, but a good read.
Rain Man
02-09-2008, 17:15
... I've not laughed so much, so hard, or so long since Peter Hiassen's "Nature Girl."
Might you mean Carl Hiassen?
Rain:sunMan
.
"A Walk across America", have it here in my desk drawer. prob my fav read!
I like this thread...
Into the Wild by John Krakauer
A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins
The Thousand Mile Summer by Colin Fletcher
The Man Who Walked Through Time by Colin Fletcher
anything by Jack London
Jim Adams
02-12-2008, 00:55
Indian Creek Chronicles is great as is Dangerous River...very good reads!
Best A.T. book...As Far As The Eye Can See.
Any Robert Service.
geek
warraghiyagey
02-12-2008, 00:58
"A Walk across America", have it here in my desk drawer. prob my fav read!
Read that too. Shocked when his dog died. Bummer.
"From Georgia to Maine"
I just finished this book I checked out at the library. A pictoral book with different writers among different stages of the trail. The pictures help give you a sense of what they are describing. Pretty good read.
Read that too. Shocked when his dog died. Bummer.
Just picked that up at the library last night! Did his dog die just recently or did you just spoil a good read for me? :confused:
Just picked that up at the library last night! Did his dog die just recently or did you just spoil a good read for me? :confused:
I meant "A Walk Across America"
warraghiyagey
02-12-2008, 11:48
Just picked that up at the library last night! Did his dog die just recently or did you just spoil a good read for me? :confused:
Dog died? Did I say that?? Nope - don't know nuthin about that.:rolleyes::o
DawnTreader
02-12-2008, 12:36
Lets see here..
I liked the Old Testament
Band Of Brothers by Ambrose
A Year in The Maine Woods by Bernd Henrich
Walking The Appalachian Trail by Luxenburg
Undaunted Courage by Ambrose
Desert Solitaire by Abbey
Into the Wild and Into Thin Air(Sans Afterword Rant)
The Mystery of Mallory and Irvine by Hozel and Saukeld(sp?)
DawnTreader
02-12-2008, 12:41
Far Appalachia: Following the New River North by Noah Adams
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
The Wild Trees: A story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston
warraghiyagey
02-12-2008, 13:00
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
Great book. I'm currently reading Creek Mary's Blood (Dee Brown).
Rain Man
02-12-2008, 16:45
Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
That'll get you where it hurts!
Rain:sunMan
.