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Thread: I am a Liar.

  1. #81
    Clueless Weekender
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    Quote Originally Posted by Studlintsean View Post
    Thanks. I enjoyed your review and still need to pick up the book. I will see if it is available on Kindle and perhaps I will read it on a trip this summer (too much school reading nowadays). Where is Bill anyways?
    I hear from him every so often. He's busy being Daddy, trying to start some business ventures, and generally doing things other than hiking and posting here.
    I always know where I am. I'm right here.

  2. #82
    Registered User Just Bill's Avatar
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    "Tis no finer compliment that a backpacker can give than to add an item to a kit.
    Nor no higher honor than to continue to carry it once the long miles have decided it's true worth."

    Ol' Man Willy


    Quote Originally Posted by imscotty View Post
    I always keep a stack of magazines and such of reading material at the side of my bed. When I am busy with work the stack grows ponderously tall. When I have some free time I chip away at it a bit. For you computer programmers it is a FILO system (or is that LIFO?). At the bottom of the pile are some National Geographic magazines going back to the 1980’s that I am afraid I am not going to get to until I retire someday

    So last summer as I was packing up for a John Muir Trail thru-hike, I went to pick out some reading material from the pile for when I bed down for the night on the trail. What do you think was sitting at the top of my FILO stack? Why it was “Lying on the Trail” by our own Just Bill. Whether this was a message from the God’s or some strange coincidence, I do not know. But there it was, top of the pile, a trail hiking book begging to be brought on the trail.

    This is perfect, I thought, a book of lies and tall-tales to bring on the trail. I imagined myself tearing out the chapters night by night as I read them on my way towards Mount Whitney. A book of lies to toss in the campfire and scatter as smoke in the wind. I gleefully anticipated the load in my backpack growing lighter with every day. Thinking I had found the perfect choice of reading material, I placed the book away in my backpack and began my journey.

    Bill is a liar all right. He lies about lying. As I read the book I soon realized that I had become trapped in some kind of literary Escher drawing. Wrapped in all those lies were fundamental kernels of truth. Weighty truths about life, wry observations on the human condition, life lessons passed on from the children of Wakan Tanka. I cannot burn a book of truths. Only bad medicine will flow from that. So, ‘Lying on the Trail’ remained intact, I kept every page, as I walked the 210 miles from Yosemite to Mount Whitney.

    It was when I got my resupply at the Muir Trail Ranch that this began to get to me. Ten days of food and supplies crammed into my bear can. Thirty-eight pounds weighing my out-of-shape body down as I made the final push towards Whitney. No item seemed heavier than the weighty truths in that damn book. This book was suppose to be gone by now, just a bit of light-hearted entertaining fluff dissolved in a campfire like so much cotton candy. There it was every time I opened my pack, the mask on the cover seemed to be mocking me. The title a constant reminder of Bill’s lies about lying. Yet each new chapter begged me on to the next. More weighty truths to be carried in my thoughts as I marched towards Whitney.

    I began to think Bill was the playful trickster Sinkalip himself. I thought of the glee it would give him at the great joke of me carrying that thing over 200 miles. Every time I heaved that heavy pack onto my burdened shoulders I thought of the weight of that book. At night by the campfire I even thought I heard Bills laughter in the distant darkness (OK, perhaps, this was the yipping of an actual coyote). Either way, I began to curse Bill and his truths wrapped in lies and his book that I was unable to burn.

    Finally, there I was on the last night of my journey. I had decided to camp out on the summit of Whitney itself and wait for the sunrise. There I was in the cold thin air enjoying the celestial display and thinking about the meaning of my hike. More than anything else this journey was a celebration of the interconnection between all things. The words of John Muir played over in my mind, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."

    Tired and satisfied I reached one last time for “Lying on the Trail” I had reached the last chapter of the book. I was hoping for a tall tail, a light-hearted bit of wordy popcorn to chew on as I closed my eyes. Instead I was offered a tiny ember, a spark of fire medicine, one last nugget of truth to be considered.

    Mitakuye Oyasin. I’ll say no more about this truth, Bill is a better storyteller than I, but it provided a perfect end to a perfect journey. I could not fall asleep that night; once again the trickster had his day. Instead I thought of these words of Bill, and the words of John Muir. I thought of the spirit that moves through all things, of my interconnection with the world and all its people. I lay there and gave thanks for all that I had received.

    And that morning I enjoyed a beautiful sunrise at the top of Mount Whitney.

    I give thanks for the good medicine that brought this book to the top of my pile that day. I still have every page of this damn book. But after reading the last chapter of “Lying on the Trail”, somehow my pack grew lighter. My curses for Just Bill turned to a bit of a chuckle on the long hike down to Whitney Portal. Bill had fooled me. But just as Sinkalip often taught a lesson with his tricks, somehow old Bill had managed to do the same.

  3. #83
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    I love books about hiking- looking forward to reading yours!

  4. #84
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    Just a heads up for all those looking for cheaper lies:
    Due to the impending Mueller report release, all those who have lied on the trail are seeking immediate cash for legal defense funds.

    So for a limited time and until such publications are involuntarily relinquished in expected court ordered asset forfeitures:

    Lying on the Trail is discounted to $9.99 for paperback and $7.49 for kindle copies.


  5. #85
    Coach Lou coach lou's Avatar
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    I have a dog eared copy, SIGNED by the author!!!!!!

  6. #86

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    I received my copy sometime in 2015 so I took it out on a backpacking trip in May 2015 and wrote of short review of the thing which can be found here---

    http://www.trailjournals.com/journal/entry/501063

  7. #87
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    Quote Originally Posted by coach lou View Post
    I have a dog eared copy, SIGNED by the author!!!!!!
    Sounds like its holding up much better than my signed slice of cheesecake!

  8. #88
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tipi Walter View Post

    I received my copy sometime in 2015 so I took it out on a backpacking trip in May 2015 and wrote of short review of the thing which can be found here---

    http://www.trailjournals.com/journal/entry/501063
    And a very Walter review it is...
    Oddly the Mags quote you took some issue with is a sentiment you agree with and oft express.
    https://pmags.com/thru-hikers-specia...oors-knowledge

    It fit that chapter well and is proving more true every year... especially as more folks adopt the 'Long Distance Hiking' moniker rather than backpacker or even general outdoors person.
    Though having approached the subject from the direct opposite of Paul I have a slightly different take on the topic.

    Nessmuk and Kephart (and even Fletcher) are mainly relegated to the memories of older hikers... though the bushcraft folks have rediscovered them a bit... their idea is mainly one for older souls, grumpy turtle birthers and one more Kevin. Muir and the poets are the more often admired as few of the hard practical skills are much needed these days.

  9. #89
    Wanna-be hiker trash
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    Quote Originally Posted by Just Bill View Post
    Just a heads up for all those looking for cheaper lies:
    Due to the impending Mueller report release, all those who have lied on the trail are seeking immediate cash for legal defense funds.

    So for a limited time and until such publications are involuntarily relinquished in expected court ordered asset forfeitures:

    Lying on the Trail is discounted to $9.99 for paperback and $7.49 for kindle copies.

    Does this latest offer include complementary page numbers?

    [For those of you who haven’t read it yet, I bought Bill’s book when it came out and thoroughly enjoyed it.]
    Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

  10. #90
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sarcasm the elf View Post
    Does this latest offer include complementary page numbers?

    [For those of you who haven’t read it yet, I bought Bill’s book when it came out and thoroughly enjoyed it.]
    Well... truth be told I need to unload these asap. Guthook is releasing an app for L.O.T with page numbers and a bare bones summary of the critical information along the way. So no need to even own the book at all let alone read it even. It does have very accurate page, paragraph, and even word count progress you can share to social media though...

    While I do like rambling along and simply taking in the trail as a whole with no particular care for your exact location at any given second... one must recognize that is an antiquated point of view. So hoping some suckers come along and scoop this up.

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