On the Beaten Path: An Appalachian Pilgrimage

For anyone who enjoyed Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods or has a love of the outdoors in general or the Appalachian Trail in particular, here is an eloquent, wise, and witty account of how one man's six-month, end-to-end hike of the Appalachian Trail led him back home.

Every year, a couple thousand would-be "thruhikers" set out to walk the entire 2,000-mile length of the Georgia-to-Maine Appalachian Trail. About one of every ten actually makes it.

Robert Rubin's chances did not look good. Thirty-eight years old, overweight, dispirited, and burned out by a job he'd once loved, he dreamed of leaving mortgage and wife and cul-de-sac life behind for a journey that could take half a year-or maybe never end. But what awaited him on the wooded ridges was not the solo trek he'd imagined. Rubin soon found himself part of a strange vagrant culture of pilgrims and dropouts, a world with its own rules and rituals. As the miles accumulate, Rubin must survive the path's physical and spiritual grind, and, even more daunting, confront what he's running from . . . and what he's searching for.

On the Beaten Path is not only a clear-eyed, loving look at the dwindling wilderness of the Appalachian Mountains, the history and landscape of the Appalachian Trail, and the remarkable hiker subculture that exists along it; it is also one man's captivating and beautifully written exploration of the wilderness within himself.