A Walk in the Woods

The book starts with Bryson explaining his curiosity about the Appalachian Trail near his house. He and his old friend Stephen Katz start hiking the trail from Georgia in the south, and stumble in the beginning with the difficulties of getting used to their equipment; Bryson also soon realizes how difficult it is to travel with his friend, who is a crude, overweight recovering alcoholic, and even less prepared for the ordeal than he is. Overburdened, they soon discard much extra food and equipment to lighten their loads. “A Walk in the Woods” is a funny book, full of dry humor in the native-American grain. It is also a serious book. Nothing really terrible happened to the author, but by playing on our fears, he captures the ambivalence of our feelings about the wild. We revere it but we’re also intimidated. We want to protect animals but we also want to kill them. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but they also “choke off views and leave you muddled and without bearings.” He continues: “They make you feel small and confused and vulnerable, like a small child lost in a crowd of strange legs.” Bryson’s acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America’s last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods has become a modern classic of travel literature. In this book the physically unfit, bear-averse, and comfort-loving Bryson and his even less adept friend traverse portions of the 2,000 mile trail, squabbling and complaining the whole way. The misadventures are interspersed with more serious discussion of the history, ecology, and culture of the trail.