God Only Knows...

what possessed Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer,

if ever there was one, to hike the gruelling 2,000-mile

Appalachian Trail.

Perhaps it was a just a long-held ambition to lose weight and get fit.

Perhaps it was a brief bout of masochistic insanity.

Whatever his motives, the tale of his travels through fourteen states

on the longest continuous footpath in the world

is a hilarious romp full of moonshine, shotguns and bears.

Already a classic, “A Walk in the Woods” will make you long for the great outdoors ~

or at least a comfortable chair in which to sit and read.

(published by The Washington Post )

The New York Times states:

Short of doing it yourself, the best way of escaping into nature

is to read a book like “A Walk in the Woods”!

This book describes the author's experience while walking

The Appalachian Trail and reflects his opinions relating to those experiences.

This writing, he dedicates to Katz.

A Walk in the Woods ~ Rediscovering America on The Appalachian Trail

Described by Jesse Greenspan as “America's Long Distance Footpath.”

In selecting a book from our in-house-library, I discovered: “A Walk in the Woods” with a brown bear's face afront his green forest” written by Bill Bryson who experienced the Trail in its full length...and intrigued by the back cover info, I've now read it and gained much insight about which I knew little. From his experiences, I've gained much knowledge

and share with you a few significant facts which he imparts.

“Rich plant life naturally brings rich animal life. The Smokies are home to 67 varieties of mammal...

over 2,000 types of birds...and 80 species of reptile and amphibian ...all larger numbers than are found in comparable sized areas almost anywhere else in the temperate world.

“Above all, the Smokies are famous for bears. Ranging from 400 to 600 pounds, they are a chronic problem because so many of them have lost their fear of humans. More than 9 million people a year come to the Smokies ~ many of them to picnic ~ so bears have learned to associate people with food. Indeed, to them, people are overweight creatures in baseball caps who spread lots and lots of food out on picnic tables...and then shriek a ittle...and then wander off to get their video-cameras. When Old Mr. Bear comes along and climbs onto their picnic to start eating their potato salad and chocolate cake, they shoot a photo of him.

 There is one instance of a woman smearing honey on her toddler's fingers, 

so that the bear would lick it off, for the video camera...
 the bear even ate the baby's hand.

The true creature of the Smokies is the reclusive and little-appreciated salamander. There are 250 varieties, more than anywhere else on Earth. They are the oldest of all land vertebrates, When these creatures first crawled from the seas, this is what came up and they haven't changed a great deal since. Some of these salamanders haven't even evolved lungs (they breathe through their skin).

Even more varied and under-appreciated than the salamander is the fresh-water mussel.

A third of the world's total, dwell in the Smokies.

Today, nearly one-half of Smokies mussels are 'endangered'

and 12 species of them are believed to be extinct.

On the Trail: “For every 20 minutes on the Appalachian Trail, Katz and I walked farther than the average American walks in a week. For 93% of all trips outside the home, Americans now get in the car...drive the car to the office...from office to the car...around the Supermarket and shopping malls...adds up to 1.4 miles a week (only 350 yards a day).

“Katz and I walked the ever-so-tough 2,000 mile Appalachian Trail

in eastern United States from Georgia to Maine.”

Fascinating Facts About the Appalachian Trail

Thru'-hikers (those who do the complete Trail from beginning to end)

state: After taking those 5 million steps, can you recall

many incredibly-minute-factoids about where you spent 6 months of your life ~

or is everything some sort of 'green blur'?

• The Appalachian Trail is a nearly 2,200 hiking miles-trail through eastern United States.
• It is the longest 'hiking trail only' footpath in the world! It is also among the the largest continuously marked trails ~ marked with approximately 165,000 2”x6” white blazes along the trail, guiding hikers all 2,186 miles.
• The Trail travels through 14 different states: Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachussetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine...and connecting to Canada's continuation of the Appalachian Trail.
• It is the longest and largest-running-volunteer-conservation project in the world.
• The elevation gain/loss of hiking the entire Appalachian Trail is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest 16 times!!!
• Civilization (along 'the Trail' is not as far away as you might think ~ displaying a photo of Hot Springs, North Carolina...with mountain-top vista of settled communities a-slope.
  

  • On average, the Trail crosses road every 4 miles.

  Less than 115,000 persons have completed a successful thru-hike` from beginning to end of the Appalachian Trail in the American section.
  

  • The wild zones of Virginia s Grayson Highlands State Park are not really all that wild.

  It is estimated that that about 99% of the entire Trail has either been `relocated` or `rebuilt` since its earlier completion.
  

  • `Springer Mountain`` is not the original southern terminus of the Trail. Originally, it was Mount Oglethorpe...Springer Mountain did not receive the title until 1956.

  
  The Appalachian Trail cuts through the oldest mountain range on the planet.
  It is believed that this range predates the creation of the North American Continent. 
  However, tradition can be traced back to the fact that the first 2 persons (Earl Shaffer & Gene Espy) to ever' thru-hike' the entire Trail, hiked it north-bound.
  

   Most hikers today travel it southbound.
  Of the 14 states the Trail passes through, it will only take travellers within a hikeable distance of 7 states' high-point peaks ranging from 1,803 feet to 6,444 feet.
  
  
  
  The idea for the Appalachian Trail was conceived atop Stratton Mountain in Virginia, 1931.
  .
  Written by Merle Baird-Kerr...November 29, 2018.
  To comment:  mbairdkerr@bell.net  or  inezkate@gmail.com