num_pages: 352
description: In 2009 while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail Robert Moor began to wonder about the paths that lie beneath our feet: How do they form? Why do some improve over time while others fade? What makes us follow or strike off on our own? Over the course of the next seven years Moor traveled the globe exploring trails of all kinds from the miniscule to the massive. He learned the tricks of master trail-builders hunted down long-lost Cherokee trails and traced the origins of our road networks and the Internet. In each chapter Moor interweaves his adventures with findings from science history philosophy and nature writingcombining the nomadic joys of Peter Matthiessen with the eclectic wisdom of Lewis Hydes The Gift.Throughout Moor reveals how this single topicthe oft-overlooked trailsheds new light on a wealth of age-old questions: How does order emerge out of chaos? How did animals first crawl forth from the seas and spread across continents? How has humanitys relationship with nature and technology shaped world around us? And ultimately how does each of us pick a path through life?Moor has the essayists gift for making new connections the adventurers love for paths untaken and the philosophers knack for asking big questions. With a breathtaking arc that spans from the dawn of animal life to the digital era On Trails is a book that makes us see our world our history our species and our ways of life anew.
language: English
title: On Trails: An Exploration
publisher: Simon & Schuster