Walking Home: A Woman's Pilgrimage on the Appalachian Trail (Official Guides to the Appalachian Trail)
art outdoor adventure tale, part feminist empowerment treatise and part plain old gripping read, Winters's story of hiking the Appalachian Trail ably conjures the smell of pine and the taste of cold oatmeal. After a difficult breakup with her boyfriend, Winters (Side Roads of Long Island) decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of hiking the blazed path alone. When she starts her six-month trip in Georgia, her will is strong, but her thoughts are confused; she keeps hoping that the 2,000-mile hike will clear her head. It does, eventually, but it's a sometimes grueling journey, physically and emotionally. Yet the book doesn't merely chart the interior journey of a bisexual woman on the rebound. Winters relates her many encounters with lack of food, rain, bad knees, the nuances of hiker shelter etiquette, and in off-trail hostels, making this a lively if at times rambling and tediously detailed story of self-reliance. She also evokes the unique culture of the "thruhikers" (those who undertake walking the entire trail uninterruptedly), who track each other through logs at shelters and tend to meet up along the way, sometimes walking together for days or weeks at a time. Written with honesty and wry insight, Winters's account will appeal most to sporty women who enjoy a rousing tale of emotional triumph.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.