AWOL on the Appalachian Trail

Of the half dozen or so accounts of Appalachian Trail (AT) thru hikes that I have read, this is the best one so far. David Miller manages to avoid the pitfalls typical of these accounts: too much exposition, too many tangents, too much introspection, and too much unnecessary personal detail. Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" is a good example of a too discursive approach - often regaling the reader with just too much wikipedia-ish AT lore. Thru hikers turned authors will also often layer spiritual or personal development narratives on top of their hike, and these layers can be tougher slogging than hiking through the Mahoosuc Notch. Another element that gets tiresome is the guilt trip that hikers will lay on themselves for leaving the show more family and responsibility behind. In "AWOL on the Appalachian Trail", though, Miller takes few tangents, is economic with his introspective moments, and does not dwell too much on the personal issues. His account is very much a "white blaze" account - he sticks to the trail and the tale. His prose style consists of straightforward, declarative sentences laid end to end from Springer Mountain to Katahdin. At first I found his language clipped and unnatural, but soon it seemed the most fitting way to tell the story. It mirrored the simple but compelling step by step progress that he made through each state. His momentum often takes him farther in a day than he should go, and similarly I would read this book later into the night than I should have. I also appreciated that he managed to simultaneously describe the incredible achievement and hardship of thru hiking without either romanticizing or exaggerating them for effect. At one point he quotes Churchill, and the quotation seems particularly apt in this regard: Churchill says of himself that "he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened". show less

This is the second memoir about hiking the AT that I have read in the last few weeks and this second title was worlds better than the first.

Miller is a 40 something cube dweller who decided to quit his job and thru hike the AT. He's a regular middle class guy with a wife, three kids, and a normal "happy" life. But he's miserable and he needs a shakeup and his wife agrees to let him go on this mid-life adventure. I admit, that as a 40 something cube dweller, I was sympathetic and invested in his story from the get-go.

Miller is good at making you feel like you are experiencing the hike along with him. I felt like I understood the terrain, the conditions of the shelters, the discomfort and tweaks associated with a heavy pack and the wrong show more (or eventually right) shoes. I learned more about other hikers, more about animals and trail conditions than I did in the other book. He describes both the beauty and wonder of the trail and the total misery of it in equal measure. He shares his uncertainty about his decision to be on the trail. He shares is uncertainly about some of the other characters he meets along the way. Most are benign and good companions but others....not so much. It made for very interesting story telling.

Overall, a very enjoyable read if books about hiking are your cup of tea. show less

There is a library of books about hiking the Appalachian Trail, but David Miller's account of his 2003 thru-hike is the first one I've read. It's well written, I felt I was hiking alongside Miller sharing the strained ankles, blistered feet, constant hunger and wet, beautiful views and feelings of elation and freedom. Nothing particularly exciting happens that is out of the ordinary for a hiker, but it's never boring and gives an accurate sense of what it is like. I've section-hiked the trail in MD and VA for many years.

Like all good travel literature, the journey is both literal and allegorical, there is the physical conquest of space, and an internal journey of growth. In taking the trip Miller is seeking an escape from his ordinary show more life as a 9-5 cubicle worker, as he says early in the book, "I see a benefit in thru-hiking. It is an escape from me." Yet hiking the AT nowadays, while laudable, is also very ordinary, accomplished by hundreds every year. Miller hikes the trail in a very ordinary way, sleeping in shelters, hiking northward, not diverging from the white blaze or missing any step of the trail, sleeping and eating in towns. Is it any surprise when Miller finds in the end that "there has been no epiphany.. I have no insight in how I can return [to the real word] and avoid the doldrums that brought me here." Perhaps this is the books inner message and lesson, that seeking the extraordinary in an ordinary way leads to more of the same; to experience true change we have to step beyond boundaries, off the beaten track. Miller touches on this again when he says, in what I thought was the most insightful quote of the book, "the perception of disadvantage is more debilitating than disadvantage itself", that is, perception creates limitations, the key to freedom comes from within. They are just words easy to understand (and just as quickly forget), but to really absorb that lesson is well worth a few months on the AT.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2010 cc-by-nd show less

Miller's book kept me entranced from the first chapter and I read non-stop for a couple of hours. Not only was the description of the sometimes colorful characters he ran into on his sojourns amusing and poignant but his thought process appealed to mine as it bought to mind my own thoughts while I was out there. The first three chapters were particularly appealing to me as I had been out there in the same region and it seemed, like just yesterday that I too had walked this way. When he says "Alone, cruising serenely through the woods, is a situation that nurtures emotional liberation. In the bustle of everyday life there is no time for frivolous thoughts", I recalled the stressful time that I was going through with my divorce prior to show more my hike and remember how the AT was my head clearing mission.

As his journey along the trail we feel the distance he has put between him and the distant outside world, and how satisfying it is to sometimes put all our worries aside, and just live for today when he confides "In suburbia the din of traffic, machines, and the voices of other people were the norm. I didn't feel harassed by noise. In the forest I appreciate the quiet and the clarity of thought that it induces. It is a welcome unanticipated benefit. I feel unstressed, fit, alert and invigorated ..." He goes on to reiterate these thoughts a little later when he adds "...I have come to recognize that most of what is memorable and pleasing about my time on the trail are ordinary moments in the outdoors......It is fulfilling to be saturated with the sights, sounds and smells..."

For those uninitiated in the AT, and for those that have hiked on it themselves, the book captivates and enthralls, and we are as excited as Miller is when he reaches his goal at Mt. Katahdin and completes his 2170 mile thru-hike from Georgia to Maine. show less

Miller's book kept me entranced from the first chapter and I read non-stop for a couple of hours. Not only was the description of the sometimes colorful characters he ran into on his sojourns amusing and poignant but his thought process appealed to mine as it bought to mind my own thoughts while I was out there. The first three chapters were particularly appealing to me as I had been out there in the same region and it seemed, like just yesterday that I too had walked this way. When he says "Alone, cruising serenely through the woods, is a situation that nurtures emotional liberation. In the bustle of everyday life there is no time for frivolous thoughts", I recalled the stressful time that I was going through with my divorce prior to show more my hike and remember how the AT was my head clearing mission.

As his journey along the trail we feel the distance he has put between him and the distant outside world, and how satisfying it is to sometimes put all our worries aside, and just live for today when he confides "In suburbia the din of traffic, machines, and the voices of other people were the norm. I didn't feel harassed by noise. In the forest I appreciate the quiet and the clarity of thought that it induces. It is a welcome unanticipated benefit. I feel unstressed, fit, alert and invigorated ..." He goes on to reiterate these thoughts a little later when he adds "...I have come to recognize that most of what is memorable and pleasing about my time on the trail are ordinary moments in the outdoors......It is fulfilling to be saturated with the sights, sounds and smells..."

For those uninitiated in the AT, and for those that have hiked on it themselves, the book captivates and enthralls, and we are as excited as Miller is when he reaches his goal at Mt. Katahdin and completes his 2170 mile thru-hike from Georgia to Maine. show less

A very straight forward account of one man’s experience hiking the entire 2172 miles of the Appalachian Trail. AWOL is the author’s trail name – thru hikers traditionally take one on or risk having one given to them by fellow hikers – and it refers to the fact that he quit rather than take leave from his job in order to do it. What I liked was that he shares his experience without trying to make it into something profound or literary. It's all about the trail, what it looked like and what it felt like. I had no trouble visualizing the scenery he described or getting a feel for the personalities of the hikers who shared the trail with him along the way. What I didn’t like was his rant near the end of the book about the show more frustration that contributed to his leaving his job – he and his wife paying such a big part of their income in taxes. He complained that he ‘was doing little better than breaking even; the compensation wasn’t enough to keep (him) motivated’. So his solution was to quit his job and spend months hiking the Appalachian Trail, which is part of the U.S. National Park Service funded by Congress with TAX DOLLARS. It struck me as just plain hypocritical. Still, this is overall a good travel book to help break the monotony of sheltering in place during the pandemic. But if that tax rant had been near the beginning, I'd be rating this dnf. show less

Miller's book kept me entranced from the first chapter and I read non-stop for a couple of hours. Not only was the description of the sometimes colorful characters he ran into on his sojourns amusing and poignant but his thought process appealed to mine as it bought to mind my own thoughts while I was out there. The first three chapters were particularly appealing to me as I had been out there in the same region and it seemed, like just yesterday that I too had walked this way. When he says "Alone, cruising serenely through the woods, is a situation that nurtures emotional liberation. In the bustle of everyday life there is no time for frivolous thoughts", I recalled the stressful time that I was going through with my divorce prior to show more my hike and remember how the AT was my head clearing mission.

As his journey along the trail we feel the distance he has put between him and the distant outside world, and how satisfying it is to sometimes put all our worries aside, and just live for today when he confides "In suburbia the din of traffic, machines, and the voices of other people were the norm. I didn't feel harassed by noise. In the forest I appreciate the quiet and the clarity of thought that it induces. It is a welcome unanticipated benefit. I feel unstressed, fit, alert and invigorated ..." He goes on to reiterate these thoughts a little later when he adds "...I have come to recognize that most of what is memorable and pleasing about my time on the trail are ordinary moments in the outdoors......It is fulfilling to be saturated with the sights, sounds and smells..."

For those uninitiated in the AT, and for those that have hiked on it themselves, the book captivates and enthralls, and we are as excited as Miller is when he reaches his goal at Mt. Katahdin and completes his 2170 mile thru-hike from Georgia to Maine. show less