Walking North

by Mic Lowther

Release Date: 15 November, 2000

Edition: Paperback

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Disappointing

Having read several accounts of thru hikes on the AT and being interested in the subject, I found this book extremely disappointing. Didn't feel the family took much positive away from their once in a lifetime experience and the book held little helpful information for anyone considering a thru hike,or even interested in, the AT. Other AT books I have read have been either informational, inspiring, helpful, positive accounts of nature and hiking or all of the above. Their family hike seemed mostly an ordeal. Aside from some humerous exchanges with their 10 year old daughter, I didn't find much to recommend this book.

great book, but...

First off, I would like to say that I did enjoy the book (thus the 4 stars). I felt that it gave me a good feel for the experience of being a long distance AT hiker.

That said, I did find a few things that I didn't like. I sensed a strong feeling of elitism from the author. Mic seemed smugly confident that end to end through-hikers were clearly superior to 'mere' day or weekend hikers (tourists). I would imagine that he held even greater disdain for people who hadn't even hiked the trail, but merely read about it (most of those purchasing his book). His condescending attitude eventually grew a little tiresome.

Readers watched him instill these views in his 10 year old daughter. He almost sounded proud that she had no interest in associating with a group of similarly aged Girl Scouts that they encountered on the trail. She appeared to prefer hanging out with 'real' hikers than what she seemed to view as a gang of silly little children.

Granted, their through-hike happened many years ago, perhaps around 1973 or 1974. Attitudes have generally grown more open-minded in the meantime. I find myself wondering if the attitudes of through-hikers like Mic have evolved as well.