Taking the Long Way Home

n 1973 I hiked the 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, which I published as Walking North. I’ve walked another 2,000 miles or more since then on many different hiking and backpacking trips in the United States and Canada. This book tells of about 500 miles of those journeys, either because the place I went was interesting, because something interesting happened there, or because going there taught me something. Nine of the adventures in this book took place in Alaska, two in Canada and Alaska, and the others in California, Arizona, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Texas, and New Mexico. You may have hiked some of these places; others you may want to try. There are a couple I’d suggest you avoid.