Customer Reviews

The Appalachian Trail: Calling Me Back to the Hills

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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A great book for the outdoor and hiking person. Great pictures and very interesting personal experiences by Earl Shaffer. Poetry very good. Best book I've seen on the Appalachian Trail so far.

Earl Shaffer was an incredible spirit. This book, released in the year of his death (May 2002) is a beautiful tribute to his life. His writing is simple and straightforward. The photography is gorgeous. This book is one to be enjoyed by hikers and nonhikers alike. There's no way you can look through "Calling Me Back to the Hills" and not want to lace up your boots and take a long walk in the woods or find your way to a mountaintop somewhere. Thanks, Earl.

This book was a gift, but I would have bought one, and I have since given two for gifts and will not hesitate to do so again. The text was written by the legendary Earl Shaffer, who was the trail's first thru-hiker (in one season) in 1948, and repeated the feat in 1998 for the 50th anniversary of that event. The narrative is of this now famous anniversary Anniversary Trip, interspersed with some of Shaffer's poetry. Unfortunately, Shaffer died right after the book was published. Bart Smith, who is currantly behind the Katahdin Art Project, provides the wonderful color photos. To say he is talented is an understatement. His next book will be on the Florida Trail, and I cannot wait to see it. I disagree on one thing he wrote in the preface, however. Smith said, "I couldn't capture the feel of an autumn breeze, the smell of a deciduous forest ...". He is wrong. I COULD feel the autumn breeze. I could smell the deciduous forest. If this is an example of his work, he will be one of the great nature photographers of our time. I highly recommend this book. Buy it!

This book is a must have for those of us that have hiked any part of the AT. As you paruse the pictures, it brings you back to when you were there.

Not Carrying a Camera, these photo's bring back some of the memories of scenes we did not have a camera to capture them with

ATC, the Trail Conference,based in Harper's Ferry,WV, proundly claims his achievment using heavy gear,outmoted by today's standards. He used an old army-issued rucksack..& got by using less gear than..anyone else. A reclusive type,who raised bees on farm, died at Vet's Hospital in PA,May 5th,002, at age 83