In Beauty May She Walk; Hiking the Appalachian Trail at 60 [Hardcover]

Leslie Mass (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2005

In 2000, inspired by her father, Leslie Mass decided she would turn a lifelong fantasy into reality. At the age of 59 she began to train for a grueling journey – a thru-hike of the 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail. In Beauty May She Walk chronicles Leslie’s struggles and triumphs during her hike. On the trail, Leslie struggles with how to balance the needs of her family and friends while making the trail a priority; how to shed years of social conditioning that dictate how a woman should act; and how to know when to ask for help, while understanding that sometimes, help has to come from within. For the first few weeks, Leslie learns how to pitch a tent in the rain, keep animals out of her food, and lighten the load on her back. As the terrain toughens, she struggles to physically keep up with the trail community she depends on socially to keep going, and realizes the difficulty of maintaining her obligations to family and friends while focusing her efforts on putting one foot in front of the other, every day. And after September 11, 2001, she copes with being seemingly the only hiker on the trails for miles, eventually forcing her to change her definition of “hiking her own hike.” A suburban college professor, Leslie is just like any other woman you might pass on the grocery aisle. Her story is an inspiring physical and mental journey to reach the goal of a lifetime.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Her account is full of rich, emotionally charged detail about the journey and the personal growth that resulted from it. --Library Journal, September 2005

From the Publisher

Reading Leslie's manuscript was what made me truly decide that publishing books was the right thing to do. Her journey, both physically and emotionally, gripped my heart, and at the end of the book I felt like Leslie was someone I'd known for years.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Rock Spring Press; 1st edition (September 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976568608
• ISBN-13: 978-0976568605
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,277,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > Travel > United States > States > Maine

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Valuable Contribution to the Hiker Community, October 24, 2005

By 

Susan Alcorn "Backpack45 - author of Camino C... (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Beauty May She Walk; Hiking the Appalachian Trail at 60 (Hardcover)

"In Beauty May She Walk" is an excellent book for anyone interested in hiking the Appalachian Trail (or in finding out what the experience is really like). One of the difficulties potential hikers of any long-distance trail face is knowing what they are getting into when they set out. As a consequence many who could have succeeded, have given up in frustration. Mass provides the information they need. When she hiked the trail she kept careful note of the conditions of the trail -- the elevation gains and losses, its surface, the mileage between various way-points, her surroundings, the shelters, and the hiker towns along the way. She talks about lessons she learned: to lighten up her pack and to "hike her own hike." Trail language is translated: a"bounce box," for example, is a box you mail to a post office ahead containing items you may need again when you reach that point.

On a personal level, I particularly enjoyed reading about the trail community: various trail angels (people who help you by doing such things as providing a ride to town, treating you to a ice cream bar, etc.) and hiking companions Mass met along the way. Mass was 60 when she undertook this challenging backpack and her story should reassure other women "of age" that with adequate training, planning/preparation, and determination, they too can succeed at hiking challenging trails such as the Appalachian.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bill Bryson should be green with envy ..., December 8, 2005

By 

Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: In Beauty May She Walk; Hiking the Appalachian Trail at 60 (Hardcover)

... because Leslie Mass had a longer and more fulfilling walk in the woods than he did. AND she did it mostly on her own, without a constant babbling companion. AND she was 60 years old when she completed her thru-hike. AND her hike was interrupted by the events surrounding September 11, 2001. Her story is indeed an intriguing one.

Alas, Leslie's book probably won't sell as many copies as Bryson's, and that's too bad for the reading public. As other reviewers have said, "In Beauty May She Walk" is informative and inspirational, especially to women and to folks thinking about someday thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. But her observations go beyond the physical demands of her endeavor. She's savvy enough to analyze how the genders approach tasks differently, for example. She takes time to study not only the landscape, but also her relationships -- with her family, with individual strangers, with groups, and with herself. Her experience is as much a mental and spiritual one as it is a physical one. And when she reaches the crest of Springer Mountain in Georgia, with more than 2,000 miles behind her, she's "too happy to cry." I can't say the same. My eyes teared up at the last pages, knowing the end was in sight. If I hadn't been in a restaurant finishing the book between bites, I would have wept. Congratulations on a job well done, Leslie!

My one minor complaint is that no photos accompanied the text. It would have been wonderful to see some of the people, shelters, hostels, and towns that Leslie met along her way. Rock Spring Press is a relatively new publisher and a member of the Green Press Initiative, which encourages the use of recycled paper and a chlorine-free process. I suspect that glossy photo pages don't figure into that scenario. I guess I'll support the trade off. Better to have this book without photos than to print it and use more trees and chemicals than necessary.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely one of the best..., April 3, 2006

By 

Judy Gregory "turtle hiker" (Staunton,VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Beauty May She Walk; Hiking the Appalachian Trail at 60 (Hardcover)

IN BEAUTY MAY SHE WALK is probably the best hiker journal I have read so far. Leslie Mass is a 60 year old thru hiker who is definitely "hiking her own hike". She prepares the reader for her hike by explaining why she is hiking and how she is getting prepared for the 2,174 miles of the Applachian Trail. As an almost 50 year old woman preparing to hike the trail also, I found her experiences and writing to be refreshing and very good. She describes her feelings as well as her apprehensions about being alone and how a woman overcomes fear, being alone and how her days and months make her confident and strong. This is a book I didn't want to end and one that has helped me in many concerns preparing for my own hike. This sure is a keeper and a book I will read again.