Customer Reviews

Walking Home: A Woman's Pilgrimage on the Appalachian Trail

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you are looking for a book about the Appalachian Trail itself, there are much better books out there. However, if you want a book about the hiking experience and the people one meets out on the trail, this is the book for you. Like many of the hikers I met on the AT, Winters is propelled onto the trail by loss (e.g., the death of her father, a love relationship that went way wrong), and the consequent desire to locate home. (Hence, the title.) I have not read a more observant, telling, articulate narrative of long distance hiking. Purists might sniff at her rainbow blazing habits and the fact that she didn't finish the trail, but few will dismiss this book as insignificant. It is, in fact, a gem.

I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, since many adventure travel stories are strong on content but weak on execution. I was pleasantly surpised, then, to find that Kelly Winters can really write. Walking Home was so engrossing that I couldn't put it down. I read it in one sitting.

I'm not a hiker myself, just someone enthralled by the idea of undertaking a physical and mental challenge like the AT. I've read a lot of the Trail books and to me this is the best all-around entry. It has all the color and detail that makes you feel like you're there but it also places the quest in a bigger, more meaningful context. Highly recommended.

Many AT thru hikers claim that Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods inspired them to hike the trail. Personally I don't see how a book written by a man that hiked only small sections of the trail and didn't bond with the trail's culture could do this.
Kelly Winter's is the real deal. She hiked all the way, in one stretch from Georgia to Maine. She talks about the high points as well as the low points without sounding overly mushy or whiny - something all too common in books about thru hikes.
The opening pages about her strange boyfriend had me worried that the book would contain mostly personal stories and not much trail information. Thankfully this sidetrack was neccesarry because it told the reader where she was in her life and why she chose to hike. The rest of the book is a great description of the trail, the people and animals, and the thoughts in her head.
This is the story that should inspire people to hike the AT.

I'm embarrassed by how much I loved this book and how I've been gushing about it to anyone who'll listen. I've been reading about women on the Oregon Trail and women pioneers for years, but *this* is the book I've been looking for. Ms. Winters tells how she deliberately set off on pilgrimage, a time out from her life to figure out a bad relationship and clarify who she was and how she wanted to live her life. Plus she was looking for something undefinably more, something she couldn't quite put her finger on but would know when she found it.
Her journey led her to take side trails and sometimes hitchhike. It slowed time down, making clocks less important than clouds. Other hikers found their peace by sticking to the established trail; she veered off when she needed to. She met other thruhikers covering a 2,000 mile inward journey - some sympathetic, some not -- as well as weekend hikers, hiker groupies, and those on the trail for their own, inscrutable reasons. She had to cope with scary rednecks from time to time, bad weather about every other day, dwindling food supplies every week, and illness. But though it's a gritty, tough trip, it comes across as a magical experience and was very much the fire that forged her. I was left hoping that everyone can have a deeply essential experience like that at some point in their lives, hiking or no.

I could not put this book down! This is a great adventure that takes you from Georgia to Maine along the Appalacian Trail and teaches us about friendship, perseverance, endurance, grief, joy, horror, kindness, envy, pain and fear.....I never knew anything about the AT until I read this book! This is not a book about a homosexual hiker who meets her mate on a mountain in Massachusettes as some reviewers have written. This is a funny, exciting, scary and thoughtful story of a woman, who like many of us, had family, relationship and career problems and chose to walk the AT to figure it all out. Bravo!

This book worked itself into my thoughts and dreams, and I couldn't stop reading it. It has little maps at the beginning of each chapter that show where the author is in her trek, and I found myself checking these and hoping she wasn't close to the end because I didn't want it to stop. Winters is a compelling, funny, and insightful writer, and the book makes you feel as if you're right there on the muddy trail, with the people and events described as vivid as a movie. Her journey is inspiring--she was determined to walk from an unhappy life to a happy one, and she did! This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I've never even hiked before, but since reading it I've started dreaming of heading out on an adventure of my own. An excellent read!

This book absolutely ruled. I've been reading as much as possible about backpacking journeys, AT and otherwise. "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson started me on my obsession, and I'm taking my first lone (YES, LONE) backpacking trip this year. "A Walk" is great too, but reading Kelly's inspiring story--by such a strong, funny, and cool woman--just tops it all. I don't give a damn that she stopped hiking before crossing the 100-mile wilderness! (It wasn't like she could physically walk anymore) How many women (or men, for that matter) cross ONE mountain in a lifetime, much less 2000 + miles of mountains? And this is supposed to be a BOOK review, not a critical analysis of the author, right? So I'll just say that the book is an intelligent, fun, and inspiring piece of literature written by a wonderful woman. (I'd also like to meet Kelly if she and Gladys don't work out) Just kidding :)

How often does a book change your life? For me, the answer is: rarely. As a child there was The Diary of Anne Frank. As an adolescent, The Prophet. Since then I've found important books, quotable books, but few as profound, engaging, generous, and unpredictable as Kelly Winters' Walking Home.

We need this book now more than ever, if only for the sheer humanity of it. While the story reads like a magnificent, heart-thumping adventure, it is startlingly candid and full of great humor (I smiled so much while reading it that my face hurt).

But you need not be outdoorsy to be gripped by this book. You just need to be up for an adventure in reading and self-discovery.

So how has Walking Home changed me? It has given me a compass for truth-telling. It has encouraged me to walk up rather than around the mountain. And it has made me marvel at the simple things.

I picked this book up at the library, expecting another mediocre hiking story akin to Bryson's book. To my delight, I found it to be a compelling read on several levels. The hiking minded will enjoy the details of life on the trail, but there is more to this book than a simple description of Point A to Point B. Winters is a helluva writer and presents a compelling portrait of her inner struggles. The best book on the AT I've read.

My wife and I share a lot in common, but we rarely enjoy the same kind of book. This book is one of the few.

I've dreamed of hiking the AT for years. Most books I've read about the AT are about the technical aspects, which is helpful, but falls somewhat short. This book is a wonderful read by an author who seems willing to be honest about her journey and her process.

This book is as much about personal growth and development as it is about hiking. Kelly's advice on the last page is worth the read alone.

I read this book while I was in the middle of a very intensive, personally challenging training program. I found that Kelly's journey had a great deal in common with the journey I was experiencing in my training program (and I wish that my training was more outdoors! :-)

I would highly recommend this book to any interested reader.

Many thanks, Kelly! I hope things are working out with you and your partner and I'll look forward to your next book.