Customer Reviews

Walking North (Official Guides to the Appalachian Trail)

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

 

 

Mic Lowther self published this book in 1990. Finally publishing it for the public in 2001. I am sorry he did not do it sooner. After virtually reading every account that has been written about walking all the trail or in part, this book is my favorite.
It seems that they are careful not to mention actually when his family walked the trail but I would guess in the mid 1970's. It is an excellent balance of what the trail is about, the emotions that ensue and the personal relationships that develop between hikers and their immediate family. I highly recommend this book for anyone who has dreamed of hiking the trail or mystified why people actually attempt it.

I have read several AT books and this one has been the most enjoyable so far. I laughed out loud several times. I also really felt a wide range of emotions for their trials (rain, rain,rain). If you enjoy AT stories, don't miss this one.

This book earned my five stars because it details the daily life of the folks on the trail but not in a guide book manor. It was a story with trail details imbedded in a way that easily blended the facts with the story. I like the way the author described the thought process of the many decisions they made on the trail. I enjoyed the physical description of the trail, the shelter, the plants and animals and the other hikers. This book answered many questions about daily life on the trail. Thank you for the entertainment and the information.

The only thing needed to make it "perfect" is more of it. I keep wishing it were longer, because I want to keep on reading Mic's wonderful prose. I've just finished reading this book for the third time (the 1st two readings were of the original edition) and each time it has seemed fresh and new. Here is the review I wrote after reading it the first time. It's still true.

"This beautifully-written book has everything--including some wonderfully sly humor and a plot that draws you along so strongly you can hardly put the book down. Mic Lowther, his wife Jerrianne and their ten-year-old daughter Kyra (rhymes with Vera),thruhiked the A.T. in the 1970's. Mic's every fiber was tuned,almost to the exclusion of all else, to the goal of getting to Katahdin before it was closed for the winter. As he says in his book, "I'd designed and programmed computer systems... The Appalachian Trail seemed awesome in concept and scale. I'd seized it at once as a fascinating problem to work." As for his wife Jerri, "Time in the woods was like a visit with friends to her, and she would...fall quickly to watching birds and identifying flowers and lose all apparent interest in our destination." And 10-year-old Kyra: "No stranger to the outdoors, Kyra had accompanied us on trips since she could toddle and had traveled through twenty-eight states. But none, she pointed out, on foot." Kyra, as it turned out, was a practically perfect thruhiker. Well...you probably sense the conflict that developed early on in this hike. But you'll have to read the book to see how it all turned out--I'm not going to give it away here. But I will say that it makes for absolutely fascinating and enjoyable reading."

After you read this one, there's another well-written book about an AT journey called "On the Beaten Path" by Robert Rubin. Don't miss it!

This book is a very good account of a familes time on the AT. It is really hard to put down. Every paragraph keeps you hooked on the next, to see if they make it all the way. The only negative thing I can say about the book is that all in the book there are hundreds of refences to the many photos they took along the way but there are no pictures in the book. I would have loved to have seen what they looked like after along hike. Maybe thats why they didn't !!!! This really is a wonderful book. Even if your not into hiking I would recomend this book. It makes you want to get off the couch and go do something active....

This is absolutely my favorite book about an Appalachian Trail hike, and I've got lots of them. Mr. Lowther's dialogue is absolutely perfect. I felt as though I were there listening. And it's a gentle book. This is a fascinating family. I wish he'd write lots more about them and their lives.

This is only the third book I've ever read about the AT, but it is my favorite. I felt as if I were walking with them, and felt their disapointments, frustrations, joys. I thought that by including how the daughter and mother felt along the way, not just the author-dad, I got a better picture of what it was like to walk so far, and how people experience things differently. Great balance of trail details and personal feelings. An enjoyable and inspiring book. Didn't want their walk to come to an end. Makes you want to get out there and hike too!

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.

Be forewarned that the actual hike told about in this book is from the early 1970s (1973?), not anything recent.

Mic, his wife, Jerri, and his 10-year-old daughter, Kyra, set off to hike from Georgia to Maine in the days before the AT became as well-traveled as it is today. I found myself wondering about changes in the trail since the Lowthers hiked it about 30 years ago. One thing that jumped out was that they drank their water directly from streams, something unfathomable in 2006 when we need to filter the water. I'm also guessing that the different times the trail followed highways for several miles in the book are no longer the case. And I'm hoping that large sectinos of Pennsylvania are no longer leafless with the putrid smell of gypsy moth excrement as these moths deforest the land.

It was interesting to see the different perspectives on the trail from the three characters and how they conflicted at times - Mic being largely a purist who has a timetable in mind; Jerri wanting to take her time and enjoy the sights, and being willing to jump from midway to Maine and hike back to the middle (unthinkable to Mic); and Kyra looking at things more simply, trying to find ways to entertain herself on the trail (mentally building a house) and challenge herself. Mic did a nice job illustrating each of their perspectives, and since 10-year-old thru-hikers are a rarity, this book is a unique opportunity to get this perspective. Mic also illustrates how the trail changes his thinking and its long-term impact on Kyra (in the epilogue).

My biggest hope for my upcoming section hike (the Georgia stretch) is that I don't encounter all the rain that the Lowthers did!

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.