Appalachian Trail Hikers Endure Rough Day in Wind and Rain

You know it can happen. You hear about it and wait for it. Things so often seem nice out there. But then the weather snaps. “You’re not only going to endure a lot of cold weather in the early going,” I often tell prospective thru-hikers. “You are gonna run into a couple days of dangerous weather.” Yesterday was one of those days in the southern Appalachians as heavy, humid weather gave way to a powerful cold front...

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Amazon Travel Department Recommends ‘Getting High–The Annapurna Circuit in Nepal’

The Amazon Travel Department recommends ‘Getting High–The Annapurna Circuit in Nepal’. This outdoor narrative was penned by Bill Walker, author of the Skywalker hiking books on the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Trail. It covers 6’11” Bill Walker’s (Skywalker) trek of the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, which reaches 17, 768 feet and is the most popular footpath in Asia.

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Skywalker and Three Hundred Zeroes Exhibit Hiking Book Phenomenon

  Skywalker–Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail and Three Hundred Zeros are two of the more popular Appalachian Trail narratives. And they exhibit a fundamental truism of hiking and camping books. Both books are at turns, deadly serious and irreverent. In Skywalker, Bill Walker has become obsessed at age 44 with thru-hiking the 2,180 mile Appalachian Trail without ever having even spent a single night outdoors. What follows is a...

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