Skywalker “Most Realistic” of the Appalachian Trail Books

“This is the most realistic look at the tough slog that is an Appalachian trail thru-hike,” a recent book reviewer wrote on Amazon.com. Those words were music to my ears. For that is the exact purpose I had upon setting out to thru-hike the 2,180 mile Appalachian Trail, which runs 14 states from Springer Mountain in north Georgia to Mount Katahdin in northern Maine in 2005 despite never having even spent a single night outdoors. My...

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Free Amazon Kindle Upload of ‘Skywalker–Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail’

Bill Walker, author of the popular Skywalker hiking book series, will be having a free Amazon Kindle upload (as well as other handheld devices) of his popular Appalachian Trail book, Skywalker–Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail. This is the story of his thru-hike of the 2,180 mile Appalachian Trail which runs fourteen states from Georgia to northern Maine. Walker is also the author of Skywalker–Highs and Lows on the Pacific...

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Appalachian Trail Hikers Streaming North

I stopped off at the Standing Bear Hostel just north of the Great Smoky Mountains yesterday and was pleased to see hordes of members of the Appalachian Trail (AT) thru-hiking class of 2014 streaming by. According to the Standing Bear owner, Curtis, this is on record to be the busiest year on record. And once again the AT staggers the imagination with its diversity. The man I dropped off is 71 years old and hoping to do the trail in ten...

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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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Skywalker–Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail is an Amazon #1 Bestseller

Bill Walker’s popular narrative, Skywalker–Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail, is now an Amazon #1 ranked book for sports, outdoors, and hiking non-fiction book. This outdoor narrative is now in its sixth year and exemplifies a by now well-established phenomenon. “Outdoor adventures and wilderness tend to run in the American DNA,” Walker writes in his book. Better yet, the Appalachian Trail, which attracts...

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