I am in Europe on another one of those “sexy” trips to exotic locales. And I am bored to death. Perhaps it is no coincidence. Interestingly enough, the word ‘travel’ comes from the word ‘travails’. Which brings up a great irony. In this day and age of supersonic jets and instantaneous communication, it is harder than ever to travel well, travel fruitfully, travel soulfully. Handheld and package tours are...

Skywalker–Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail, a popular hiking book by Bill Walker, has been out for ten months in video form and has now reached its 10,000 viewer. This ten minute film done by Catherine O Shorr and edited by Melissa Matisko, touches on the highlights of Walker’s 2005 thru-hike of the 2,180 mile Appalachian Trail, which Walker calls “undoubtedly the best way to see...

Skywalker–Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail is now available in audio form through www.audible.com Previously this popular hiking book has sold through hardback, paperback, and e-book form. The author, Bill Walker, has also written Skywalker–Highs and Lows on the Pacific Crest Trail, The Best Way–El Camino de Santiago, and Getting High–The Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. 

Greetings from Riga, Latvia. Yes, a bit off the beaten path here along the arc of the Baltic Sea. Yet even here one hears intermittent interest in America’s great trail of the masses, the Appalachian Trail. And of course when someone mentions it, I feed it. “It’s the best way to see America,” I regale audiences. “Don’t go to Disney World or Las Vegas. You will get to see the real America on the Appalachian...

At long last, they are making it. It almost seemed like a rumor, that they were making a hit out of Bill Bryson’s smashing hit, A Walk in the Woods. But it is confirmed that film shooting crews are hard at work in Kennesaw, Georgia. Everybody–everybody, it seems like has read the book. Expect them in the cinema as well. Should be fun, and I’m not one bit worried about the trail becoming overcrowded as some have stated. The...

Bill Walker, author of the Skywalker hiking books, is offering his popular Appalachian Trail book, Skywalker–Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail, for free download onto Amazon Kindle, Tuesday and Wednesday, August 19-20. Walker is also the author of Skywalker–Highs and Lows on the Pacific Crest Trail, The Best Way–El Camino de Santiago, and Getting High–The Annapurna Circuit in Nepal....