A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson has just returned from spending twenty years in England, where he wrote for the Times and the Independent. He settles, with his family, in a small town in New Hampshire. While exploring his new habitat, he discovers a path at the edge of town and there is a sign saying "Appalachian Trail". The Appalachian Trail runs more than 2,100 miles, from Georgia to Maine, across fourteen states, through a wide variety of deep forests, mountains and valleys. It is the "grand-daddy" of all hiking trails.

Bill starts thinking about hiking the Trail. He forms several rationalizations. It would get him into shape. It would be a great way to reacquaint himself with the scale and beauty of his native land. It would be useful to learn how to take care of himself in the wilderness. Last, but not least, the trees along the Trail are dying in frightening numbers. If the global temperature rises by 4 degrees centigrade over the next fifty years, the whole of the Appalachian wilderness below New England could become savanna (a treeless plain). Bill decides that if he is going to get the full forest exper

Mr. Bryson starts having nightmares about being alone in his tent with bears foraging around his campsite. He also worries about what he would do if he hurt himself on the trail or had a medical emergency. At Christmas time he put notes in all his cards asking people to go with him but, of course, he gets no replies. One day, in late February, he gets a call from an old school friend, Stephen Katz. Katz was Bill's travelling companion around Europe twenty five years earlier. Katz asked if he could go along with him on his Appalachian Trail adventure and Bill said "sure!". Later, Bill remembered that when Katz returned home from Europe he had gotten heavily involved with drugs and alcohol and even went to prison for eighteen months. Bill also thought back to some of the arguments from their youth and he began to wonder if maybe he had made a mistake inviting him along. Bill had even more doubts when they picked Katz up at the airport. He had two bags full of snickers bars and announced that due to a run in ten years earlier with some contaminated phenylthiamines he had to eat something every hour or so or have seizures.

Katz comes back in August for the hike through the Hundred Mile Wilderness. He suggests carrying their supplies in newspaper carrier bags which Bryson promptly vetoes. They head out on the AT again and Katz starts throwing away all his supplies. They stop to filter some water and there was a moose getting a drink. Another time they had to wade across some water and they both fell in. Some younger hikers came by and went across in thirty seconds, carrying their packs above their heads. At another supply stop Bryson discovers that Katz is drinking again and refuses to buy him beer. They do not talk for awhile but then they make up. Bryson is waiting for Katz at the next campsite but he does not show up. Bryson camps that night and then starts searching for Katz in the morning. He finds him four hours later and they both decide it is time to get out of the woods. They catch a ride with a logging truck into civilization. Katz returned to Des Moines and Bryson to his home in New Hampshire. After snow started falling, Bryson sat at his kitchen table with his log and a calculator and figured out the total miles walked on the AT. It added up to 870, only 39.5 percent of the total trail. In Bryson's own words, "But I got a great deal from the experience. I learned to pitch a tent and sleep beneath the stars. For a brief, proud period I was slender and fit. I gained a profound respect for wilderness and nature and the benign dark power of woods. I understand now, in a way I never did before, the colossal scale of the world. I found patience and fortitude that I didn't know I had. I discovered an America that millions of people scarcely know exists. I made a friend. I came home."

Bill talks about the dangers of hypothermia. It is surprising that very few victims of hypothermia die in extreme cold. Most die in temperate seasons where the air temperature drops a few degrees and then maybe they get wet.

The next day they went to the supermarket to buy provisions. Katz loaded up the cart with more than they could ever carry, including the full range of Little Debbie cakes. They spent the night packing but had to leave a lot of things behind that would not fit. The next day, Bill's wife drove them to the airport in Manchester to catch a plane to Georgia. The man at the check-in desk noticed their tickets and hiking equipment and told them a story about v

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