I recently fell down a rabbit hole on Youtube thanks to Kyle Hates Hiking, a channel about people who’ve suffered mishaps while wilderness hiking, and often suffer a cruel or strange fate as a result. Quite a few of the stories he tells are about thru-hikers - people who set out to walk the entire length of a very long trail, with the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail being two that draw a lot of interest, in one go, a process that can take months. It’s such an interesting hobby just thinking about the logistics that must go into planning such a hike, and it’s infected me with a sort of wanderlust by proxy.
To be clear, I have no interest in thru-hiking myself. I’m not in any kind of physical shape for such an endeavor, nor do I have the means to walk away from my job and live out of a backpack for 4-5 months. I’d really like to read and learn more about that world, though, and I’m thinking there’ve got to be some interesting books on the topic - maybe a travelogue someone wrote of their own trip down one of those trails, or a more general book about a specific one and its history and stories about people who’ve walked it or lived in one of the little towns where people stop to resupply.
If you want a humorous take (basically, “this sounds like a cool adventure! oh shit this is really hard and I’m a dummy for trying”), Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods is generally thought of as a low-key (if divisive) classic.
They made a movie out of it, but it’s not very good.
I’ve done the Coast-to-Coast in England: from St Bee’s on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Sea, through Westmorland, the Lake District, and Yorkshire. Took 20+ days.
My sister and brother-in-law hiked the PCT in their 60’s. They are very experienced hikers and planned for a couple of years, including figuring out a way for my BIL to take a six months sabbatical from his job. In the event, it took them two seasons to do the whole thing because his knee went out on him.
The big trails, the PCT and AT, have a whole network of helpers along the way, including hostels that cater entirely to through hikers and their needs, cache stations, message stations, and so forth. Almost everyone evolves a nom de trail by which they are known to the others on this endeavor. Even though you only see each other intermittently, you become an integral part of the group of people who are doing nothing whatsoever else with their lives for the duration. It’s pretty fascinating.
This. As a former backpacker myself, this rang very true. Enjoyed it.
And if you are interested the logistics, The Complete Walker by Collin Fletcher is a highly entertaining read that details what to carry, what not to carry and why. It’s a smidge outdated but his writing makes up for it.
The Man Who Walked Through Time, also by Fletcher, is about his thru-hike of the entire length of the Grand Canyon. Highly recommended.
This book, The Pacific Crest Trail, by William Gray and published by National Geographic in 1975, was on my future wife’s family bookshelf when we were dating. I don’t remember much about the content, but when we were cleaning out my in-laws’ house I took it for my bookshelf. May be a bit dated, but may offer insight to life on the trail back in the 70s. It inspired in me the enjoyment of the mountains and shorter mountain treks (no thru-hiking plans for me at this point).
Damn. Just holding it now and looking at the cover, and the pictures inside, bring back a lot of memories…