"Southbound" is one of the best books I have read about long-distance hiking, and I think it is much better than "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed. It not only goes into the accurate technical details of a full Appalachian Trail through hike, but also what the hikers go through during their adventure. We experience the ups, downs, background, and personal thoughts of the hikers, as well as the meaningful relationships they form on the trail, which make up so much of the through hiker experience.
The Barefoot Sisters are two sisters from Maine who hiked much of the 2,100+ mile Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia in 2000 barefoot. They did it not to set some arbitrary record, but because they liked the feeling of experiencing the trail through the additional dimension of how it felt through their bare feet. They did most of the trail in this manner until the snows caught up with them late in the season in Virginia. Being barefoot is just a sidelight, however. The real draw of the story is the honesty of the authors and the day to day trials, tribulations and triumphs of long-distance hikers.
Hikers on the AT adopt “trail names,” alter egos by which they are known on the trail. Through the Barefoot Sisters’ diary-like entries we meet Waterfall, Tuba Man (who carried a brass tuba the entire distance), legendary 1948 through hiker Earl Shaffer, The Family of the North (Maine homesteaders with no last names hiking the entire trail with small children, including a baby) and many others. We go to The Gathering trail conference in West Virginia, where hikers past and present meet for fellowship and to swap stories of their adventures. We experience “trail magic,” the kindness of complete strangers which helps them along their way and which helps renew their faith in the basic goodness of people. We encounter trail romance, camaraderie, hiker box stew, sibling rivalry, trust, periods of self-doubt, and deep friendships. There are life-threatening blizzards, trail shelters with pizza delivery, days when the water runs out, and celebrations of life in trail towns along the way. We also experience what it is like to have an injury and how devastating it can be for a hiker to have to leave the trail for a time after adopting it as her home for many months.
The narrative is written in alternating sections by “Isis” and “jackrabbit” (lower case) – the trail names of authors Lucy and Susan Letcher. In this way we gain greater perspective on their adventures. Over time the story rises above that of a simple travelogue, however, and we take away a number of important lessons for living life well.
“A little technology in the form of a new stove was useful, but I wouldn’t’ know what to do with my evenings if I could get hot water out of a tap whenever I wanted it. Most of all, I would miss the way our simple, vital work bound us as a community, how deeply we depended on each other and how carefully all of us – in spite of our diverse backgrounds and profound religious differences – upheld that trust.”
“’However long I live,’ I thought, ‘I will never again stand on the shore of Sunfish Pond in the fog, on the loveliest day of October, having walked hundreds of miles to get here, without even knowing what awaited me.’”
Whatever path your life follows, the Barefoot Sisters remind us to “hike your own hike.” The trip affects their own lives so deeply that, upon completion of the trail in Georgia, they turn around and do it again, “yo-yoing” south to north. They write about their second adventure in their next book, “Walking Home.”
If you are at all interested in the Appalachian Trail, hiking, or outdoor adventures in general, I highly recommend the well-written and engaging “Southbound.”
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Disappointed
I ordered the book once and it arrived completely water damaged. I asked to return it for a new copy. Second copy arrived today covered in sticky stuff and slightly water damaged. I give up.
