Rating: 
Summary: "I said yes with all my heart."
Review: "Hiking 2,159 miles from Georgia to Maine was not my idea," Adrienne Hall writes. "I was not a lost youth searching for an identity. I was not retired and looking for a new way to spend my time. I was not sorting through death or divorce. I was not recently fired from a job. The truth is, my boyfriend asked me on a date" (p. ix). So begins Hall's Appalachian Trail love story. On their 2,159-mile "date," Hall and her boyfriend, Craig, went "backpacking for six months, fording rivers, sleeping in mice-infested shelters, climbing Mount Washington--which claims the worst weather conditions on the planet--encountering black bears and snakes, and being wet for days at a time" (p. x). We follow the couple "into blizzards, over swamps, through fields of rocks, through swarms of mosquitos [and] up sheer rock walls" (p. 187), definitely not your typical dinner-and-a-movie kind of date.On the Trail, Hall was "Raindrop, ambassador to the World of Men" (p. 144). "I tried to walk my own walk and nobody else's," she hastens to add (p. 151). Between Georgia and Maine, Hall meets fellow AT hikers named "EZDUZIT," "Otter," "Seldom Seen," "Nudeman," "Happy Hillbilly," among others, and a trail angel named Dizzy B. "Thank goodness for dreamers," Hall writes, "and I give silent thanks to those who had faith in their dreams" (p. 4). On the Trail, Hall also encounters "dozens of college students on spring break" (p. 54), "city slickers" (p. 127), "weekend warriors," "tourists," Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts, which causes her to wonder, "at what point does the social experience overwhelm the wilderness experience? How many hunters, hiking clubs, weekenders with cell phones, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and juvenile delinquents will prevent me from achieving fellowship with wilderness?" (p. 128). This brings me to my only real criticism of Hall's AT narrative, a gripe of my own, really. All too often, she digresses into us-versus-them thinking, exchanging "looks of disapproval" with Craig (p. 116), laughing at the "weekend warriors" (p. 119), and expressing a dirtier-and-sweatier-than-thou attitude toward others on the Trail, as if she is somehow more Trail worthy. At one point, Hall condescendingly remarks, "at least people were getting out and appreciating the land in their own capacity" (p. 159). Nature beckons all of us, Adrienne, and today's Girl Scout may be tomorrow's tree sitter, this weekend's warrior may be next summer's AT thru-hiker, and perhaps some of those hiking club members volunteered their last two-week vacation to maintain the Trail for you. Nevertheless, for Hall the Trail was a good teacher. "Maybe I had some things to think about," she writes (p. 64); "the trail taught me about real life, about the reality of the moment" (p. 192). "Sometimes it takes a view from a hilltop to get a perspective and clear your mind," Hall notes, backpacking "strips away the distractions and lets you focus on the core of life itself" (p. 68). Hall's book is well written, and a cover-to-cover adventure similar to Bryson's WALK IN THE WOODS and Rubin's ON THE BEATEN PATH, only from a woman's viewpoint. With so many writers thru-hiking the AT, it is a wonder they don't wander into each other's books. G. Merritt
Rating: 
Summary: Just started it - and I'm hooked!
Review: Adrienne Hall tell it like it is when her and her boyfriend hike the AT. I reccomend it for anyone who likes the outdoors!
Rating: 
Summary: Bad writing, your time better spent elsewhere.
Review: Got this book "free" when going the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) and I'm interested in the subject matter (hiking the AT), so I read it. Unfortunately, the majority of it I found to be self-indulgent, preachy, amateurish pap. Insipid pabulum. Passage after passage sure to make you wince if not heave. Okay, maybe that's a little harsh and to be fair there was _some_ good info on the history of the trail, but the ratio is something like 80% crap to 20% good stuff. Not worth it. Doesn't have the humor of Bill Bryson or the maturity and authority of John McPhee.
Rating: 
Summary: A Woman's Hike
Review: Having been a hiker (even though I have Cerebral Palsy) I enjoy reading about the AT. Being a woman I look forward to stories of hiking from other women hikers. I've read over 22 books on the AT. This one rarely covers the topic at hand. She wanders from Indian stories (aren't we all related to Cherokees? I HATE that) to the plight of every topic of society that constitutes over 40% of the book. The AT part is sparse, her struggles (while expected) mostly has to do with her own ignorance: don't hike with a three season sleeping bag! A floorless TP (please!) and expect to share sleeping with Boy and Girl Scout's because it is expected to do so. Of all the books to read on the AT that truly captures hiking experience--this isn't one. I found myself skipping more and more pages as the book went on to try to "find" the real story: her hike. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: A Woman's Hike
Review: Having been a hiker (even though I have Cerebral Palsy) I enjoy reading about the AT. Being a woman I look forward to stories of hiking from other women hikers. I've read over 22 books on the AT. This one rarely covers the topic at hand. She wanders from Indian stories (aren't we all related to Cherokees? I HATE that) to the plight of every topic of society that constitutes over 40% of the book. The AT part is sparse, her struggles (while expected) mostly has to do with her own ignorance: don't hike with a three season sleeping bag! A floorless TP (please!) and expect to share sleeping with Boy and Girl Scout's because it is expected to do so. Of all the books to read on the AT that truly captures hiking experience--this isn't one. I found myself skipping more and more pages as the book went on to try to "find" the real story: her hike. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Not as expected
Review: I bought this book because I expected a strong female voice about thru hiking. Adrienne whines through most of the trip, always complaining about something. Before I hiked on the Appalachian Trail, I read most everything that I could find about the subject. Thankfully this book was not available at that time, because reading her accounts may have encouraged me not to proceed with the hike. I would suggest the Bryson book (A Walk in the Woods), it brings humor to the subject and maybe Adrienne would have had a better time with a little sense of humor.
Rating: 
Summary: Expected more than this....
Review: I bought this book expecting a strong female voice on hiking the AT. What I read was a girl whose main reason for hiking was because she knew her boyfriend wouldn't consider marrying anyone who wouldn't hike the trail with him....Hello? Some of her observations were interesting, but she also spends most of the book ranting about something.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the story about hiking the trail?
Review: I chose this book thinking that I would be reading the story of the author's hike through the Appalachian Trail. Instead, she would write a few paragraphs about her experience, then go off on a completely different subject, opining her liberal views on the national park system, reintroduction of wildlife, Indian mythology, blah, blah, blah. After the first 100 pages, I started skipping pages at a time just to get back to what I assumed was the point of her story--the trail hike. She and her boyfriend seemed quite likable--but you never got a real feel of how this affected them. Even the epilogue was vague. Where is she living? What is her occupation? Did they ever marry? Yeah, they ate granola then junk food, but how did this affect the rest of her life (as she continued to claim that it would)?
Rating:
Summary: a honest and interesting read!
Review: I have read many books on the Appalchian trail, and this one felt so honest to me. I picked it up at a local library before I left for a vacation at a rustic cabin in the woods of Maine. Quickly, my yearly camping experience in Maine no longer felt nearly so rustic. Ms. Hall does not romanticize life on the trail, she gives the reader insight into the loneliness and pain. I also enjoyed her strong environmental voice. I would have liked a little more discussion on the social interaction with other thru hikers, but that is the only area I found lacking. I would recommend this book for anyone who would like to read from a woman's voice on the trail. Adrienne Hall is an author I would like to read more of. Did she tie the knot with Craig?
Rating:
Summary: A Journey North: One Woman's Series of Constant Complaints
Review: I read this book because of my own appreciation for hiking. I was hoping that it would give me a window to thru-hiking. Unfortunately, A Journey North is hardly the story of the author's hike of the Appalachian Trail. It is more of a collection of unrelated stories, endless complaints, and one-sided, oversimplified lectures on environmental issues. Readers searching for accounts of life on the trail will find this book lacking. In addition, Hall seems to dwell on her negative experiences while breezing over the positive ones she includes.
While this book covers the subjects of the AT, the environment, and some women's issues, I would recommend that anyone interested in any of these look elsewhere.
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