Great Hiking and Outdoor Memoirs
I really like reading hiking and outdoor memoirs because they combine personal insights and emotions with the writers' experience of everyday routine, physical trials, town encounters, and natural wonder. There's a richness in them that you don't often find in autobiographies or more episodic trail journals and trip reports.
I was working on my holiday gift lists this weekend and thought I'd pull together a list of my favorite hiking memoirs for you. I've read many of these and can recommend them. The rest – I hope someone will buy me!
Appalachian Trail
- AWOL on the Appalachian Trail
- Blind Courage
- As Far as the Eye Can See
- A Walk for Sunshine: A 2,160 Mile Expedition for Charity on the Appalachian Trail
- In Beauty May She Walk; Hiking the Appalachian Trail at 60
- DEAD MEN HIKE NO TRAILS
- Remember The Carrot: A Change Of Pace On The Appalachian Trail
- Appalachian Impressions (DVD)
- TREK – A Journey on the Appalachian Trail (DVD)
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Pacific Crest Trail
- Dances With Marmots – A Pacific Crest Trail Adventure
- A Thru-Hiker's Heart, Tales of the Pacific Crest Trail
- A Blistered Kind of Love: One Couple's Trial by Trail
- Zero Days: The Real Life Adventure of Captain Bligh, Nellie Bly, and 10-year-old Scrambler on the Pacific Crest Trail
- Walk (DVD)
- Walking The West (PCT)
Other US
- Listening for Coyote: A Walk Across Oregon's Wilderness
- The Sierra High Route: Traversing Timberline Country
- The Man Who Walked Through Time: The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through the Grand Canyon
- A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf
- John Muir : Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth; My First Summer in the Sierra; The Mountains of California; Stickeen; Essays
- One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey
- Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness
- The Last Season
International
- The Munros and Tops: A Record-Setting Walk in the Scottish Highlands
- Ten Million Steps: Nimblewill Nomad's Epic 10-Month Trek from the Florida Keys to Quebec
- Traversa: A Solo Walk Across Africa, from the Skeleton Coast to the Indian Ocean
- No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks
- Touching My Father's Soul: A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest
If you have any other hiking or outdoor memoirs you'd like to recommend please leave a comment below.
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Great list – thanks.
. She started out climbing So Cal mountains with the Sierra Club, graduated to peaks around the world, and is now trying to visit as many different countries as possible – over 200 so far.
I just started reading a new book, so I cannot definitely recommend it, but you might check out Getting High by Edna Erspamer
Some good ones there. I've read several of them myself. But one that is consipicuous by its absence is Walking with Spring by Earl Shaffer
. He was the first person to thru-hike the AT, and his telling of it is still one of the best, I think.
I LOVE good reading lists. My most recent AT read was IN Beauty May She Walk. It's not high literature but it's an enjoyable enough read. I totally liked A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
. I love stories about imperfection and he hits that nail solidly on the head.
(just about any of her collections will do). I think for people who love spending time immersed in nature she writes about it with clarity. A tiny collection is a perfect pack companion. Each poem can be read over and over. I carry a collection in my car for moments when I need to remember what life is all about.
This is not a hiking recommendation, instead a nature recommendation. I love the Mary Oliver
Add The Seven Mountain-Travel Books by H. W. Tilman:
and The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan by Alex Booth
With poetry in the mix, add something by Gary Snyder
. Mountains and Rivers Without End is small enough to take along. The first section of Danger on Peaks is the wonderful sequence about Mount St. Helens. Left Out in the Rain is a "best of" collection.
Your choice.
These are great suggestions – thanks. I love getting feedback like this.
For a glimpse of the 19th century experience, (i.e. before Goretex and Polyester), try Treasury of the Sierra Nevada, edited by Robert Leonard Reid,
and Exploring the Highest Sierra by James G. Moore.
The latter selection contains some interesting information on the evolution of mapping techniques, and quite a lot about geology. The author did geological fieldwork in the high mountains every summer.
I also like Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. I thought it was hilarious. I know many scoff at him, but he never really intended a thru-hike. He got what he went out there for, and that’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it?
I have always enjoyed “Give Me the Hills” by Miriam Underhill. No longer in print, but available used for a song.