Paul Stutzman

I'm being generous with the three stars. I feel like I'm somewhere between 2.5 and 3 on this book. However, the problems I had are my own and mostly due to the fact that I didn't read the back cover closely before buying the book and so I wasn't prepared for how much of it is about the author's relationship with God.

I'm fascinated by long distance hiking and I have read many books on this subject. The people who tend to go on these adventures are usually driven by something other than love of the outdoors (at least the ones who decide to write books about the experience) so there is always an undercurrent of something in the books. In this case, I expected it to be about grief (author's wife had recently died) and it was but it was more about him learning to talk to God and seeing God in nature. A small dose of that is OK but by it became a bigger focus eventually.

Stutzman's writing style is easy and quick but focused mainly on where he was going to eat next. There is some description of the trail and a few photos but not as much as I would like. When he does decide to spend time talking about nature (describing fog and bad storms and even snow) I found the book excellent. Unfortunately, those times are few and far between. He also makes reference to his "purist" style of hiking. He doesn't explain much why this matters so much to him and he is quite critical and condescending of others who decide to blue blaze or slackpack sections of the trail. He comes off as completely condescending especially because it seems to me that he took a rather cushy approach to the hike -- spending many many nights in hotels in a warm, dry bed.

He spends time with other hikers, and we get to know them a bit, but I found those sections to be under developed (Marathon Man and Sailor), annoying (Fargo's words always written phoenticly so you could catch his Wisconsin accent) and mildly offensive (his efforts to "trick" the Catholic priest into saying someting incriminating about Catholicism).

Some of his religious revelations gave me insight into how so many days on the trail can change a person but by the time those came, I think I had come to dislike Stutzman enough to not appreciate them.

As I've been writing, I've decided to downgrade from three stars to two.

FYI: I'm planning to start reading "AWOL on the Appalachian Trail" by David Miller next to do a direct comparison of the two books.

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Like others, I have to criticize the religiousness of this book. I had hoped for a bike touring book, with descriptions of the ride, the people, the places, etc. Instead I got a book which was more self-justifying evangelical christian preaching and "I covered 92 miles today." The premise is good...after his wife's death and quitting his job and hiking the Appalachian Trail, the author decides to do a NW Washington to Key West bike ride. But he is judgmental of everyone he meets along the way, does a poor job describing his surroundings, and preaches his version of God on nearly every page. Plus, he makes poor decisions during his ride, fails to plan properly, and tells stories baldly. Skip this one.… (más)