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Title: Trail Ways, Path Wise: An Appalachian Trail Through-Hike by John Illig, Jane Weinberger ISBN: 1-883650-44-5 Publisher: Windswept House Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (5 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Thanks for letting me tag along.
Comment: Neither a technical how to, nor a deep, introspective philosophical exercise, as are most books of this genre, Trail Ways Path Wise is a refreshing, "Hey, come along and try this with me" story. If you want to know what it's REALLY like to through-hike the A.T., this is THE book you must read. It's too bad the trail isn't another thousand miles longer so that our walk, and the book, might be longer too. Thanks for letting me walk along with you John.

Rating: 2
Summary: 2000 Mile Ego Trip!
Comment: Follow our holier-than-thou hiker hero through the trail as he looks down his nose at Christians, carnivores, tourists, hunters, Southerners, European settlers (typical PC liberal dogma) and, interestingly, fellow thru-hikers. But particularly disdainful to this ego-maniac are the lazy "weekend warriors." Hint - that's you and me - the 4 MILLION plus users that ruin it for the hundreds of thru-studs. Day hikers are good for two things: 1. bumming food and rides from and 2. asking stupid questions. And of course, our hero has to be the fastest thing on the trail! We're constantly bombarded with how strong he feels as he pours on the mileage and blows past fellow hikers (incredibly, only one other character reaches Katahdin before him, and that is of course because he is laid up in the hospital for a week.) The arbitrary lines he draws that prove that he does the trail correctly, while others do it wrong are incredible. It's OK for him to cut a corner in a town, but not for a fellow hiker to take a "blue blaze" shortcut around a peak, even if the view is better! Heck, Mr. Illig, you're all walking from Georgia to Maine -- get over it! I did have some favorite parts, though. The book opens with a self effacing hiker who hikes in sneakers and carries ridiculous provisions (canned tomatoes, snowshoes,an abdominizer, etc.) He humbly pokes fun at himself, and if he could have carried this character through the adventure, the book would have been a fine read. Unfortunately, the Mr. Hyde ego-man emerges too soon. One curious section is on pg. 155, where the author mentions his future in-laws, and makes them sound like complete morons. The reader (who's fed up by now) can only smile at the real life fun around the next family Thanksgiving tofu-turkey. But my favorite part is on pg 129, where he leaves a small Pennsylvania town and "Some kids in a car drove by and yelled 'Asshole!' " My only thought was "how did they know?"

Rating: 4
Summary: Extremely accessible, very entertaining trail memoir
Comment: This book made both my wife and myself laugh out loud. Illig and his book are very down to earth. The profusion of typos is distracting, but if you can ignore that, this is a sometimes hilarious, definite pageturner of a trail book that will entertain and make you want to get out and hike. But did Illig marry his girlfriend? This book could use an Afterword. Highly recommended.