Mountain AdventureI’ve been searching for interesting reading material on the Appalachian Trail and ran across National Geographic’s Mountain Adventure published decades ago.  Ebay delivered this book to me for under $10.00, so I figured I would give it a shot.  The book is authored by Ron Fisher.  Fisher has a calm, soothing tone.  He rarely interjects humor and instead uses vivid imagery to pull the reader along.

Fisher covers much of the trail on foot, however, he does not thru-hike the trail.  This book is merely a documentation of what the trail is and means to the areas it passes through.  I felt like I gained an appreciation for much of the trail’s qualities versus the whole hiking experience itself.  Most other books on the AT focus on the hiking experience.

My lasting impression of this book can be summed up as pleasantly descriptive of the trail’s general feel in each state.  I would not call this book a definitive text on the subject, but its breadth may appeal to a wide audience interesting in learning about the trail for the first time without having to hear long, twisted tails about what one has to go through to thru-hike it.