How the Wild Effect Turned Me into a Hiker at 69: An Appalachian Trail Adventure

De: Jane E. Congdon

Narrado por: Andrea Gappmayer

This is a terrific audiobook. It's interesting, well-written, and timely. It's the story of a textbook editor who retires, reads the popular book The Wild Effect and decides to hike the Appalachian Trail - and have an unexpected adventure!

The tone is wry humor, tongue in cheek - the author has a great sense of humor, is perky, and as she learns in this adventure, is often in over her head! She is a very likeable character.

©2018 Jane E. Congdon (P)2018 Bettie Youngs Book Publishers

A Little Disappointed

I will keep this brief... I did not dislike this book, but I ended up feeling like I had listened to a lot of personal whining. The basic information about the AT was good, very informative, but the decisions about personal relationships got a bit tiresome.

Great motivation!

This book was recommended to me because I am scared of everything too. Especially wild animals and bugs. This was a great story about persistence and facing your fears and mind over matter and never giving up, even when you are with someone who judges you constantly and makes you feel inferior. I have read "Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail" by Cheryl Strayed, which is referenced in this book a lot. I am glad i read that book before this one. They go together very well. So not to give spoilers, I will say the ending was very inspiring, and validation is always so nice!

I wish the narrator had an older sounding voice, but she was good, with the exception of mispronouncing Cheryl Stayed's name the entire time. So be prepared to overlook that.

Enjoyable Book! LOVED IT.

Makes me wanna go hike! Very enjoyable book! Hope she hikes the PCT and writes a book!

A memoir of a 67 year old woman’s AT hike

Note: There are NO spoilers in this review. Be careful because one review gives a huge spoiler in its title and Audible decided to keep it there. I almost didn’t read the book because of it.

First, the title isn’t really what the book is about. Yes, Jane was inspired to hike the AT by Cheryl Strayed’s book, Wild. She does mention Strayed occasionally throughout this book. This book is Jane’s own story of her Appalachian Trail hike at the age of 67, and centers heavily on the unfortunately poor matching of herself and her hiking partner, Miles.

I have recently ready Wild, A Walk in the Woods, and several other memoirs about PCT and AT hikes. I read this one next because I am considering a hike of the AT next year at age 65.

I did learn a lot about the realities of how challenging the AT can be for anyone, especially an older person. Some of her difficulties would likely impact me also. She gave me a lot to think about, like mice in the shelters, the weight of the backpack, falling down a lot, fear of bears, and hiking all day in heavy rains. I thank her for all of that, and I hope she’s very satisfied and proud of herself.

Though I admired her honesty about her own errors and some of her less proud moments, I actually became frustrated with her at times, to the point where I didn’t want to hear anymore about the numerous times she fell or lost her critically important guide pages. Perhaps she could have told us just once, by saying something like: “Even knowing how critical my guide pages were, I just kept losing them, to the great annoyance of myself and my partner. I should have always placed them in the same pocket of my pack, but I just didn’t learn that lesson.” That would have been enough!!

The main plot is about how badly mismatched she and Miles were. Miles bullied Jane for miles! She criticized her and put her down and bossed her around through several states on the trail. Jane was open in telling readers about her own errors and inadequacies, but Miles was so frequently rude that I thought about not reading further. I wanted to be “done” with Miles as much as Miles wanted to be “done” with Jane. I do think Jane learned about herself and came away from the experience stronger. For the reader who might hike the AT, it was a cautionary tale in the importance of not partnering with a person who is a poor match and may ruin your experience.

One final note… Given that this book was inspired by Cheryl Strayed (rhymes with paid), the narrator should have learned how to pronounce the name before reading it incorrectly through the book.

review if book

nice book about an older woman, like me, struggling with the AT. interestingly, her struggles are more with her hiking partner and self esteem than the trail.