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 mean feat hiking of and with Miles on the AT

When a wordsmith and former book editor chooses (and even in the earliest stages, feels an unsettled sense of misgiving) to walk as a hiking rookie with an admitted proponent of brevity, "Issues" will arise.

Ms Congdon's account of her travails and stumbles with Trail-named "Miles", a former underling at their previous employment.(Red flag, Ms Congdon!) Through significant portions of the Appalachian Trail in 2015, she reveals insights and introspection as challenging as her wariness and fear of thunderstorms and things which might or might not go bump in the night as the trail itself. I wonder if Ms Congdon is a Virgo, whose animal totem is the rabbit and, in the form of the gift of a tiny glass rabbit, was one of her most valued companions.

I cringed and gritted my teeth as the author related incident after incident in which her female companion, "Miles", berated, railed and demanded Ms Congdon to commit to meeting Miles's vaunted expectations of a trail companion. Knowing Ms Congdon grew up in a tiny West Virginia town with alcoholic parents did help me to understand her reluctance to challenge authority, but, oh, dear! How I longed for Ms Congdon to "grow a pair"!

In balance, if you seek a memoir of the Appalachian Trail, absolutely listen to her book. A note to potential younger readers: this is the account of your mother, grand-mother and great aunt. No skinny dipping, "smoking", boozing or intimate encounters on this trail! :-) But you will learn about perseverance and about the critical components of truthful commitment along the AT and in the journey of life.

Ms Congdon returned from this adventure and other forays into section of the AT with a significant appreciation of Nature and the esteem with which, at the end of the day, one cannot obtain from another without sourcing it within self.

A great listen

Funny, thoughtful and real. I looked forward to every chance I got to listen to her story.

Learn how to pronounce things before narrating

This book is great! However the narrator regularly pronounces numerous words incorrectly and it's very irritating!!!!

Enjoyed this book.

It takes a lot of courage for two women, aged 65 and 69, to go on such an adventure as a thru hike. It was fun to hear the author's descriptions of the other hikers and trail angels. It was a shame that there was conflict in the relationship between the author, Jane, and her hiking companion, Miles. Can't help but wonder how hurt Miles must have felt by such an unflattering portrayal. I think the book would have been better if there was less focus on conflict and more attention on this incredible journey these two women went on. They saw so many gorgeous places and met so many kind and friendly people. The author described the AT, the towns, and those shelters so clearly I almost felt I was there. After reading this book, I want to go!

Excellent

A great read and worthy memoir for any one considering a thru-hike. Writing was clear and author is an excellent story teller.

Fun, inspiring and real. Anyone can do it.

The author has a good balance between what was great about her hike and what wasn't. She has a good deal of fortitude and a way with words that is appealing.

I am not sure the narrator matched the author's written voice, however she was quite easy and pleasant to listen to and detracted in no way from the story.

It is a good book for inspiring females that they can do it.

And a great warning about always paying attention to your pee funnel.

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.