The Unlikely Thru-Hiker

An Appalachian Trail Journey

By: Derick Lugo

Narrated by: Derick Lugo

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Derick Lugo had never been hiking. He certainly couldn't imagine going more than a day without manicuring his goatee. But with a job cut short and no immediate plans, this fixture of the New York comedy scene began to think about what he might do with months of free time. He had heard of the Appalachian Trail, but he had never seriously considered attempting to hike all 2,184.2 miles of it. Suddenly he found himself asking, Could he do it?

The Unlikely Thru-Hiker is the story of how a young Black man from the city, unfamiliar with both the outdoors and thru-hiking culture, sets off with an extremely overweight pack and a willfully can-do attitude to conquer the infamous trail. What follows are lessons on preparation, humility, and nature's wild unpredictability. But this isn't a hard-nosed memoir of discouragement. What sets Lugo apart from the typical walk in the woods is his refusal to let any challenge squash his inner Pollyanna. Through it all, Lugo perseveres with humor, tenacity, and an unshakeable commitment to grooming - earning him the trail name "Mr. Fabulous" - that sees him from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katahdin in Maine.

©2019 Derick Lugo (P)2021 Audible, Inc.

On My Feet All Day

I have listened to several of the application trail thru hiker audiobooks. I work 12 hour shifts on my feet and sometimes I pretend I’m a thru hiker to get through my day. I probably never will hike the trail, but for one credit I get the next best thing to it in my opinion. I have returned several hiking books due to foul language or them using their hiking journey to share their political, religious or non religious and social views. I buy these books for the hike, the stories and the experiences they have along the way with the characters they meet. I never get tired of hearing the loses and wins of each day, trail magic and good food. Setting up camp, tearing down and the fun of zero days. This is one of the books I will keep and even listen to again and again to get through my work day.

Has anyone ever returned an audiobook, because there was no foul language? I mean, what’s the deal. If I wanted to listen to people swear and cuss all day, I’d just unplug and listen to my coworkers! Audible definitely needs a rating system like movies and video games have. If nothing else, just to save us time and help those people who want to spend their hard earned money on swear words weaved into a hiking story. Just to be clear, this book was good, but I returned 3 hiking audiobooks before this one due to the issues listed above.

Captivating start to finish

Having just turned 59, I have this "fantasy" of getting on the AT and doing a through hike. It has occupied my mind over the 5 years that I have accompanied my wife through her terminal condition. Now that my journey with my spouse is over, I have re-engaged the notion of accomplishing this spiritual quest. Thank you for re-engaging my dreams.

Good but monotone

I loved the story but the performance was very monotone. There was lack of excitement at some points.

Great story, bad narration. Like, really bad.

I can’t believe it was the author who read this. It’s like he is reading the words for the very first time. Almost like you can hear him reach the end of a line with a mechanical pause while his eyes move to the next line. No inflection whatsoever. Hard to believe this is the person who lived through the experience, which sounded like it was excellent. The monotone almost makes it hard to understand what exactly is happening, it Still made me want to hike the AT though. I’m sure it is an excellent story to read to yourself from the book. Buy the book, don’t listen!

My least favorite book on the Appalachian Trail.

Of all of the books about the Appalachian trail, that I have read. This book lacks character or substance. A very childish view and writing skills.

horrible narration

The narration is very hoppy and the story feels lacking and forced. Very difficult to handle listening to IMO.

DECENT BUT NOT GREAT

The narration was below average. Story was typical thru hike story. I was mildly disappointed about 30 minutes into the book. It was good enough to finish, but nothing terribly memorable. B-

might be a DNF...

This book is mainly a lot of "This happened, then this happened"; a ton of fluff and no substance. there's dozens of books and accounts of people thru hiking the AT but the author fails to convey anything that sets it about from the rest of them. The drab delivery of the author/narrator doesn't help at all. All in all, props to him for completing the trail but I failed to get anything out of this one.

Great book!

I have listened to several AT books as I dream about my own attempt. This book is great.

Fascinating story

This was my first read about the Appalachian Trail and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about it.
Like others mentioned, the authors voice is quite monotone, but once you get past that, I appreciated hearing about all the tales that came with his journey.

Didn’t live up to expectation

This is the story of a young black man’s experience hiking the Appalachian trail. It starts reasonably well but never really clarifies his motivation. For a book about travel he has remarkably little to say about the terrain and places he passes through. The narration is rather flat, dull at times, and overall this book was a disappointment. There are much better accounts of walking the Appalachian trail.

Cool story

Interesting tale, nicely narrated by Derick which makes it a very personal and involving journey.

almost want to go hiking... almost!

This is a great story with so much to enjoy. A new fav book.
Read it, its good.