A walk in the woods

pg. 128-161

The book itself is starting to get disappointing. There is a picture of a bear on the front cover, but so far it has just been the experience of their trek through the Appellation Trail. It is interesting to read what they did and what they thought of it, but don't put a bear on the cover if there isn't going to be one in the story. I am still waiting for that time when they encounter bears.

This part of the book, there is a lot of facts. They are figure that they are walking as far as an average American walks in a week in 20 minutes. That seems kind of shocking, but when you think about it, it really isn't. The average American uses their car when ever possible it seems. Bill knows people who drive to work only 600 yards away from their house! That is ridiculous. Bill and Katz were the complete opposite from that. They loved to walk everywhere.

Bill and Katz decide to take a break from hiking and go into the nearest town for a few days. Katz went to the laundry mat and Bill went shopping for things they would need . At the laundry mat, Katz meets this big girl (200+) and asks her out to dinner. It ends up that that lady already has a husband. About 500 pounds he looked like from Katz's point of view. The man chased Katz all around the city until him and Bill made it back to the trail.

Bill is noticing all of the wildlife that lives in the Appellation Trail. There are salemanders, squirrels, birds, spiders, and everything you can imagine. But the acid rain that periodically falls is getting into the streams and is killing some of the wildlife.

One night, Bill is in his tent, and he hears some shuffling outside. Almost immediately, Bill thinks, BEAR! He has a knife with him, but it is outside his tent in his bag. He carefully brings it in. It is only a 4 inch knife that would only work as a butter knife. At least it was something. Bill calls to Katz to see what he has. He only has a pair of nail clippers. So they are screwed if the "bear" wants them for dinner. Bill shines his light out of the tent and sees two sets of glowing yellow eyes. He is scared for his life while his buddy Katz in the tent next to him falls asleep almost instantly. In the morning, there is no damage to the camp and every body is fine.

The guys start walking again seeing many people along the way. Nice people, rude people, and very stupid people who they think will not survive the rest of the trail. The AT in the warmest months will hold on average 16,500 people a day. But that isn't that much on account of how long it is. That would only be like 7.5 people per mile on the AT. It does not seem busy at all.


 

Walking in the Woods

Katz and Bill are trying to walk on average 16 miles a day. But that is not really working out for them. They have a few things go wrong for them on the trip. One thing is that it gets very cold. About -16 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature makes them walk much much slower. They are not getting a good nights rest and are paying for it while they hike. Then a few days after the cold, it starts to snow. It snows and snows and seems it will never stop. They get lost a few times, slowing them down a lot. The snow gets so deep that they cannot walk anymore. They stop at an AT shelter for the night. There are two others there already. A father and a son just doing a little bit of the trail. They spend the night there sitting by the warm fire and dry off all of their clothes. In the morning, they wake up to many feet of snow on the ground. There is almost 4 feet of it in some places Bill reckons. They decide to stay inside for a day. The next day, they have to leave if they ever want to finish the trail. So they head off again. But they only go 9 miles before they have to stop again because of the snow. This time, they stop at a motel-like shelter with a store and everything. When they walk in, they see recognizable faces everywhere of people they have seen on the trail already. They get settled in for the night and try to sleep in the disgusting room they are in. In the room, there are 4 bunk beds. All of which stink terribly. They wake up and see even more snow. Bill and Katz and everybody else that was already in there is stuck there for 5 days. The workers of the shelter take everybody into the closest town. Katz buys a 24 pack of cream soda. He is planning on staying there a while. Bill has other plans though. The next morning, Bill decides it is time to get out of this place and start the hike again. Katz is very angry at him for this decision. But alas, they are walking again.

The temperature is rising and the snow turns into melt water. It starts to rain, and rains a lot. The guys are slipping all over the place. They are covered in mud. They are like mud people waddling through the forests. Helping each other up, then falling themselves. It rains and rains like it will never stop. They are soaked to the bone. Everything they have with them is drenched in water. It is not fun at all.

In real life, be prepared for anything. In the book, they were prepared, but not fully. Some people say you can never be fully prepared for something. The guys bring rain jackets. They work, but they make them all sweaty and gunky. But they handle it like men and trek on.

Now we are walking

Bill and Katz finally get to the starting point of the Appellation Trail. There is a cabin there that they stay in the night before they head off. Immediately Katz goes to his room for the rest of the night. Bill is organizing his pack for a final time to check if he has everything there. He then looks at the weather for the next few days. It is calling for heavy snow storms and very cold weather. This is not what they are looking for to start the hike. Bill goes to bed to sleep good one last night.


In the morning, Katz wakes up Bill with a cup of coffee in his hand. Katz is ready to go. Bill likes this and gets ready himself. Bill grabs a cup of coffee and prepares to head off. When they walk out the door, Katz leans over to Bill and says, "maybe we should wait until tomorrow to go." Bill gets very upset and is disappointed. But anyway, they head off. Katz and Bill are making good time for about a mile. Then Katz starts to drift slowly backward from Bill. Bill does not worry about it and keeps going at his own pace. Every now and again, Bill stops and waits for Katz. During the night, they find a spot to camp, and sleep there. In the mornings, they pack up, eat a snickers bar, and they are on their way for the day. They are planning on doing 8.5 miles in the morning and 10 miles in the afternoon. One day, Bill hears Katz chucking a fit behind him and swearing a lot. Katz is getting really pissed at how heavy his pack is. He starts to throw many things down the side of the cliff they are on. Some things were important, like food, and others not so much, like coffee filters. 


Along they way, they meet up with this crazy lady who is hiking by herself. She has ADD and is very rude. She calls the guys fat and really out of shape. She helps herself to the last little debbe cake that Katz has. He doesn't talk to her for a long time after that. She stays with Bill and Katz for a few days, dissing them the whole way. Finally, the guys make a plan to ditch her. They start walking really fast, faster than their new "friend". They get to a road that goes through the trail, and they hitch hike into the closest town. They have a nice meal and head back for the night to start again tomorrow. Bill starts to get remorseful that they ditched their friend. He thinks about her being all alone. But Katz doesn't care. She ate his last little debbie cake. They find out soon that she dropped out because she got bad blisters on her feet from trying to walk 20 miles in one day. (which is hard to do on this trail).


Whenever you go out on a hike, it is a good thing to use the buddy system. It is good that Katz is with Bill on this hike. But the girl they met up with, was by herself. That is not good. If something happened to her, nobody would know. She would be gone forever. She was doing the right thing by trying to walk with people, but Bill and Katz ditched her. And ultimately felt remorseful, which was good. 

Picking up Katz

Bill is kind of nervous about going out in the woods by himself for this amount of time. He is thinking of all the bad things that can happen to him. While he is writing his Christmas cards, he asks everybody if they want to come with him. For a few weeks, nobody replies to him. Then he gets a phone call from his old pal Katz. They haven't seen each other for over 25 years. The last time they saw each other is when they got into a huge dispute. They haven't talked since. Katz is very interesting on going with him. Bill remembers Katz as being a skinny strong guy who had a lot of energy. 

Katz is flying from Iowa to Georgia to meet Bill at the start. When Bill first sees Katz, he is shocked. Katz is noticeably out-of-shape and is having a hard time keeping his breath normal while just walking. He needs to eat every hour so he does not pass out. This is going to be a big problem on the hike. 


Bill and Katz go shopping for everything that they are going to need. Katz goes ahead and fills up 2 shopping carts very quickly. Bill takes out most of the stuff, and they are on they're way. Katz is at Bills house packing. He is a very lazy son of a gun. He just lays around all night saying that he will get to packing eventually.  But he never does that night. Katz finally gets all of his stuff together and they are heading toward the start of the trail. 

Walk in the Woods

Bill starts to ask around town about this trail. He hears from many people that whoever went into the trail, came back without a limb, or with a great story to tell. Bill goes to a sports shop where his son works for some stuff he need to make the hike. He was made to have good behavior by his son so he doesn't embarrass him at his new job. Bill starts to look at stuff that he thinks he needs. Another worker there comes up to him to give him a hand. Lucky for Bill, he was an expert hiker and has hiked the Appellation Trail a few times. He starts handing him things that are very small and don't seem like he needs it and it is a few hundred dollars. He is outraged at all of the stuff. He leaves because he has exhausted all of his money. On the way out, he saw a magazine that helped you know how to prevent bear attacks. He grabs it and leaves the store.

This is a good thing to do if you are anybody who is going on a hike. Know the outdoors and try to keep yourself safe.

pg. 7-16

A Walk in the Woods

This book is written by Bill Bryson. He is the main character in the book. This book is mainly about the adventures he has in the wilderness of the Appellation Mountains.

He's walking in the Appelation Mountains. He finds a trail that is not very clean. It is just a little path in the middle of the woods. The sign in front of it says it travels for 450 miles. Bill ponders the idea of what it will take to complete the journey. He figures that he will have find his own food, clean himself, and fend off all of the wild animals. Bill tells everybody he knows where he is going, and they wish him good luck.
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