The Trail Is the Teacher is an episodic account of my somewhat unexpected 2016 thru hike of the 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail.

I published the book as a series of blog posts, so the story is a bit “upside-down.” Having received a few requests to read it from the beginning, here is a table of contents for easy location of each chapter. Each chapter contains a link to the next chapter at the end. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1: Prologue

2: Snow

3: Tumbling Down

4: Zombies and noro and bears

5: Smoky Highs and Lows

6: Trailus Interruptus

7: Hike Your Own Hike

8: A yellow blazer, a legend, and some hippies

9: Smoke and Wishes

10: On the Road to Damascus

11: Four’s company, snore’s a crowd

12: The Hills Are Alive

13: Good Times, Bad Times

14: Alone Again

15: Out of the Bardo, Into the Bears

16: So Long to the South

17: Penns(hell)vania

18: Rocky II, Granitic Boogaloo

19: Jersey Joys

20: Hot and Bothered

21: Cooling It in Connecticut

22: Hornets, Fairies, and PCBs

23: My White Whale

24: Vermont Blues

25: Call Me Flipper

26: Into the Wild

27: Out of the Wild

28: Over the River

29: Southern Maine Surprise

30: On the Beach

31: Duct Tape, Slackpacking, and Sore Feet

32: Ho(s)tel New Hampshire

33: Welcome to the Whites

34: Presidential Peaks—and Valleys

35: Meeting Miss Janet

36: One Last Ass-Kicking

37: … But a Whimper

38: Lessons Learned