[at-l] Review "Walking the Dream"

[bullard@northnet.org (James Bullard)]

I had one request for reviews (it doesn't take much encouragement to set me 
off) so here goes...

"Walking the Dream" by Ellen Wolfe
I find that I'm partial to women writers when it comes to AT thru-hike 
memoirs because women generally spend more time talking about the 
experience of the hike while male writers tend to dwell on the details. 
Wolf Woman did not disappoint me. If anything, she raised the bar.

Her's was a mid life hike undertaken to fulfill a lifelong dream and to 
raise money to fight cancer after losing a friend to breast cancer. She 
writes well and like my other favorite woman's memoir, "There are Mountains 
to Climb", I found myself both sharing her lows and cheering her on. The 
initial chapters are the background which tells of "the dream" and the mid 
life 'crisis' which propelled her to pursue  the dream, how she raised 
money for cancer and the process of preparing for the hike.

She began the hike with her daughter who stayed with her through the first 
week of the hike. The remainder of the hike she was either alone or hiked 
intermittently with those she met on the trail. She had a few experiences 
as a solo woman hiker that might give pause to other women planning a solo 
thru hike. As a rather large male I tend not to be aware of the problems 
that others of less threatening stature sometimes encounter.

She did enjoy strong support from women friends and her step mother who met 
her along the trail at strategic times including some very out-of-the-way 
places in Maine where luck played a role in hiker and car driving supporter 
managed to find each other against the odds. In general this was not a 
supported hike though. Wolf Woman is every inch a thru-hiker and churned 
out miles to be the first woman to complete a thru in 1997.

On the AT memoir 5 muddy boot scale this one gets all 5 muddy boots.

Saunterer