Arts & Entertainment - Lubbock Hike through Appalachian Trail leads to book

Published: Monday, July 20, 1998



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Monday, July 20, 1998 Last modified at 1:21 a.m. on Monday, July 20, 1998

Hike through Appalachian Trail leads to book

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Twenty years in England left Iowa-born Bill Bryson with a soft British accent, a whimsical view of the world and a desire to rediscover his native country.

To fulfill that urge, Bryson hooked up with an old high school buddy and set out on the Appalachian Trail, the nation's best-known footpath, covering roughly 2,150 miles through 14 states from Georgia to Maine.

Bryson, 47, and his hiking companion, a larger-than-life character named Stephen Katz who plays Sancho Panza to the author's Don Quixote, never quite go the distance. But they put in enough time and mileage to capture the flavor of the trail and provide fodder for "A Walk in the Woods," a book that could make Bryson as well-known in the United States as he is in Britain and Australia.

puvynyr-anonrriheriA longtime journalist before he became an author, Bryson's five previous books fall into two categories: travel memoirs and language. But the common thread is humor, as befits a writer whose favorite authors include Robert Benchley, S.J. Perelman and Dave Barry.

Bryson seems to cultivate eccentricity, perhaps reflecting what he recalls as two delightful

years spent working as an orderly in a psychiatric hospital outside London. He had hitchhiked across Europe at age 21, fallen in love with England and decided to stay.

rfcoia-xecnatknesculpIt was at the hospital that Bryson met his wife, then a student nurse.tsandnnentriga

Bryson, who never planned to remain in England forever, returned to the United States three years ago with his wife and their four children, a move intended in part to expose them to a second culture.

His "Notes From a Small Island," an affectionate farewell to England published in 1996, was a best seller in Britain. His next project is a travel book about Australia.

Seeking a pleasant small town in New England, the

Brysons settled in Hanover, N.H., home of Dartmouth College. While checking out a nearby field as a spot to play baseball with his kids, he noted a marker for the Appalachian Trail.

"I literally just stumbled onto it," he recalled. Having heard of the trail but knowing little about it, the prospect of hiking its entire length piqued his interest.

Middle-aged and out-of-shape, Bryson and Katz encounter their share of trail fatigue and miserable weather, including a snowstorm near the Georgia-North Carolina line.

They worry about bears, snakes and pesky insects and revel in thoughts of junk food and comfortable motel beds.

During their folly-filled trek they meet a series of quirky characters: the equipment junkie eager to debate the merits of different pack frames; the party animals whose all-night drinking and carousing prompt Bryson and Katz to abandon their trailside shelter; and Mary Ellen, a snorting, blabber-mouthed nitwit who latches like a leech onto the two hikers early in their journey and isn't about to let go.

Bryson, who acknowledges that his books give free rein to his penchant for exaggeration, said he doesn't want to convey a false impression about hikers in general.

"My only regret, in retrospect, is that perhaps I didn't make it clear enough that the great bulk of people that we met on the Appalachian Trail are really nice, decent, good people."

koedd-riyektmneolfrxeip-kecncvirikndBryson hiked 870 miles, or nearly 40 percent of the trail, but did not complete his goal of hiking it from Springer Mountain, Ga., to Mount Katahdin, Maine.

gem-teceenmegdnlrranrnctnnpaai"I see America very differently because I didn't live here for 20 years. It tends to make you critical, but sometimes it allows you to see things that other people take for granted, like the Appalachian Trail," he said.

"This is something very special."