Book 136 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: We Tried!

Book – A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

Book Description: Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes—and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings. For a start there’s the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson’s acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America’s last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is a modern classic of travel literature.

Reflection:

A few months back, I read a book called The Rise of the Ultra Marathoners. This was a book about the grueling sport of ultra-marathon racing and the crazy people that dedicate their lives to it. As we learned in that story, Ultra Marathoners willingly push themselves into what they call “the pain cave” every race, and that is when the real fun begins for them as they have to figure out how to push through or give up.

My reflection after reading that book was, “You’ll regret it if you drop out”. That was in reference to a quote from the author when he entered the pain cave in an important race and wanted to quit with all of his being. He eventually talked himself off the ledge after he thought about how it would feel when he was recovered and back in his hotel room after some food and a shower and thinking that he still had more to give. He chose to push on and finish. Humans are amazing, the ability for us to use the power of our mind to push our bodies through the pain, to endure, and find a path forward when it feels like all we want to do is quit is remarkable. We are endurance machines and built to take on so much more than most of us give ourselves credit for that we learn about in stories like The Rise of the Ultra Marathoners.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum from The Rise of the Ultra Marathoners is A Walk in the Woods. In this journey, my favorite author (Bill Bryson) sets out on a quest to try and hike the entire 2,000+ mile Appalachian Trail. Bill and his travel companion, Katz, were incredible unprepared for the massive challenge they were unknowingly signing themselves up to undertake. They had absolutely no idea what they were doing. They weren’t experienced hikers, they had basically no experience camping, weren’t in great physical shape, did no training beforehand, and they seemingly had no other reason to even be doing this other than they thought it sounded cool to take a long walk in the woods. They just decided they were going to do this, bought some gear, and set off to start their journey.

Obviously, this scenario made for a funny and entertaining account of their travels and misadventures together as they slowly and surely made their way through the first few hundreds of miles from Georgia through Tennessee. They eventually gave up on their quest to walk the whole Appalachian trail only a few weeks into the beginning of their journey when they got to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and decided to skip the rest of the Tennessee and get directly on to Virginia and the 115 miles of Shenandoah National Park.

After Virginia, Katz and Bill disbanded for the next few months and went back to their homes with a plan to resume their quest to at least finish the last 100 miles together in Maine towards the late summer. When they back together in Maine, they were ready to push on and finish the last 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail through some of its toughest stretches in the wilderness of Maine. They both dreaded putting their stupid and heavy packs back on. They were out of shape again. It was incredibly hot out and the bugs were annoying them. They started to argue with each other as they were entering into a stretch of the AT where they would be truly out in the wilderness with no one around them for at least 10 days. Then, Katz got lost and they were separated for a long stretch of a day but eventually found each other.

As a reader, I could hear it in Bill’s writing that they were teetering on the edge of their own “pain cave”.

Well, when Bill and Katz hit the beginnings of the pain cave, they decided to quit. They said, “That’s enough for us” and packed up their stuff and agreed to head home. Katz told Bill that no matter what anyone said, “We hiked the Appalachian Trail, and no one could take that from them. They did 800+ miles of the 2,000 mile journey. They hiked through snow, they hiked in the wilderness, crapped in the woods, and did it all carrying 50 pounds on their back the whole time.”

They hiked the Appalachian Trail because they tried!!!!

That’s the thing that I feel like is often lost in our world these days is to remember to try. We feel like if we haven’t trained, went to school, spent years getting coaching, apprenticing, etc than we aren’t ready. All those steps make people immediately want to give up before they even start.

It is always okay to try and fail. You get a great story out of it and a lesson to share with others.

What isn’t okay is never trying in the first place. We are made to explore and experience all that we can in this world.

We aren’t always going to be perfect. We aren’t always going to be prepared. We aren’t always going to be able to push through that pain cave every time when it arrives. However, we can always try!

Don’t forget to experience life and try new things, even if you suck at it like Bill and Katz.

Question: What was the last new thing you tried that you seemingly had no business doing at all?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson