In Beauty May She Walk

In 2000, inspired by her father, Leslie Mass decided she would turn a lifelong fantasy into reality. At the age of 59 she began to train for a grueling journey ? a thru-hike of the 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail. In Beauty May She Walk chronicles Leslie?s struggles and triumphs during her hike. On the trail, Leslie struggles with how to balance the needs of her family and friends while making the trail a priority; how to shed years of social conditioning that dictate how a woman should act; and how to know when to ask for help, while understanding that sometimes, help has to come from within. For the first few weeks, Leslie learns how to pitch a tent in the rain, keep animals out of her food, and lighten the load on her back. As the terrain toughens, she struggles to physically keep up with the trail community she depends on socially to keep going, and realizes the difficulty of maintaining her obligations to family and friends while focusing her efforts on putting one foot in front of the other, every day. And after September 11, 2001, she copes with being seemingly the only hiker on the trails for miles, eventually forcing her to change her definition of ?hiking her own hike.? A suburban college professor, Leslie is just like any other woman you might pass on the grocery aisle. Her story is an inspiring physical and mental journey to reach the goal of a lifetime.

God only knows what possessed Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer if ever there was one, to undertake a gruelling hike along the world's longest continuous footpath—The Appalachian Trail. The 2,000-plus-mile trail winds through 14 states, stretching along the east coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. It snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in North America, as well as through some of its most poverty-stricken and primitive backwoods areas. With his offbeat sensibility, his eye for the absurd, and his laugh-out-loud sense of humour, Bryson recounts his confrontations with nature at its most uncompromising over his five-month journey. An instant classic, riotously funny, A Walk in the Woods will add a whole new audience to the legions of Bill Bryson fans.

Winner of the 2014 National Outdoor Book Awards for History/Biography Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, having survived a rattlesnake strike, two hurricanes, and a run-in with gangsters from Harlem, she stood atop Maine's Mount Katahdin. There she sang the first verse of "America, the Beautiful" and proclaimed, "I said I'll do it, and I've done it." Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called her, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity and appeared on TV and in the pages of Sports Illustrated. The public attention she brought to the little-known footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction. Author Ben Montgomery was given unprecedented access to Gatewood's own diaries, trail journals, and correspondence, and interviewed surviving family members and those she met along her hike, all to answer the question so many asked: Why did she do it? The story of Grandma Gatewood will inspire readers of all ages by illustrating the full power of human spirit and determination. Even those who know of Gatewood don't know the full story—a story of triumph from pain, rebellion from brutality, hope from suffering.

When Niki Rellon fell 45 feet from the side of a Utah mountain in 2013, she thought she was going to die. She didn't, but the devastating injuries she suffered may well have put an end to her thrill-seeking outdoor lifestyle.

When Pam met Ellie, she was sure she had found a new friend. But Pam wanted more than just a friend; she wanted a companion to hike the world-famous Appalachian Trail. Does Ellie have what it takes to make this journey? In Ellie’s Long Walk, Pam and Ellie set out to hike the more-than-2,000-mile-long Trail. In this adventure-packed true story, they ford rivers, survive storms, and scramble up rugged cliffs. Near the end of their journey an icy storm almost forces them to quit. Find out how these two friends keep each other going and if Ellie really is ready for the Appalachian Trail.

Experience the powerful prose and poetry of Joyce Rupp with the beautiful full-color art of Mary Southard.

This autobiographical fiction is set against real historical events. It journeys through time and lifetimes to ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, in the company of the goddess-women of ancient history, and embraces the freedom of consciousness itself.

Jeff Alt takes you along every step of his 2,160-mile Appalachian Trail adventure filled with humorous, frightening and inspirational stories including, bears, bugs, blisters, skunk bed mates and hilarious food cravings.As Alt walked through freezing temperatures, driving rain and sunny skies, he was constantly buoyed by the knowledge that his walk was dedicated to his brother who has cerebral palsy.Alt