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Reviews > Books > General > A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike > Andrew Mytys > Field Report
Tester's Biographical Information:
Backpacking Background: I live in Michigan and have been hiking seriously for 15 years, although I've camped since I was 6 years old. I consider myself a lightweight hiker. I carry the lightest gear I can get my hands on which will provide a comfortable wilderness experience and adequately support the goals of my trip. Unless my goals are time/distance oriented, my pace is always slow. I rarely exceed 1.5 miles (2.4 km)/hour. I rest frequently, hike long days, and enjoy whatever nature throws my way. Product Information:
Product Description: "A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike" is a short book filled with lessons on how to overcome some of hiking's most common physical and mental challenges. The lessons are described by Dr. Rick Allnutt, the author, based on what he learned while tackling multi-day hikes and preparing for and hiking a 200-mile (322 km) segment of the Appalachian Trail (AT). While the book's lessons came about primarily while hiking the AT, what's proposed is valid, and indeed much of it can be applied, on any trail and for hikes of any distance. The sole picture in the book is on the cover - a color photo of the author relaxing along the AT near Cold Mountain, Virginia. What This Book is About - Who is it For?: "A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike" is about the challenges - both physical and mental - that the author experienced while preparing for and hiking a 200-mile (322 km) segment of the Appalachian Trail (AT). The lessons learned by the author are broken up into chapters dedicated to "the three biggest problems facing the 200-mile (322 km) hiker" - blisters and chaffing, knee pain, and losing the will to hike - and the advantages of "near-ultralight" hiking. The book uses the author's personal experiences and those of others hiking the Appalachian Trail as a basis for the examples and solutions given. The book is short, and my take on it is that it is most useful to those readers who have actually hiked before. This is not a how-to book, nor does the text go into any great detail in explaining terms and general hiking concepts. Readers who's feet have some hiking experience should find themselves nodding along at the ailments that the author chooses to focus on, if not based on personal experience then based on recognition - how many of us have never encountered a hiker with a bad case of blisters before, or a pack that weighs in at over 50 pounds (20 kg)? An Overview of the Text - My Joys and Frustrations: In the first half of the book, the author touts his background as a physician, an engineer, and a researcher - characteristics that can easily be seen in both the content and writing style presented. The author uses his background in describing the causes of and solutions for three physical ailments common to many hikers - blisters, chaffing, and knee pain. The author begins by discussing common types of blisters and their causes, delving lightly into how the epidermis works and why the body creates blisters. The text strikes a good balance between background detail, real-world examples, analysis of the hiker's environment and which of its characteristics might contribute to blisters, and solutions that the author has found to work for him (solutions that may also work for the reader). The author also touches on various ideas tried that did not work for him, which I appreciated from the standpoint of being able to act as the proverbial "fly on the wall." Different feet often demand different solutions, and being able to refer to multiple ideas may help me in developing my own solution. The author tells readers of his experiences with light trail runners, Gore-Tex running shoes, sandals, jungle boots, and traditional hiking boots. Overall, I feel that the author did a really good job in communicating his points. I found myself nodding my head as I read the chapter and took in text that made everything seem so obvious and clear. I left the chapter with a greater understanding of blisters than when I had started. The discussion of blisters moved on to cover treatment. I liked how the author looked beyond material goods in coming up with his answers. For blisters, his solutions aren't just about finding the right pair of shoes or wrapping the foot correctly, for example. To solve the blister problem, the author also suggests resting, letting feet air out, and changing into dry socks when required, amongst other things. The book continues with a discussion on chaffing, and then a whole chapter on knee problems. Both chaffing and knees are covered in much the same way that blisters were - the author offers real world examples, analysis of the problem, and insightful solutions that he found to work. In the case of knee pain, the author's solution is actually a seven step process that involves not only things that can be done on the trail, but pre-hike activities like conditioning the knees through exercise and taking over the counter, preventative medicines such as glucosamine. The second half of the book covers mental stresses that, just as with the physical issues previously described, can lead a hiker to leave the trail before they've completed their planned hike. It also includes a chapter on lightweight hiking and the book's summary. To me, this second half felt rushed, especially when compared to the book's previous chapters. Between what I felt to be a lack of adequate coverage in some areas, inserting examples from activities outside of backpacking to underscore points, and an overall feeling that concepts were fleshed out to a lesser degree as those encountered earlier, I felt cheated. Put into a hiking sense, for the first half of the book (I'm including the introduction here) is like having a conversation with the author while slowly walking uphill. The pace is relaxed, there's no rush, and the author takes plenty of time to fully develop and explain his positions on the topics at hand. The second half of the book reflects the downhill portion of the hike - the text is fast paced, covers some ground in large and often overreaching steps, and even stumbles and falls in places. There's a lot of information projected, but with so many other obstacles in the way I didn't find that I got the same sort of informative discussion as during the uphill portion of the trek. In some areas, the lack of detail and quick change in subject resulted in my having more questions than answers. My frustrations became amplified the further I read, as I had a longing in the back of my mind for the author to have devoted more space to some of his ideas that otherwise felt underdeveloped. I'm not sure if the author had nothing more to say, or if he was constrained by a pre-set page limitation and was somehow forced into squeezing too many ideas into the book. Either way, with short chapters and a lot of points to cover, I yearned for the ability to trade space used unnecessarily (e.g. chapter summaries followed by a lead-in to the following chapter) for more "meat" on the subject matters being covered. In some areas, I felt as if the author had a sudden urge to embellish his book by displaying his creative side, giving me his best Bill Bryson impersonation. Where the ideas introduced in the first half of the book flowed smoothly and were written with a well defined purpose, there were now pages of text that I felt the need to mentally swat away, as if they were a swarm of mosquitoes buzzing around my face. Overall, I found a lot of text that either added no real value to the book or detracted from the general points that the author was making. The premise of the chapter on losing the will to hike is that overcoming physical challenges such as blisters, chaffing, and knee injury is just a small part of what it takes to walk in the woods. The author points out that the physical stresses discussed in previous chapters can themselves cause mental stresses. In addition, the author briefly outlines some of the other stresses he's noticed on the trail, such as being alone, loneliness, a lack of fun, poor weather, excessive pace and the resulting fatigue, a lack of sleep, and scary dreams. Much of the chapter is devoted to what I feel are very minor issues in the grand scheme of things - perhaps I've forgotten what it's like to be new to the wilderness, or perhaps I possess a strong mental fortitude. In any event, while I felt a bit of kinship with the author when he noted "the more time and experience I have in the forest, the less it feels like wilderness and the more it feels like home," I couldn't help but think how much of the text could be replaced with the simple statement, "stop whining," with sections focusing on issue such as nightmares being replaced by more serious discussions on the theme that the chapter began with - skill. The last real chapter of information focuses on "near-ultralight" hiking. The author describes hiking with a light pack as "the one best idea." Unfortunately, the author has neglected to convey the elements of this subject in the same level of detail as he did for previous discussions. The author doesn't provide a specific list of what he takes on the trail with him, as he really dislikes "the idea of patterning pack lists and choices after well-known authors." At the same time, he states that pack lists "may give me some ideas to think about for my own pack." The author does finally decide to tell the reader what he carries, but in a very vague sense:
In trying to dissect the author's weight, there are a number of items that I would expect him to carry, yet these items don't fall into any of the aforementioned categories. Where is the water bladder, the water treatment system, the light source, the hygiene and first aid items? It seems that such miscellaneous items are either not packed, or "silently" included in one of the author's weight categories. It would be nice if the book had provided additional details. Likewise, I am left with questions after reading the author's comments on his diet. His daily food intake while on the trail is 3000 calories (1.5 lbs (680 g) in weight) of food a day, made up of "2 pop-tarts, 1.5 cups of trail mix, a package of noodles, and 'a few pieces' of beef jerky." I would have liked to know, at the very least, the particulars of the author's trail mix recipe - I'm impressed at the number of calories the author is able to squeeze out of a mere 1.5 pounds (680 g) of food as well as the fact that he can stomach eating the same basic foods, day after day. The author also states that he has 2 - 3 pounds (900 - 1400 g) of "toys" he likes to take with him on the trail, including items such as a camera, cell phone, journal, and book. In order to squeeze these toys into his pre-set 15 pound (6.8 kg) limit, he averages out his food weight by figuring he only carries half of it on a given day and calls it 4 pounds (1.8 kg). That's less than 1 lb (450 g) of food per day! There's also the lack of overall perspective given in terms of the field conditions that the author encountered. It's one thing to be able to pack light for conditions where temperatures never fall below 60 F (15 C). It's quite another to pack as light as the author does for harsher climates. The author does mention dealing with inclement weather as a mental challenge, offering solutions such as prayer, which he notes can be "an infinite resource of strength, wisdom, and composure." I found myself wishing that the author had highlighted more tangible solutions to some of the more serious challenges he listed. In terms of tips for lightening one's pack, the author simply rehashes well-established strategies from the ultralight community. Ideas such as "carry those things you use on a daily basis," "take only what is needed," "be prepared for what will happen," "don't be prepared for what will not happen," and "be prepared to improvise and adapt" are listed as bullet points. The problem is that "what's needed" is not discussed. The author chooses to cut the lesson short by discussing "Ultralight Hiking" as a solution, rather than taking the approach used in all the other chapters, where a problem is first defined and discussed, with a solution coming at the end. Nowhere in the chapter on "lightweight packing" does the author mention the fact that, at least for beginners, one cannot simply toss a minimal amount of gear into a pack and jump into the field. Left out of the discussion is perhaps the most important item in the equation - a characteristic that cannot be measured in terms of weight - experience! I would have loved to hear about some of the author's early practices with Ultralight Backpacking, and any failures experienced - in short, covering the subject in a parallel manner to that of blisters, chaffing, and knees. As I finished reading the second half of the book, it dawned on me that the author furnished a rather limited viewpoint from the perspective of a 200-mile (322 km) hike. This book is the culmination of experiences gained from hiking anywhere from weekend excursions to a single, two week, 200-mile (322 km) hike. Overall, I got the feeling that most of the lessons had their origins on the author's single 200-mile (322 km) hike, taken at a specific point in time and under specific weather conditions. It should also be noted that some of the author's own experiences are rather limited. The author mentions, for example, that he really enjoys hiking in his leather Gore-Tex boots yet admits that his point of view is based on a mere 100 miles (161 km) of trail and that, in terms of long-term performance, he really doesn't know how well they'll work. The author makes no promises that the book is anything more than a description of his discoveries, his failures, and his ideas, but the tone projected throughout much of the book made it easy for me to mistake the book more as instructional text and less than that of a trail journal. Without the full disclosure of the conditions in which the author learned his lessons, it was easy for me to lean into the trap of thinking that the challenges described throughout the book equate to what one would actually find while hiking along the AT. Once I started questioning what was written, it suddenly dawned on me that the book's content might be entirely different had the author taken his hike at the beginning of April or in mid-July, as opposed to mid-May. Pack weights could differ as cold temperatures or conditions of drought forced him to carry more weight than listed. What about the mental and physical stresses that the author would have been subjected to if he were to hike during a mosquito hatch, or if heat related stresses such as heat exhaustion, dehydration, or heat stroke were experienced? Early season jaunts on the AT may have given the author experiences that underscoring the need to discuss hypothermia in the book. If the author had gone on is hike with a partner he may have discussed the challenges of having to hike with someone day after day rather than that of being alone. The list goes on.I make this observation simply out of wanting to limit the expectations and underscore the boundaries that this book creates. It's not really a trail journal, nor is it a how-to book. For me, it falls somewhere in between, but, based on the style of writing and its content, I found it to lean STRONGLY towards a how-to book. In its current form, I think a list of field conditions would have been extremely helpful in putting the challenges the author faced, and his lessons learned, into their proper perspective.
Is the Book Helpful?: I certainly found the reading "A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike" to be insightful and thought provoking in many areas. The book has proven to be a bit of an inspiration, and has made me consider my own issues. It's given me an excuse to, once again, re-evaluate what I carry and try to lessen the weight in my pack. While I have no complaints with what I currently carry, it seems that I may be able to carry even less weight without loss of function. We'll see. The author also made the argument that it's a poor idea to plan for a "Death March" to reach a given spot on the trail - that hiking to the point where one remembers being exhausted without ever noticing the beauty of the trail can take away the "fun" of hiking (no mention that it can also lead to many of knee, blister, and chafing problems). "It is always better to want more than you get, than to get more than you want." This is definitely a problem I have - my time in the field is often limited to an afternoon here, a weekend there. So, when I can get away, I tend to push my limits and hike in excess of 20 miles (32 km) per day. Often, the results are pains in my knees and chafing in unmentionable areas. While I will continue to put in long days on the trail, I will also try to employ some of the author's remedies to painful knees and chaffing. On other hikes, I will plan less aggressively, and allow myself enough time to where I don't have to rush to make camp. The author states that "if a reader of this book finds one of my experiences useful, then I will rejoice." Well, the author can rejoice in that I have found one, even many, of the experiences he shared to be useful. At the same time, I would have liked to hear more. I wish that the author had tried hiking that 200-miles (322 km) across at least a few different seasons, just to give readers a set of more well rounded opinions.
Future Tests: It is now time to hit the trail, and work on my issues using analysis and solution-building techniques as suggested in the book. In some cases, the author's own methods will be applied. In other scenarios, I will have to come up with my own answers by using past experiences and, as the author recommends, improvisation and adaptation. In building solutions, I will try to stay mindful of the author's examples, using them as inspiration. Will I find the book to be helpful? Read more reviews of Wayah Press gear Read more gear reviews by Andrew Mytys Reviews > Books > General > A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike > Andrew Mytys > Field Report | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
