A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

emily harper

Book Review: Sheltered

(Note: I am in two challenges this month, so this is running a little earlier than I normally would publish a post. My 30 minus 2 Challenge post will be published early in the afternoon.) 

In 2011, I did a series of stories about people who had hiked the Appalachian Trail. It truly is amazing to hear people speak about their experiences.

One of the people I wrote about was Emily Harper, a Pennsylvania teenager hiking more than 2,100 miles on her own. It’s pretty amazing to hear about something like this. Late in 2012, she e-mailed me and let me know she wrote a book about her experiences and was curious if I wanted to read and review it.

Of course!

Sheltered

She sent me two copies — one for me to read and review and the other to give away. So if you’re interested in winning this autographed book, see the bottom of this post for the details.

With all that in mind, this is an honest review of the book, which takes you along the Appalachian Trail through her eyes. Her details are quite strong, he writing is conversational and, the one thing I truly loved, she didn’t hold anything back. It’s a colorful tale of her time along the trail, off the trail, her experiences and the people she met and hiked with.

It’s not perfect by any means. It’s a self-published book and it has some errors throughout. I’ll touch more on those later. While it’s true that I probably gave a little leeway here because of what she accomplished at her age, I’m still a writer and reader first — and I had to put myself in each of those shoes throughout. The price seems a little on the high side at $15.50 for paperback (on Amazon) and $5.99 for the Kindle version (on Amazon). If you are an Amazon Prime member, you an borrow the Kindle version for free, which is a good thing.

Still, as somebody who claims he will eventually write a book or three, I know the dedication and time needed and understand what she went through. But there are a lot of basic things in the book that made me cringe a little, which sometimes makes it hard to continue, no matter how good the stories are.

In the end, I’m glad I got the chance to read it, especially knowing I had written about her before. This is probably a good read for younger women thinking about tackling this hike by themselves as Harper is really straight forward with things and shows you what it’s like for a woman on the trail.  Now, I’ll get a little more in-depth on my likes and dislikes.

The Good

There’s something to be said about not holding back any punches. Harper definitely doesn’t and that’s refreshing.

She’s candid about people she hiked with and met. She offers up her attitude on different things. She flaunts that hiking as a female can often be way better than being a guy. And she also shows a softer side in situations.

I liked that.

Many hiking books I’ve read don’t show that. They show you the eyes of the hike, introduce you to some people and make it sound pretty good. There’s no doubt that Harper’s hike wasn’t perfect. In fact, if you read the book, there might be times where you’ll say something out loud, wondering what she was thinking. Or that you didn’t like how she acted. I know I did. But I liked that. Because she didn’t paint herself as an angel. She also didn’t paint anyone else as being perfect.

Harper had some interesting hiking partners. From the ones she started off with and eventually was left behind by, to the ones she truly seemed to care about and wonder about what happened with them. She paints a picture in the reader’s mind of these people. She lets you develop your own thoughts. I like that.

The other thing I did like is this book is more like a journal. And, as somebody who read her online trail journal during her hike, it was nice to see that style in her book.

It’s personal, but can be impersonal at times. It’s written in a style that isn’t literary. Many people may not like this style. I don’t mind it with this book. It has to have a certain flavor for me to enjoy a style like this and I can dig it here. It’s almost like she handed me an old leather-bound book, handwritten for her long journey.

That, however, tends to lead into something that isn’t liked by most…

The Bad

Spelling. Grammar.

If one is to expect people to spend money on a book, the author needs to do everything in his or her power to make sure the book is clean in regard to spelling and grammar. I respect the self-publishing route. I’m not snobby like some who think self-publishing is a bad thing. In the modern day, some people need to go that route to get books published. And I’ve found many, many books I’ve truly enjoyed through authors who took that route.

That doesn’t, however, excuse one from doing everything in his or her power to make sure things are right.

There were a lot of mistakes in this book. I had started writing them down and finally stopped after a while. It was frustrating at times. Though I got through the book relatively quickly, there were moments I had to put the book down because I couldn’t accept the issues. I always went back, though, as the story was good.

The major errors includes punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.

A few examples including misspelling of things such as Willy Wonka, which was spelled Wanka. Or not capitalizing “Subway.” There were places where words needed hyphens, or needed to follow the right tense — one spot said “… but made my arms ached.” There was a chapter, too, where she spoke about some hiking friends and spelled the name of one person two ways.

Some people might be able to overlook issues like this, but I couldn’t. It was hard at times. A few things like this is one thing, but having it littered throughout makes one wonder if it was ever proofed or edited. If not, it could use a good edit and then maybe put out “a second edition” to update things a bit. Having two or three people — ones who aren’t afraid to tell the truth — edit a book before hitting the publish button can be worth their weight in gold.

I also would have liked a little more explanation at times, such as telling the reader what “root ball” is, besides it being a game some hikers played during their time on the trail.

Rating

Taking everything into account, I’m not going to lie that this was an extremely hard book to rate. There were so many good things, but then the issues with grammar and spelling really took the wind out of my sails.

I just didn’t know.

The reality is, I’d probably split this one down the middle. In other words, I’d give it a 2.5 or so. But that’s not based on the content. So, with that in mind, I’d bump it to a 3 out of 5 and would be more than willing to go a bit higher if a second edition came out with a bunch of edits. The 3 is worth is on content and style alone. But I couldn’t go more with knowing the issues with common things, some of which probably could have been avoided with a slow spell/grammar check in Word.

Artwork (For The Artful Readers Club)

This book is also one I’m reading for The Artful Readers Club. In this club, we read one book per month and also have to so some sort of a piece of art to go with it. For the second straight month, I went with an advertisement. I wanted to use a hiking shelter, but I couldn’t find any in my archived. I thought I had some. Instead, I just went with a trail photo.

For the Artful Readers Club.

Book Giveaway

I have a signed edition of this book that I’ll be giving away. So for the next two weeks, I’ll accept entries. Just drop a comment down below and you’re automatically entered in the drawing. Note that the book will be shipped via media mail to the winner.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Hiking away with a book (contest winner!)

With the hiking series of stories in the books, it’s time for the winner of the contest.

Though I had hoped to get many entries for this signed book of Skywalker’s trip on the Appalachian, only three people entered. Two tweeted the contest, too, so that’s five entries. Add two more who gave a Facebook page like (thanks, you two!) and we have a total of seven entries.

That’s disappointing.

Still, for those three people, the odds got that much better to win this book. First, if you haven’t read the book, it’s a fantastic story of — as Skywalker told me through Twitter — on what not to do on the Appalachian Trail. He makes fun of himself and tells about the trip in a humorous and colorful way.

I highly recommend the book to those of you who either didn’t win this contest or are just reading about it now.

Anyway, with so few entries, it didn’t take me to pop the four into Random.org’s randomizer to get a winner.

And the winner is…

Lauren!

Congrats, Lauren. Contact me with your address and I’ll get the book out to you sometime next week!

The winner via random.org.

The hiking series

I hope people enjoyed the hiking series. Though I would have liked to have had a few other hikers (I contacted several, but didn’t hear back from all of them), I am happy with how the series worked out.

There were some really cool stories and I liked getting back into that style of writing. I hope to do a few more things like this with the blog down the line. I have some ideas I’m working on, so we’ll see how it goes.

The links below are for all of the stories in the series. Go check ’em out if you haven’t already!

Series Schedule:

The future of contests at A ‘lil HooHaa

I’m not sure if I’ll be running contests much anymore. Though I like the idea, it hasn’t done what the hope is — drive some traffic to the blog so people read it. Even through social media “advertising,” I don’t get many extra hits. And many who enter the contest only enter and move on. Even though tweeting it (if one has a Twitter account) is a quick and easy way to get a second entry. Same with liking the page on Facebook.

I’ll reconsider as I go on, but it doesn’t seem like the contests do too well, so I’m going to save myself the shipping costs (most things I’ve given away, I already have or have been donated).  If I do another series or two of stories and somebody gives me something to give away, I’ll try again. But for now, I’m not going to have any standalone contests anymore. Which, to be honest, is too bad because I had some cool things (things I have gathered personally over the last year or two like t-shirts, geocoins etc.) that I was going to give away. I’ll re-visit it down the line, but for now it doesn’t seem like a feature I’ll keep doing.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

On the Appalachian Trail with Amish

Amish on the Appalachian Trail. (Photo courtesy of Emily Harper)

Imagine setting out on a life-changing event basically alone. Sure you’ve made contact with a few people who are also doing the event and there are many more you’ll meet along the journey…

… but you are basically going solo.

Then add to this that you are a young female — 19 years old — and are hiking a nature trail from Georgia to Maine. You’ll be backpacking, camping, meeting all sorts of people and having to fend for yourself.

How many young females do you know who would spend a summer doing all of that? Many might be preparing for college. Working. Or doing whatever else.

Not Emily Harper.

Harper, a groundsman for a tree company in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, had no thru-hiking experience. She said the goal was to lose weight.

So what the heck, let’s hike some 2,180 miles.

Harper also got the chance to live a care-free summer. She met people. Lived independently. But it wasn’t all cookies and cake for Harper, who noted the trail is long and can be quite boring.

Again, however, it wasn’t easy.

Harper took 5 1/2 months to complete the trail. She started March 5 and finished August 18.

That’s a long time to be out wandering a trail.

As for doing future long-distance hikes?

“Not anytime soon,” Harper said.

Who can blame her?

But the future of hiking for Harper, known in the hiking circles by her trail name “Amish,” isn’t something that she needs to worry about now. The reality is she did something that many people won’t ever even try, let along complete. Along the way, she met many people, had a ton of new experiences and found out all about hiking and herself.

She didn’t give in. She took the time needed to complete the hike and she finished. That alone is something to be able to be incredibly proud of. But along the way, she made memories that won’t ever leave her. And that, too, is something that makes a trip like this worthwhile.

Being female on the trail

It’s a good bet that if someone quickly thought about hiking a 2,180-plus, they would be a male. That’s because the bulk of the hiking people appear to be male.

Females are out there, too. And the number of female long-distance hikers appears to be growing. Harper is one of those female hikers. Though she started with a group of people, she eventually separated and began hiking solo.

“Hiking alone can be boring,” she said. “Solo can still be hiking with others, just not a solid commitment, which makes it more fun. People always ask ‘are you traveling alone? Isn’t that scary?’ It’s not that bad. Guys are friendly. If there’s a sketchy character, the other hikers are there to help.”

But fear not for the female hiker. Harper said it’s better to be a female on the trail.

After all, if hundreds of guys are hiking the trail and see one another for many miles. Having a female to talk to and get the different perspective is a good thing, usually.

Amish (right) with a fellow hiker. (Photo courtesy of Emily Harper)

“On the trail, it is a whole lot better to be a female,” Harper said. “People are more friendly to females.”

And how?

Well, Harper said, females are more likely to be given rides into town quicker (hitching), get food or be invited into people’s homes.

“It’s a real treat,” she said. “I’ve met guys who would have to wait hours to hitch a ride. I’d take 10 minutes. Because there are so few females on the trail, I was rare, and felt more special.”

She noted that many guys complain, however, about how females look on the trail and that the females like going into towns. Yet, she said, guys don’t seem to have a problem heading into town as well and beer and meat are two of the things they like to delve into when hitting towns. So, it would appear both males and females could have something to complain about with one another.

Hiking her hike

The original goal, she said, was to lose weight. Seems simple enough. But to hike through sometimes rugged terrain, by yourself, on a 2,180-plus mile trail?

It turns out that this trip became more than losing weight.

For starters, she learned a lot about herself.

“I get lonely and very attached to people,” Harper said. “More so than some. I don’t like hiking by myself and I love staying at other people’s homes.

“I am persistent,” she continued. “Don’t judge people. Everyone has something to offer.”

Persistence goes a long way for Harper, who did things here own way it seems. From hiking with different groups to hiking at night, she did her own thing.

But, even those things could give her the chills a little.

“My first time night hiking was kind of scary,” she said. “I was alone by choice. I was trying to catch up to some other hikers but even so, there were other hikers planning to leave an hour or two after me. I was to anxious to go and I couldn’t sleep.

“I jumped when I heard things rustling and freaked out when I saw eyes staring at me,” she continued. “Which, once I got close enough, I saw it was just a deer. A whole herd of deer.”

Those weren’t the only things that could get to Harper’s spirit.

“It can also be a bit nerve-racking when you start to run out of food,” she said. “And it’s plain annoying when you run out of toilet paper.”

Looking back

Harper said she had her highs and lows on the trail. Though mostly a positive experience, some things weren’t perfect.

“I wish I took my time,” she said. “Being that I started out with a group that had 20-mile days normally, it was hard for me to justify being slow. I felt like I could enjoy myself sitting all day in a shelter. Or stopping to talk to people. I did though. I tried.”

She said some of her best times were hiking at night and being able to watch the night turn into day. As for the bad, she said there were times when she would push herself too hard and everything hurt, which made her break down and cry.

There were regrets, too.

One included when she was hiking through the White Mountains in New Hampshire. She said the only places for hikers to stay are huts where hikers can work to stay (instead of paying). Hikers would work and get cold food, having to wait until about 7 p.m. to get fed.

The last hut she stayed at was called Madison Hut. Thru-hikers were given a small room instead of the cafeteria floor. The hut people made sure the hikers were fed well.

“It was, by far, the best treatment of all the huts I stayed at,” Harper said.

But, Harper said she did a lousy job of helping. She ended up leaving and said later other hikers were disappointed in her because of her actions.

Funny times also happened for Harper.

Take a day she had a long day and got to a shelter. There were two guys in there and Harper said she knew right away they weren’t thru-hikers. At that point, they were digging for worms to go fishing.

After not finding any worms, Harper said she suggested slugs as they were everywhere.

Turns out the two guys also didn’t have a hook.

“They seemed undaunted,” Harper said. “The one carved out a hook from wood.”

The two replaced that wood hook with a safety pin that Harper gave them. And, being she was looking for some really good food, she even offered to help the two.

“I can just imagine the fish sizzling,” she said. “So I tell them that I’ll make the fire.”

The two fellas had fishing line and tied it to a hiking pole. They kept losing the slugs as bait and then tried leeches, which didn’t work well. In the end? No fish.

But, better than the food was that this was pure entertainment. Other thru-hikers were entertained and the two guys gave Harper their extra food.

“Which I took, most happily,” she said.

Harper said some of her best days included ones with views — such as being able to see wild ponies on the trails. Some of the worst days included one where she was swarmed by mosquitoes all night as she attempted to sleep and it was too hot to be inside her sleeping bag.

Helping others

Now a veteran of the trail, some people might as Harper for thoughts if they wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail.

Her advice?

Research. Put money toward a backpack, sleeping bag and tent. Don’t have mail drops.

“Be friendly to everyone,” she said. “You don’t know when you might see them again. Be friendly to day hikers. They might give you food and take your trash.”

And now that she’s done the hike, it might be a little easier to prepare for the long commitment it takes to complete it.

“It’s all mental,” she said. “Make sure you have the support of your friends because you’re going to need it.”

Small things that are important include getting pack weight done and knowing why you want to carry each piece of gear.

“You’d don’t want to spend money on things you don’t need and you don’t want to carry something you never use,” she said. “I had a luxury deck of cards, but even that I didn’t hold onto the whole trip.”

Tidbits

Here are some quick-hitting tidbits from Harpers thru-hike.

  • On what she did in the days following her hike: Organized things, met with friends and started cooking, other than boiling water.
  • How many sets of shoes she went through on the trail: Two pairs of trail runners and got a third pair in Hanover, New Hampshire, though she said she did that unwillingly. Her old shoes had no grip and would slip all the time. “It was nice to be sure-footed once more,” she said.
  • Best trail town? Damascus, Virginia. “I hiked my highest mileage (33 miles) into it. I took two days at “the place.” It was such a milestone (that) I was at this town. I knew I had a chance of completing the trail.”
  • Worst trail town?: “Any place I couldn’t find a free place to stay.”
  • Her trail name, “Amish,” comes from being from Lancaster, Pennsylvania where there is a large Amish population. Whenever she told people where she was from, they asked her if she was Amish, so the name was born from that.
  • Would she do the AT again? “Perhaps. I’d want to go with someone nice.”

To read more from Amish, check out her Trail Journal, which she updated throughout her hike.

From her journal, she also had a brief video on YouTube to show her first few months on the trail. This seems like a great way to really be able to keep track of a hike like this. Document it all! Have a look:

Series schedule:

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Reminder! Contest going on! I am holding a contest this week for an autographed copy of Bill Walker’s book “Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail”. It runs from October16- to 12:01 a.m. Oct. 28. You can see all the details on the contest page. Enter for your chance to win!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Thru-hiking through the eyes of others

The Appalachian Trail is a long and winding road.

For those of you who don’t know what the Appalachian Trail is, allow me to give you a quick background.

The trail — officially known as the Appalachian National Scenic Trail — is a marked hiking trail that runs from Georgia to Maine. The starting and ending points depend on where you start (northbound or southbound), but the points are Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine.

The trail is about 2,180 miles long (give or take a few with any trail changes) and it covers 14 states (Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine).

According to Wikipedia, the trail is maintained by some 30 trail clubs and other partnerships. It’s managed by the National Park Service and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, a non-profit organization.

Much of the trail is through the great wilderness of the East Coast, going up and over mountains and through amazing scenery. The trail also goes through towns, follows a few roads and crosses a few rivers.

Though it’s likely the most famous of the long-distance hiking trails in the United States, it is also part of the “Triple Crown” with the Pacific Crest Trail (West Coast) and the Continental Divide Trail (goes from Mexico to Canada through more Midwestern-area states).

Thru-hiking, to many, is a lifestyle. It’s not easy, either. Don’t think of thru-hiking as a walk in the woods. It’s much more than that. Not everyone can hike 2,180 miles. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy estimates that just 1 in every 4 who attempt the AT thru-hike will complete it.

It takes a lot of planning, endurance, patience and time to tackle one of these trails. Someone hiking the AT could take upward of six months to do it.

The speed record for the AT, which was set this year by Jennifer Pharr Davis (trail name: Odyssa) is 46 days, 11 hours, 20 minutes. She beat the previous record of 47 days, 13 hours, 31 minutes, which was set by Andrew Thompson in 2005.

Now, take into account, too, that Pharr Davis was doing a lot of power days in excess of 30, 40 and 50 miles per day. One day, she did 60 miles.

Hiking!

But for us mere mortals, those types of days aren’t the easiest things to accomplish. No, the reality is that many people start out doing 10-mile days (or about) and work their way up. 20-mile days are good, strong days.

The journey is what it’s about to many.

So, in this series, I am going to bring you the tales of four people. Three who have completed the trail and one who had to pull off from the trail.

Each story is different.

Take Bill Walker, a nearly seven-foot tall hiker who has completed the AT, the PCT and the Camino de Santiago in Spain. He’s gone from the crazy world of Wall Street to realizing what life is about and hiking is a major part of it for him.

Take Emily Harper, a 19-year-old from Lancaster, Pa., who hiked the trail solo this past summer. Think of being a young female, alone, on a trail like this. It’s a different perspective to see if from those eyes.

Then there’s Chris Nadeau, who hiked 815 miles of the trail before deciding he had to attend to things going on in his personal life. It’s a different view of the trail from someone who still has plans to thru-hike the AT, but for now is among the 75 percent who start the trail and don’t finish.

You’ll also meet Tyler Bedick, a chemist from Morgantown, WV, who completed the trail this year in 139 days.

Each of these people has a story with their hiking. From personal sacrifice to the difficulties and triumphs on the trail.

Their story will be told as part of this series.

Over the next two weeks, I’ll bring you these stories to the best of my ability. The dates below show the dates each will run.

I hope you enjoy the series and it’s my hope that this won’t be my last in-depth series of stories or journalistic-style posts (I have others in the works).

Enjoy and I welcome any feedback!

The schedule of the series is as follows (links will be provided for the days that have already passed):

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!