Travel Narrative by Bill Bryson (from A Walk in the Woods) Review

A Walk in the Woods is a travel narrative written by American author Bill Bryson. He described in the story his experiment of walking through the Appalachian Mountains. Hiking as a sports activity and as a sort of adventures becomes nowadays very popular. What motivates people to go through the woods, mountains, long distances, overcoming sometimes the great difficulties and dangers? Interesting question. Let's see what the author wrote:

"Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. A mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles whopping, fifty miles at the very limits of conception. The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret.

At times, you become almost certain that you slabbed this hillside three days ago, crossed this stream yesterday, clambered over this fallen tree at least twice today already. But most of the time you don't think."

Interaction with nature is the main plotline of the story. The author with his friend went through the forest. When they reached the Appalachian Mountains the strong snowy storm begun. The map, which they had, showed the area very approximately, it was possible to say that they didn't have a map. They were lost at the peak of the mountain, during heavy snowfall, as the author wrote: "people have died in less trying circumstances".

Fortunately for travelers, they found the shelter- a small cabin for hikers, where another two people were: a father and a son. After a little rest, they continued their journey. The story has a happy ending. They had some difficulties, even troubles during this journey, but they survived, they overcame difficulties, they achieved the aim- and that's the most important thing. It probably was not the last walking trip for them.


Here is a text of the story:

https://connect.issaquah.wednet.edu/cfs-file/__key/telligent-evolution-components-attachments/13-21741-00-00-00-20-76-19/u3_5F00_walkinwoods_5F00_se.pdf?forcedownload=true