Five Million Steps: Faith Adventures along the Appalachian Trail

Five Million Steps is a backpacker's chronicle of traversing the Appalachian Trail. The hike takes him through fourteen states in fourteen years, a 2,170 mile trek up and over at least 237 mountains, starting at Springer Mountain in North Georgia and finishing up on Mount Katahdin in northern Maine. In the backcountry most long distance hikers have a trail name. The book tells the stories of the Arkansas Traveler as he took on the miles in all kinds of weather and met characters from across the country and beyond. The solitude was sweet when he had ninety hours to think without anything in his ears but the temperamental wind or a buzzing gnat. But there was also the ache of missing family as he went further north following the white blazes. The miles added up and worked on the psyche. In order to be a 2,000 miler, the hiker had to want it, otherwise the will to go on vanished and he would fill the ranks of the 90% that never finished. The book introduces a dynamic not often found in the backpacker world. The Arkansas Traveler is a pastor, so along with perseverance, there was faith. It enabled him to see beauty in every season and know the wonder of the Creator from the mountaintops. It taught him to listen in the big silence of the wilderness and to do something that almost everyone does, but few talk about--pray. Faith also increased the willpower to press on when a range of emotions would crash down on his heart and helped him catch his breath in times of euphoria. It called for working through the rough spots in life and gaining peace when the soul struggled. There were lessons in humility. A backpacker can't be too proud to put out his thumb to get a ride into town to resupply or to find camp just about anywhere after a long day of trekking. There's an equality on the trail when hikers dialogue with others who may be very different in worldview, values and politics. The book talks about friendship that endures. The Traveler made new friends that were the "salt of the earth" kind of people. Two were an incredible help in getting on and off the trail. Mississippi had been with the Forest Service in his home state and was volunteering on Mount Rogers in Virginia where he met the Arkansas Traveler and invited him to the Pine Mountain Forest Service cabin one cold night along with Eagle, a thru-hiker from Alaska. There was Gray Panter who was from Vermont. He was in a shelter one rainy day in Connecticut, where the Traveler came in for the night. The Gray Panter was a God-sent for accessing the trail in Vermont and New Hampshire. What hospitality he and his wife gave that southern boy! One other friendship stood out: Prune Picker and the Traveler had gone to seminary in Texas together. They hiked 276 miles in three stints on the Appalachian Trail. The solitude of the mountains was a great contrast with long conversations in a shelter set under the stars against a black night. The physical stamina and the demands of huffing and puffing up and down the steep climbs somehow brought soul satisfaction. Five Million Steps is in the second edition. It reads fast and is bound to make you smile as you read about the author wearing out a few hiking partners (all except Prune Picker) who were not quite ready for a wilderness march. There wasn't a lot of time taken to pick the wildflowers. The mission was to add up the miles. The book has a few select photos, remarkable stories, and a glossary of terms to explain trail lingo. The aim is to give you a love for the wilderness, a hope to take it in whether it is in the heat of the summer or on a trackless trail in snowy winter. As you turn the pages, you will feel the cold spring soaking your feet and hear the birds' songs as dawn comes over the shadows of the mountains. It is a place where the soul can find reason and rest. You forget what you look like and remember how you feel down deep on the inside.