Journey on the Crest: Walking 2,600 Miles from Mexico to Canada

In 1982the same year her account (A Woman's Journey) of a 2000-mile trek along the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine was publishedRoss began hiking the 2600-mile Pacific Crest Trail. She started in the California desert, survived a horrifying, near-fatal fall on the icy Sonora Pass slope and completed the first half of the trail by the end of summer. Two years later, she returned to finish the journey with her new husband, also a hiker. In these lengthy diary entries of the two trips, Ross writes with an ear for dialogue and an eye for detail, pulling the reader into the physical and emotional landscape of long-distance hiking. She notes the fears, physical ailments, encounters with wildlife and observations on everything from nature to spirituality. She also succeeds in depicting life in the hiking communitythe ever-shifting ""circus'' of Crest charactersby showing the interaction, friction and attitudes (sexist and otherwise) among hikers. This book will be appreciated both by armchair hikers and by those who like to head into the great outdoors. (December)