"A Walk in the Woods" on the Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail is one of the longest and hardest of the world's hiking trails and bizarre things fly through a man's head if he starts thinking of walking it, particularly when he's about sixty years old.  That's the story behind "A Walk in the Woods" starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.

Redford and Nolte are the old geezer hikers and they fit into the parts immediately to become two old guys on the Trail trying to fight the good fight.  They aren't trying to find themselves but rather they're trying to find anything.  There Has to Be More Than This.


You know the comparison with "The Way" comes but first more of the detail as the story is told in a series of vignettes connected by beautiful scenes on the trail.  It's the nature of the Trail that people will flutter in and out of your saga and perhaps that telling was the purpose in the movie because Mary Steenburgen is charming but has a relatively-brief appearance.  There's a disappointment because she's charming and obviously looking for something (i.e. someone) but it's unresolved and then she's left somewhere behind on the Trail, still charming and still looking but not to be seen again.

There's comedy as Redford and Nolte hike along because they're aware of the absurdity of two old, out of shape guys even considering something like this but there's the determination to do it anyway and they make some jokes along the way.  The tone is free to be light as neither has a substantive reason to do it other than it seemed a good idea at the time.


We found the movie did not have the same emotional power range as with "The Way" in which it bordered on mystical given the transformations taking place.  While important things came from "A Walk in the Woods," mostly they were affirmations of things they already knew such as Robert Redford really loves his wife.  The Walk didn't have the kozmikal depth of "The Way," at least not in terms of the effect on me.

It's a marvelous time hiking with some instantly-likeable guys facing a big challenge and that's worth the viewing of "A Walk in the Woods" for its own sake.  If you're looking for the Major Epiphany, tho, you may prefer "The Way" and that would be my pick.


Both movies were tips and extremely good ones, this one from the Mystery Lady.  For the young 'uns, the question is what will I do with my life but they have or at least think they have an almost unlimited amount of it and they can squander it.  We don't have that kind of time so the perspective is fundamentally different.  I don't hear morbidity in any of you and instead there's the joie de vivre but it gets knocked back by reality sometimes or a lot.  Nevertheless, the drive never stops.

As to the point at which any of us will be willing to kick back to watch television while abandoning anything else ... I doubt that comes for any of the regulars unless the physical ability is just flat-out shot.


Perspective from a long-time hiker, Kannafoot:

As one who has spent three decades climbing the mountains in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, I was extremely displeased with the publication of "A Walk in the Woods" as well as its western counterpart, "Wild." The reason for my displeasure has nothing to do with the quality of the story or the quality of the films that resulted from each. Rather, it's the casualness of the attitude "Hey, look! A really long trail in the woods. Let's get up and do that, tomorrow." In both cases, Bryson and Katz, and Cheryl Strayed (from "Wild") were lucky to have survived. That's especially true with Strayed who survived only through the intervention and kindness of total strangers. By all rights, she should have died on the PCC.

That's my problem with both. I really wonder how many people read (or watched) either movie and were suddenly compelled to try this themselves. I've never seen statistics on it, but the call of those long distance trails is extremely alluring, and there's the fundamental danger. There are no easy parts of the PCC, as Strayed learned the hard way. With the AT, either end brings you up some very serious mountains right at the start, and weather can turn on a dime (as they showed in the film.)

Neither film (or book) is anything I would ever recommend to anyone that is not already a serious hiker with a fighting chance of surviving the early stages of either trek. The inspiration's great, but the consequences can be deadly. I wouldn't want that on my conscience.