Review: Walking Home

Walking Home: Common Sense and Other Misadventures On the Pacific Crest Trail

by Rick Rogers

Lovely adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail!  I didn't like it as much as some of the long trail travelogues I've read but that was only because he didn't spend as much time on nature stuff--plants, animals,  geology, all that.  But he did meet some wild and crazy people and have some fun (and cringe-worthy) stories.

Early on he starts off with new boots that he picked out himself, without any advice from a mountaineering/hiking store. The sort of boneheaded thing I would do myself. I know myself and I know my own feet, right?

Not under a 35-pound load, traversing rugged terrain!

Another part that was kind of scary and sad was about his hiking partner that he joined up with. She was a shallow, self-centered, idiot, and it took him a long time to figure that out.  I'm not sure if he ever did--but I'm scared to tell any more because I might be giving too much away.

Anyway, it's fun to read, hard to put down, and very much recommended. Fun stuff!  And his personal growth during the adventure, while understated, was enviable. At the end he was a guy I'd really like to go hiking with. And that says it all.

Review: The Longmire Defense

The Longmire Defense
by Craig Johnson

I chose this mystery, book 19 in the series, because it was about an older guy (I'm older) who was still working despite his age (I work on my house projects) and had a dog (I do too!)  His dog is named dog, which probably implies it doesn't have a significant role in the story. And it didn't.

Some one else reviewing this book wrote:  This one felt like a return to the strengths of the series, for those who have followed Sheriff Walt from the beginning. No narco-terrorists, no supernatural stirrings ... just good old-fashioned greed and financial skulduggery.

And that pulled me in. It was exactly as described and I very much enjoyed. A little slow moving throughout, but not in a bad way.  

Review: Wander

Wander: A Memoir of Letting go and Walking 2,000 Miles to a Meaningful Life

by Ryan Benz
 
Not your typical Appalachian Trail thru-hike. Mr. Benz was an older guy (30s ?), with a successful, well-paying career and a wife and even a house, I think.  His marriage ended because for both his wife and him there was nothing but the job and the lifestyle--they didn't grow together in their years together but instead grew apart.  And during those years, he kept putting off "real life" until some nebulous point in the future when he'd attained the perfect job and lifestyle.

The marriage ending jerked him into thinking about what he really wanted out of life, and it wasn't the high-pressure job or the big house or the perfect marriage. What was it?  He didn't know, so he quit.  All of it. To hike the trail.

Wish I had done the same thing, but there were too many people depending on me. But he did, and I couldn't stop reading to find out if he found what he was looking for. Would he or wouldn't he?  And could he even walk that far?
 
Read this and find out. I'll guarantee it's full of adventure and pain and happiness and finally, even joy.  And just possibly a mountaintop at the end.

Review: Hero Dogs

 Hero Dogs: How a Pack of Rescues, Rejects, and Strays Became America's Greatest Disaster-Search Partners
by Wilma Melville and Paul Lobo

Wonderful story of the vision, founding and execution of the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, by the founder herself, Wilma Melville.  (Paul Lobo is her co-author)

As you'll find by reading the cover, after volunteering in the cleanup of the bombing at Oklahoma City, Ms. Melville made a vow to help 168 dogs receive search-and-rescue training in her lifetime—one for every Oklahoma City victim.  The dogs that were recruited and trained were mostly rejected shelter dogs, all of those that were too smart, driven and active to be adopted as family dogs.  In fact, mostly it was the most troublesome that--with a lot of patient training--became the best search dogs.

This is her story and it's fascinating from beginning to end. And not over yet!  She's like in her late 80s or early 90s and still kicking.

Review: Force of Nature

Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail
by Joan M Griffin

So very detailed she must have spent hours every evening taking notes--and worth it!  Awesome description of the author's trials, tribulations and joys on the trail. It only took them about a month to make the hike, but the description was so lively, scary and wondrous that I wanted it to take much longer.

And isn't that just about the best praise you can give certain books--wish it had gone on forever?

She describes the mountains and the trails so beautifully you want to be doing exactly what she's doing...except for the rain, the slippery mountain passes, the narrow logs across icy streams, the trail that disappears in a snowfield, and the ever-pounding footsteps made by blistered feet. It's a relief when she switches to hiking sandals--been there, done that and felt the wonders.

Review: Sea People

 Sea People
The Puzzle of Polynesia

by Christina Thompson

One of the more fascinatingly comprehensive books about an unusual subject that I've ever encountered!  Gripping from beginning to end. How is that possible for a work of strict nonfiction?

I guess it's because he put a lot of everything in. His own background (a little), then the history of the sea captains who explored the Pacific; descriptions of the people they met on the Islands; the geographic and logistics of sailing between the islands; the many conflicting theories on how people without modern navigational instruments could have routinely (or accidentally???) sailed so far, and more.  And then he shifts gears and describes the attempts in modern history to recreate the Polynesian voyages.  And then jumps into archeology and the puzzle of pottery, which together with the study of fishhook design shows the interrelationship of the peoples of the Islands.

All of these puzzles had my brain wondering if he was ever going to reach some sort of comprehensive theory about "this is how it happened"--and then he jumps into radiocarbon dating of samples.  This answered some questions but also introduced a lot of errors into the theories that were being tossed around by various researchers. I had thought that radiocarbon dating was only accurate up to a range of a few thousands of years, but this book explains how refinements in radiocarbon dating technique, statistical analysis, and corrections for sampling error, can produce much more precise results.

For example, dating the ashes of a campfire created by humans doesn't take into account the age of the trees that were burned in the fire.  That doesn't make the date useless, but it helps if you can also date the trees or other objects in the ashes for correlation.

And then the evidence from modern genetics studies comes into the puzzle. Interesting thing I learned--in problems of origins such as this, if access to the human remains is culturally sensitive, scientists can be a lot of information from the remains of the humble rat, man's eternal companion.  There are three species of rats on the islands--the Norwegian, the black, and the Polynesian (Rattus exulans). the latter of those accompanied the original explorers of the islands on their journeys.

So the book has a pretty satisfying conclusion to its many questions--where did the inhabitants of the Islands (New Zealand, Hawai'i, Easter Island and those in the triangle of these three) come from?  When did they come?  How did they get there? Was it a one-way journey or back-and-forth?  and the only question left unanswered, for now, is Why?

Review: Have Dog, Will Travel

Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet's Journey
by Stephen Kuusisto

Lovely little memoir by a man who is blind from birth, then finally gets a seeing-eye dog at age forty or so. After years of pretending he could see--because his idiot parents forced him to--at age 38 he lost his good job and finally confronted the reality that pretending wasn't getting him anywhere. (Literally)

So he gets his service dog and undergoes the training to work effectively with her. That's the cool stuff--the dog comes pre-trained, but but human being has a lot of work to do!  Finally, together they begin on his real journey of life--traveling independently, taking on new jobs, and doing all the stuff that a blind man alone is afraid to do.

It's a little soppy and repetitive, but still fascinating. One thing I'd never considered is that a dog takes his direction from the human handler, and so long as there's a safe way to do it, he does. So if the human, say, wants to jaywalk across a city street in downtown New York, the dog will check traffic, see if there's a way across, and take it.  Even it if scares everyone watching near to death.

Good dog!