A Psychological and Emotional Guide To Thru-Hike the Appalachian Trail (Volume 1)

Should be called "Appalachian Scam."Bunch of drivel. This guy at a young age hikes the AT and now knows all there is to know. Cannot stand his approach of putting tons of pressure on yourself to complete it so you don't have to do the "walk of shame." What a bunch of crap. Save your money

I purchased this book on Kindle a few days ago and actually took notes. The wife is asking if I feel OK(I've never taken notes of anything I've read since completing college and didn't take many then). This isn't just a "Hiking the A.T." book. This is a book on living life to it's fullest and how to laugh in the face of misery. Do as Zach says, not as he sometimes does(read the book)!!
I live about 45 minutes from Springer Mtn. I'm in these woods often doing short 4-5 day section hikes by myself(my preference). Have met many people on the trail. Everything Zach talks about in the book resonates truth. There's no sugar coating or embelishing life on the trail in this book. I couldn't tell you how many books I've read on hiking, gear, nature and social aspects of life on the trail. Never have I picked up a book like this one(read the book).
I often dream of doing a thru-hike while reading these stories. Living vicariously through the eyes of the author. I say that because I'm 50 years young. In descent shape for an old fart, have a job, wife, daughter in college(not cheap). It's just not the thing a responsible dude does, right. Wrong! After reading Zach's book, I've got a fire lit under my bum like never before.
Many of the lessons, and daily rituals Zach talks about(read the book), I currently practice. ie: meditation, acceptance, this too shall pass. I learned them from a little group I belong to that will remain anaonymous.
Well Zach, thanks for the shove. I'm doing this! I have the gear; I'll make the time; I've been section hiking for several years, and now, after reading your book, I know I have the mental fortitude to laugh in the face of misery. I announced this to my wife last night(again asking if I feel ok), and probably looking at March of 2014 as my target. Thanks again Zach. Next is shouting it out from the roof top(to hold me accountable).
I wish you all that you seek in the future young man!! Your quite amazing.

This book fills a gaping hole in the AT prep literature. It outlines specific strategies for preparing for and completing a thru hike, then explains how to stay sane post-Katahdin. It's a quick read (I started it at 8:30 this morning and finished it at noon), but is chock-full of the stuff you need to walk 2,200 miles. Plus, it made me laugh out loud. Well done, Good Badger! And thanks. I know that I'm (many) years from being able to make my pilgrimage, but this book will be with me when I do.

This book is fun. It's written by a past thru hiker and asks you to consider the mental game. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't as informative as I expected. If you're worried about your thru hike, or want encouragement, definitely give this book a read. If you've had some sports psychology or are pretty experienced in hiking, you cold afford to pass. But the ebook price is right, so why not read it anyway?

A decent book but I found it to jump around a bit. Wouldn't recommend it if your'e looking for solid advise on hiking the AT however it does offer some good tips. I find the Facebook site to offer great articles.

It relaxed me toward the proposition of hiking all or some part of the Appalachian Trail. It is a nice mix of the practical with the psychological. I would have liked more information about sleeping and bathing options along the way

Overall, this is a useful compilation of methods to consider when taking on the challenge of a thru-hike. At worst it is a good start. The information presented is well written (hard to come by in a self-published title) and covers many important aspects of positive psychology related to a real world situation.

It lacks a strong narrative, however. The "why should I care" part of the book may limit it mainly to people in its particular niche audience. A bit more depth in the "character" of Zach would go a long way to giving the subject matter a broader appeal. Expanding the roles of others in the narrative, beyond the pure anecdotal recitation for use as example, would give insight not only to the plight of the main character, but to the mindset of those who influence his journey and its outcome. Where are Zach's parents in all this? What about the trail angels and their motivations to help Zach succeed? How would the journey have been different if not for their support?

The author writes well enough, but the book reads more like a conjoined series of blog posts rather than a novel. I would suggest the author read (or re-read as I suspect) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It is a fine example of melding a solid narrative with a fascinating yet dry subject. I am sure there are other examples, but that would be my personal favorite.

The nice thing about the written word is it can be rewritten, hopefully for the better.

Oh, and fix those spelling errors while you are at it.

I am hiking the Appalachian Trail this year and have been doing a significant amount of reading about long distance hiking. Zack Davis' book, Appalachian Trials, addresses a long-empty gap in hiking how-to books; the psychology of long distance hiking. I found his book to be very informative and full of practical suggestions to address the mental tricks and stories we tell ourselves when we are uncomfortable and our brain is screaming at us to quit. Zack's book is realistic and his suggestions can be applied to any activities that stress our ability to cope. I purchased the Kindle version and the only thing that kept me from giving this book 5 stars were the number of typos and grammatical errors I noticed at the beginning of the book. I'm hoping that much of this will be smoothed out prior to publication.

I am preparing for a 2013 NOBO Thru-hike. I have been reading any book I can get my hands on to help prepare me for the adventure that lies ahead. I have yet to read a bad book however this is the first one that really speaks to the truth of the trail. Many people try to "sell the trail" and only provide the best parts of the trail and what worked best for them. Very few folks actually write about what they did that did not work. This book is 100% from the heart no BS straight up telling it how it really is. I had heard that the mental trail is harder to hike than the physical trial and after reading this book I feel absolutely no questions asked prepared to take on the trail both mentally and physically. Thanks Zach for writing this book.

I was drawn to this book because it's really the only published attempt at addressing the mental and spiritual challenges of a thru hike. The author did an awesome job of recognizing that there was a market demand he could fill. Unfortunately he filled it poorly.

The book is littered, to the point of distraction, with spelling and grammar errors. I hate spelling errors!!!

You know what else I hate? Paying $8 for a book that the author didn't bother to edit (or have edited). I paid you $8, and so did 168 other people. You've made at least $1,352 off of us on a product that never got edited. Or maybe the print version got edited and the Kindle version (which I read) got uploaded from a draft version. Either way, I hate paying for poor quality.

The mental hygiene advice was not particularly enlightening but perhaps worth my time to read. Having been on many extended length backpacking trips I don't feel as if I got any insight from him that I didn't already have. Perhaps the author confirmed some of my own ideas and suspicions about mental health on the trail but I definitely didn't have any moments of epiphany from his writing. Probably because I was too distracted by bad spelling.

At the end of the book we come to the section on gear which really just put the nail in the coffin for this book. The section was guest written by Ian Mangiardi and proved to me beyond a doubt that this book is not worth paying for.

The section on stoves has this direct quote: "The best stove for me will always be a screw-on IsoButane stove. These will always be the lightest weight...". I was slightly stunned by this comment. For those of you who are not aware, canister stoves are not the lightest weight stoves (alcohol stoves and Esbit far surpass IsoButane as the lightest stoves). There is no attempt to mention Esbit or Alcohol which leaves me feeling like this is either just blatantly false information or purposely abridged to a fault.

In the shelter section, Ian mentions that NEMO Equipment "will always be [his] go-to brand for quality, lightweight tents". There's a pretty good chance that this is because he's sponsored by NEMO Equipment which he fails to mention in the book. NEMO tents are, in my mind and by the numbers, not even close to a top choice lightweight tent competitor.

Shameless undisclosed plugs for your sponsors in a book which new hikers are bound to use as advice for their hikes? This is just down right deceptive and harmful to the hiking community.

This book would have gotten a three star review without the needless gear advice section which really dropped the book down to a two due to poor information and seemingly deceptive sponsor support. The book was written as a mental preparation book for a hike and should have stayed that way. A gear book needs to be a separate topic and needs to be given due attention by a competent and fair author.

Read this book if you can get it for free or borrow it from a friend. Do not pay money for this book. If you can look past the terrible editing and not read the gear section, I think you'll get something useful from this book.

There are better-written trail books. There are funnier trail books. There are more entertaining trail books.

But for my money, if I had to recommend a single book to a would-be AT thru-hiker, it would be "Appalachian Trials." Davis really nails the reality of the challenges many, perhaps most, hikers will encounter at some point along the trail.

Every person's experience of the AT is different. But Davis' perspective on the trail and what it takes to finish square perfectly with my own experience.

Read this. Then go buy Gary Sizer's, "Where's the Next Shelter?" for an artful, funny, true-to-life, start-to-finish account of his 2014 AT thru-hike. Between these two titles, an aspiring hiker will be as prepared as he or she is likely to be ... and, of course, their experience will include the unexpected.

But don't worry: the trail is your teacher.

This is one of the few Appalachian Trail books that I'm planning to re-read. The psychology of long distance hiking is underappreciated, sometimes even by former thru-hikers.

It's not a travelogue. It's guide to preparing yourself for the trail, hiking the trail, and reintegrating after your hike, with a few short anecdotes. There's a little pre-trail "homework" for you, and some on-the-trail mental exercises.

One thing - most can ignore the small gear prep section. It's an aside to the gist of the book, and unless you're a neophyte, you'll want to hike your own (probably lighter weight) hike.

Decent book. I listen to Badger's podcast and have enjoyed his website. The book reads as I would have expected after listening to him - Informal and amusing. Good common sense information, but the book would have benefitted from a professional editor. (4 stars is probably a little generous, but he is a likable guy)

Read this book in preparation for a much shorter hike and loved it. It not only prepared me for my hike, but was also laugh out loud funny in many parts. Zach gives specific tips on how to handle the mental aspects of long distance hiking, as well as incorporating some wonderful life lessons about comparing our day to day lives to the AT (or any endeavor) and living every day to the fullest. Truly one of the best books I've ever read- both for it's practical tips as well as it's refreshing outlook on life. I finished my hike months ago, but still think back on some of the lessons in this book routinely. Overall great read!

Been reading this on my Kindle. Although I am not sure I will be able to do a "thru hike" in the next 10 years (until I retire), I do believe that even if you are section hiking 200 mile segments there will be trials. I think he has some helpful advice for any hiker that has to endure through hardships on the trail. This book is certainly worth the $8 I paid for it.

Zach does a great job at really focusing on the mental challenges associated with embarking on a thru-hike. The book is effectively formatted into sections to identify the mental challenges, figuring out how to prepare for them, implementing strategies to deal with them during the journey and then coping with the biggest challenge of them all in transitioning back to "normal life". While definitely important, the subject is fairly droll, resulting in somewhat of a repetitive and unexciting read. Don't expect too much in the way of specific advice on subjects like physical training, gear selection or food preparation as the book seemed to be pretty general in regards to that type of practical information. If you are someone for whom really thinking through and methodically preparing to cope with the mental challenges would be beneficial this is a great book!

In one of the early chapters, when Zach is discussing his reasons for writing the book, he says that he searched long and hard for a book covering the psychological aspects of completing a thru-hike, but to no avail, so he wrote one himself. This book covers many aspects of thru-hiking that are not really covered in other AT books (trust me, I have read my fair share). He is a tremendous writer and this is an enjoyable and funny read that really helped me in preparing for my 2015 thru. I picked it up on a whim and it is by far the best book I have read in my preparation. Buy this, you wont regret it.

I bought it as kindle version for our iPad, the price in Euro is 6,22, a cheap capital investment, only topped by "A Walk in the Woods" for exactly one Euro as used version. The difference is that Appalachian Trials is worth the money. In the beginning, when i started reading the book, i was somehow confused. The book was much less funny than i had expected. Where was the crazy, funny guy from the blog? I checked again on his website and the reason for the change was clear. When Zach Davis started to write about his hike, he was a complete rookie, but when he wrote the book, he had become a professional hiker. I was not disappointed at any time of reading the book, but it was completely different from that version of the book i had expected of him. Neither it is a book about the history of the trail, like Bryson did, nor it is a book describing the hike day to day. Somehow i did expect the last, but not for a reason, because Zach told us (readers) already on his blog about his writing in detail.

Maybe i could have known, it would be some kind of scientific: "The Psychological and Emotional Guide to Successfully Thru-Hiking The Appalachian Trail" is not that funny for a sub-title, is it? :)

For all other non-native-readers out there, i like to let you know, i only needed to check for the translation of exact seven words and the meaning of one sentence. Of course that will tell you nothing, so let me compare it to other English books i read in the original version. It is even less than i needed to check for Harry Potter (any) and on the other end we have the books of David Weber, where i needed to check at least one word on every page and to make it even more complicated, i really needed to translate the title of some books word by word.

So, Appalachian Trials is a joy reading, even for Germans, thank you Zach.

The book is subdivided in several parts: Pre-trail, On-trail, Post-trail and a lot of bonus material like information to Lyme-Disease (Borreliose), gear, nutrition and some more. All in all i did know all the stuff Zach writes about, because i already read "The Good Badger" blog and some others, like the blog of Ian Mangiardi's, who wrote the (great) gear-part of the book. But, as you may know already, to find all the information you like to know in the net, is a lot of work and needs a lot of time, that's one reason people still do buy books. But there is another reason, one you realize, if you write a blog on your own. Some people say: "Oh, you write a blog, you could write a book either." No, that's not true, at least not so easy. To write a book ist much more difficult than to write a blog (you can prove me wrong Zach).

I think Zach Davis really tried to gather all information he could get, so others can successfully go on their own hike on the AT. He talked to a lot of people, to get more than one opinion, simply to get the best answers on all the questions and problems that may occur to a thru-hiker. All that information he wrote in an entertaining book, with some personal stories on the side, not as the main attention of the book and he did that very well. He did something nobody else did in this way before, as far as i know. The book has got a very professional touch and i am waiting for Zach Davis next adventure and hopefully new book after that.

Conclusion: Appalachian Trials is is many ways much better written than the blog of the same author. A big part is about the psychological and emotional aspect of the thru-hike, like the sub title says already. I found this kind of information in this completeness nowhere else. Not in other blogs, or in any book i had in my hands. That's why you should - no - must buy the book if you attend a thru-hike. I am sure of it. The additional information is great, because Zach gets directly to the point, directly to the questions of all others out there like me. His answers to all the questions are of course his own opinion, but it is the opinion of a successful thru-hiker. For me that is more than enough competence. The book is much more serious than i had expected, but it is the funniest scientific book i ever read. Good work Zach, five stars from me.

This book will help your mind! Most books focus on the day to day challenges, over-the-top gear lists and so on, but this book focusses on what is obviously as (if not more) important as your physical preparations. So this is a nice breath of fresh air in this genre.

I've read the majority of the book so far (leaving the post-trail until I actually complete the AT - don't want to jinx myself!!!) and I have to say that it held my total interest throughout and I have no doubt I'll be reading this treasure at least a couple more times before I set off on the trail this April.

Hike your own hike and you'll surely do well. Hike with Zach Davis' philosophy and you'll no doubt have significantly fewer "If onlys" when you're done.

Good job, fella!

I just finished reading 'Appalachian Trials' and have to say that it is perhaps the best trail prep book I've read so far! Zach's approach is both honest and entertaining but beyond that, it offers an insight into areas few "would-be" thru hikers have probably even considered. I can relate to the emotions described within it's pages after having only completed the AT Approach Trail, let alone going the distance. I am contemplating a thru hike in 2013 and feel so much better equipped to handle what lies ahead for me, both on the trail and post-trail. I'm actually planning to re-read this book before I head out. I've got quite the collection of how-to books on the Appalachian Trail, but I am placing Zach's book at the top of my list and highly recommend it to anyone even remotely considering attempting a thru hike...or anyone who is in the market for an entertaining read. Well done, Zach Davis! Kudos!!!

After over 5,000 miles of hiking, one would think there is little left to learn -- WRONG. Zach Davis writes a comprehensive guide to how to deal with the mental struggles of hiking everyday for six months. Think work gets tiring and boring? Wait until you hike 20 miles a day... for MONTHS. With Zach's guide, you'll be able to cope with it, understand what your mind will be going through from the beginning, and ways to battle the inevitable desire to run around naked waving your arms and screaming 'I'm going insaneeeeeee!' (Don't know from experience... said person may not have embarrassed themselves if they had read this book first...) Read it. Learn from it. Go on a hike.

Let's talk about how I couldn't be further from an aspiring AT hiker but still enjoyed this book. The lessons it presents and teaches can be applied to every great challenge in life. Zach Davis' wise but no arrogant advice kept me reading until I realized I'd miss my subway stop. I would recommend this anyone even if you aren't looking to hike the AT. His humor and wit will keep you engrossed!

While this book has a lot of great information specific to thru-hiking the AT, its themes can be applied to any undertaking that is difficult, uncomfortable, or generally hard-as-hell. Davis gives fantastic insight into mentally preparing for a great challenge, most importantly how to overcome the psychological lows that inevitably occur in those situations. Whether it's a long distance thru-hike or joining the Peace Corps, you should read this book if you plan to willingly put yourself through something mentally, emotionally, and/or physically taxing. The most rewarding things in life always are. Zach Davis gets that.

reluctantly purchased this book after being convinced by its many glowing reviews. I was disappointed to find it extremely short and filled with cliche and platitudes. Beyond raising (repeatedly) the psychological challenges and concerns Thru-hikers may face, it did very little to address them in a comprehensive useful manner.
I would say of the entire, albeit brief, book there were three useful suggestions that I am now unable to recall - so perhaps not.
The one star is for the anecdotal revelations that gave the best glimpse of the writer's experience. These were, however, infrequent and cheapened by a lack of serious reflection or half-hearted jokes.
I would add more critique, but I am loathe to waste any more time on this.

A snapshot into the guts beyond the glory of thru hiking the Appalachian Trail. A quick witted Zach Davis captures your attention by bringing the overpowering elements of thru hiking down to a human scale. A little book packed with valuable information that will stop and make you think twice about not only why you're hiking, but what happens if you fail. If you're serious about thru hiking, this book is for you. Covering information untouched by other authors, Davis really does something special in Appalachian Trials.

This book will make you laugh. It is funny. It is sweet. It is smart. It is inspiring! Appalachian Trials is just like its author. You don't need to be an aspiring thru-hiker to read this book (although by the end of it, you may be a convert) - Appalachian Trials offers sound advice on meditation, healthy eating, remembering to smile and more for anyone thru-hiking life.

p.s. this gem is also available for the nook!!!

A short read without a word of fluff! Don't step onto the trail before you read this!

It's not a trail journal. It is a valuable resource for before, during and after your hike, full of techniques for keeping your head in the right place so you can keep your feet on the trail!

As I read Zach's book, I felt like I was sitting down to have a conversation with a good friend. Appalachian Trials is full of good words and good advice, all shared in the author's honest and humorous writing style. Though specifically geared towards hiking the AT, Appalachian Trials is a worthwhile (and fun) read for anyone planning, or interested in, long-distance backpacking trips.

I've been toying with the idea of tackling the A.T. and this was my latest read. It appears to be the most honest in telling you all the good AND bad. Very well written and includes information that I haven't read in any other book. A must read for those seriously considering hiking the A.T.

I usually can't get through an entire book b/c I have the attention span of a monkey. But Zach makes reading easy with his humor, insight, honesty, and experience. The ONLY thing that would make it better is if it had more pictures of kittens...But that's just a fact of life. Also, my favorite color is yellow. So even if you don't read, you can still look at the pretty cover...unless you're blind...then I'm sorry.

Just a wonderful hiking book. Zach really get's it right in describing and conquering the "physch" part in successfully finishing a long distance hike. This gets the coveted "dbcooperisalive" 5 star approval.

This book will help you more with a thru hike than the Thru Hiker's Companion. However, having the right gear is also important, so make sure you check out The Good Badgers educational videos on building bear proof tents [...]

This book is a rare gem. I love how he discusses the realities of what can, could and does happen on the trail with a point of view of how to keep your mind straight and keep truckin'. I've searched many a places to find this perspective. Definitely will have my family get a copy before I head out.

I found the first half of the book to be the most awesome maybe because I felt that it is mortar that holds the bricks together. The psychological aspect is going to be the most critical as I venture forward. This is a must read for those who have never done any extended backpacking trips.