North to Katahdin by Eric Pinder

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indie Bound

Paperback, 178 pages
Milkweed Editions, 2005

North to Katahdin

Why do we like to hike? Why do we walk through the tick-infested woods, risk getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, endure windburn and hypothermia on rugged mountain slopes until our feet ache and our knees throb and our forty-pound packs squeeze our spinal cords like an accordion?

Why do people willingly lose brain cells in the headache-inducing thin air of Mount Everest, or go for weeks at a time without a shower along the Appalachian Trail? Why do we do these things, and then go back and do them again and again? North to Katahdin is my nearly 200-page attempt to find an answer.

North to Katahdin probes the allure of the wilderness experience, using Maine’s Mount Katahdin as a laboratory. For some, Katahdin is a symbol of accomplishment: the end of the 2,160-mile long Appalachian Trail, stretching from Georgia to Maine. For others, Maine’s highest peak and the mountains surrounding it in Baxter State Park are the closest they can come to true wilderness.

Praise and Reviews

“A descriptive, insightful book that makes us think about our place in nature.” – David Breashears, director, IMAX-Everest

“An exciting and colorful description of the beauty, glories and ruggedness of Baxter State Park and Mt. Katahdin.” – Donn Fendler, author of Lost on a Mountain in Maine

“Well written and descriptive” – Leslie Mass, Library Journal

“So many fascinating aspects to this book…I scarcely dare to try to summarize them, for fear that I’ll omit something very important.”
– Bradford Washburn, Mt. Everest cartographer

Review of North to Katahdin at Bookslut