Skywalker

Skywalker, Highs and Lows on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Bill Walker ★★★★
This is a book I read in Kindle, having downloaded it for free off of Amazon.com, and is Bill Walker’s account of walking the PCT. Bill Walker is an entertaining writer, and easy to read. He is realistic about what it takes to do the PCT, describes life on the trail as though you were there with him. He does an excellent job of describing both the beauty and misery of the PCT. Having been caught in many of the scenarios that he describes, such as miserable nights under attack by mosquitos, blisters on the feet, nights drenched in rain, I could feel for him. Bill went by the pseudonym Skywalker on his hikes, a tradition popular with thru-hikers of both the Appalachian as well as Pacific Crest Trail. Bill apparently lives in central Georgia and notes that the trail was his first exposure to the Pacific NorthWest. Fortunately, he did get a few days of sun in my part of the world. Bill noted that he worked in the financial world, and before the Appalachian trail, which he did a year or two before the PCT, he had never backpacked before. Bill likes to wax philosophical during his accounts and provide a select history of various regions, something that did not really help the flow of the story. The story seems to be especially preoccupied with accounts of encounters with other thru-hikers, especially noting their free sexual escapades. This provides for amusement, mostly in showing the broad range of personalities and types of people that attempt a 6-month thru-hike. Bill had problems with blisters early in the hike, delaying him for three weeks. Thus, when he reached northern Washington state, heavy snow was already hitting the trail, a signal that he should have aborted his effort; he just doesn’t realize how bad things can really be in the mountains. This entertaining and un-glorified account of a nearly complete (he skipped about 450 miles of trail for various reasons) thru-hike of the PCT is a worth-read for anybody thinking about the trail.