In his book, "As Far Aas the Eye Can See", David Brill takes the reader on a soul-sirring adventure along the rooftop of eastern America. He tugs at heart strings as he overcomes the grueling day-to-day trials and tribulations that plague long distance backpackers, and he lifts the reader's spirit as his soul soars to lofty heights as the beauty of Nature's bounty unfolds. Couch-bound? Not to worry. Mr. Brill evokes pictures with his dynamic and descriptive prose that carries the reader alongside, step by step. A must-read! J.R. "Model-T" Tate, author of "Walkin' on the Happy Side of Misery"

Mr Brill's book was the first of several I have read on hiking the AT, and it is, so far, still my favorite. He tell's about the hardships without moaning and groaning, and also lists the good things. You can get a good idea of what to expect about the AT from reading this book.

By the time you finish this book, you'll be ready to throw a pack over your shoulder (a large one) and head for the AT. Hikers and non-hikers alike will appreciate Brill's wonderful book about his journey. A must read for anyone who has walked or dreams of walking this national treasure. (His more recent book is another must read - called "A Separate Place.")

I highly recommend this book! As a person preparing for this "walk in the woods" I found this book to be uplifting. It has beautiful illustrations and makes your feet itch to hit the trail. There are a lot of references to God, and those that are not comfortable with this should steer clear. I found it personally to be a nice touch. For those who want the experience of the trail without hiking it, this is a great book.

This book makes even a non hiker want to take to the trail. Although the diety is frequently mentioned, it is not a sermon, merely Mr. Wadness's perspective on the beauty he sees. Put this book on a coffee table, and allow others to browse the trail.

Exceptional photography documents one trek on the Appalachian Trail. At least the equal of National Geographic's book. Wadness has a passion for photographs that are technically accurate and artistically beautiful.

The narrative conveys more than a "walk in the woods." It relates a unified drama. A remarkable cast of characters! The details should be left to the enjoyment of the reader.

On a literary and religious level, "Sojourn in the Wilderness" relates to the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, as the title of the book suggests. Wadness found himself composing poetry at peak moments on the trail.

This true-life story demonstrates how one person adapted to the rigors of the trail by faith. How anyone with limited experience could carry a 70-80 pound pack on a rocky trail for seven months is a miracle.

I'm buying additional copies as gifts for friends.

I really enjoyed this book...it was a light read and very informative as to life on the trail. Also, I was inspired by the effort and tenacity of the author who was 57 or 58 years old when he made this trip.

I really felt like I got to know Jim Coplen while reading this book. His writing style is spare and no-nonsense, almost Hemingway-esque. I read his book because I am dreaming of hiking the Appalachian trail in the next few years and want to soak up as much information as I can. Jim's book is one of the best AT books in terms of describing the day-to-day grinds, headaches, fears and joys in hiking over 2100 miles. He has the unique ability of enabling you to be in the scene with him, as if you're walking alongside him. This was a pleasant surprise.

I do wish that Jim would have told us a little more about his life outside of hiking. He scarcely mentions his wife (who remained at home in Indiana), and I never got a clear or definitive idea why he chose to undertake the adventure. He didn't seem to have much inner turmoil or upheavel in his life prior to embarking on this grandiose and magnificent pilgrimage.

I recommend this book to thru-hikers, section-hikers or those planning on doing the AT someday in the future. It's especially instructive for the 10% of prosoective thru-hikers who plan to begin their walk from Maine and walk south.

Jim wasn't quite able to complete his thru hike (he breaks a bone in his ankle as he nears Georgia), but he returns to the trail in the Spring to complete his adventure. If you like a bare-bones writing style, not enlivened with much humor or extraneous "personal confession" garbage, you'll like this book and respect it. I know I did.

If your burned out and disenchanted with techno-pop culture like I am then this book may be just what you are looking for. Jim has a clear and consise way of conveying the day-in day-out of hiking the AT and all the magic alone the way. When you are finished reading this book I'm sure you will feel some of that magic as I did. Happy trails!

Christopher Whalen gives a good basic planning device for a Thru-Hike and the information can be applied to any long trek. The area that brings me some concern is the divergence from accepted advice regarding clothing. CW recommends cotton underwear and most who hike now advise that a quick drying material be utilized. If this is a result of the book being written before the implementation of new materials then the later editions of the book should provide up to date information rather than to just crank out additional copies of out of date material.

Another way that this book could be improved is to put it in loose-leaf form so that pages can more easily be copied since that is a recommendation of the book for certain pages.

There is much in the book that is very helpful but there is room for improvement.

While this workbook is not as inclusive as Wingfoot's, it is more current. It also addresses some issues that are not covered in Wingfoot's. If you are planning on hiking the AT, I would recommend purchasing both..... Happy hiking. Its always an adventure...

Chris Whalen's book, helped me prepare for the long walk through the mountains. I just hiked the AT, I used Chris' book to prepare. It was like a workbook, I was able to tear out and photocopy the pages for use in preparation of my trip. There are charts, diagrams and important info. I would've been in trouble a few times had I not gotten this book first. Thanks a lot Chris!

I picked this book up from a co-worker one day and read it straight through. One chapter caught my attention the most "The Witch". I soon realized that the Church talked about in the story was in a neighboring town so instantly I assembled a group of friends and we were off.

I had heard about "Tilly Ben" a church in Blueridge, GA before however I didn't know all the details. I had heard that the minister of the church had hung himself in the church and thats why it was closed. However the book said that a witch was buried at the churches graveyard and thats why everyone who stepped foot on the grounds would be cursed until they stepped off the property of the church.

The first night we stopped at a local grocery store and asked directions and everyone had their own story to tell us about the old church. It seemed that all the locals had ventured up to the church at one point or another. After getting directions (bad directions by the way) we were off travelling down Aska rd. Well me and my friends would spend three futile hours looking for the church, but no luck. The next day we went back with someone who had been there before, and boy it was creepy. Set back way in the mountains across the creepiest one lane bridge you will ever travel on sits the now infamous Church that we had sought out.

The church is small and run-down, and the graveyard stretches across the land looking like it doesn't end. The property is surrounded by endless woods and the moon was covered by dark clouds this particular night. We were all pretty excited at first, but soon we all became scared. Two of my friends decided to explore the backside of the church while the rest of us began searching for the grave of the famous witch we had heard about from the book. After about five minutes of searching we heard screams and my two friends were running to the car. Instantly the rest of us freaked and we all ran back into my Jeep Cherokee. It turns out that they had heard rustling in the woods, and then they heard a bang that sounded like it came from inside the church. We then left because everyone was freaked, however I am planning to go back so I can find the witches grave and perform the ritual that this book tells of, and maybe I'll actually see a ghost.

So pick up this book because the tales are real and who knows you could end up on a ghost or witch hunt of your own, hopefully yours will be more fruitful then mine!!!!

This or any other review of this book should start out with a disclaimer. If you are looking for a book of investigated ghost sightings like those by Hans Holzer and others like him this is not the book for you. There are some spooky tales in here but they are indeed the type of stories that as a child I heard at the feet of my Grandmother and aunts. If there are some eight year olds in you family that like ghost stories but you don't want to really scare them; this is your book.

The best thing about this book is that it does exactly what it sets out to do. The folklore of the southern highlands is beginning to fade away but this book puts it in writing so that it will never be forgotten. The writing style is superior and it is sometimes hard to put the book down. Never doubt that this book is well worth the price.

I took away one star from what would otherwise be a five star book for the chapter about the UFO. I don't buy ghost books to read about UFOs just like I wouldn't buy a UFO book to read about Big Foot. In this chapter one of the writers suggests that just maybe we are seeing aliens when we think we are seeing ghosts in Confederate uniforms. The fifth star went away when I couldn't figure out why an alien would be wearing a Confederate uniform.

Still, I thank these writers for helping to preserve a little Appalachian folklore.

An excellent book containing many folklore tales. What makes it especially interesting is that the stories are not hearsay, or packaged to make them more palatable. They are written as they were told by the people, and are communicated as if you were sitting on the front porch of a cabin sitting high in the Appalachian mountains. 'The Curse' is one of my favorites.

The AT Backpacker is a well-written, no-nonsense guide. The Logues give the low down on hiking with an eye toward the Appalachian Trail. I found everything I needed to know about foods to eat and how to be safe in drinking water. They also go through the dizzying array of gear out there, from tents and backpacks to stoves, sleeping bags, boots and clothes, all with the AT in mind. There are also chapters on winter backpacking, backpacking with children, and long distance hiking which expand on the basics.

An earlier edition of this book gave me the confidence to get out on the trail for some shorter hikes (weekend hikes and a week-long trip). I have used the checklist for overnight hikes in the back of the book to prepare for many hikes and find it the best equipment checklist anywhere.

I bought this third edition to get the latest as I prepare for a thru-hike of the AT. The Logues have made numerous changes throughout the book. I'm glad they have kept the AT Backpacker current. The additional appendix on websites has proved helpful for planning my hike.

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more before hitting the AT for a hike.

The Appalachian Trail Backpacker delivered what it promised--trail tested advice for hikes of any length. I found the info I wanted to give me the confidence I needed to get out for a week long hike on the AT. They taught me everything I needed to know to go out and do it. I recommend this book to anyone interested in hiking the AT. It's a well-written, no nonsense guide.

This book provides vital information for anyone preparing to hike any part of the AT. This book utilizes good format with headings and different sections to outline almost anything that one will need to know about planning a hike from packpack size to water filters. Since the book is advice from other hikers, it is general information, but DEFINITELY useful! I was extremely pleased!!

Having read several accounts of thru hikes on the AT and being interested in the subject, I found this book extremely disappointing. Didn't feel the family took much positive away from their once in a lifetime experience and the book held little helpful information for anyone considering a thru hike,or even interested in, the AT. Other AT books I have read have been either informational, inspiring, helpful, positive accounts of nature and hiking or all of the above. Their family hike seemed mostly an ordeal. Aside from some humerous exchanges with their 10 year old daughter, I didn't find much to recommend this book.

First off, I would like to say that I did enjoy the book (thus the 4 stars). I felt that it gave me a good feel for the experience of being a long distance AT hiker.

That said, I did find a few things that I didn't like. I sensed a strong feeling of elitism from the author. Mic seemed smugly confident that end to end through-hikers were clearly superior to 'mere' day or weekend hikers (tourists). I would imagine that he held even greater disdain for people who hadn't even hiked the trail, but merely read about it (most of those purchasing his book). His condescending attitude eventually grew a little tiresome.

Readers watched him instill these views in his 10 year old daughter. He almost sounded proud that she had no interest in associating with a group of similarly aged Girl Scouts that they encountered on the trail. She appeared to prefer hanging out with 'real' hikers than what she seemed to view as a gang of silly little children.

Granted, their through-hike happened many years ago, perhaps around 1973 or 1974. Attitudes have generally grown more open-minded in the meantime. I find myself wondering if the attitudes of through-hikers like Mic have evolved as well.

This is only the third book I've ever read about the AT, but it is my favorite. I felt as if I were walking with them, and felt their disapointments, frustrations, joys. I thought that by including how the daughter and mother felt along the way, not just the author-dad, I got a better picture of what it was like to walk so far, and how people experience things differently. Great balance of trail details and personal feelings. An enjoyable and inspiring book. Didn't want their walk to come to an end. Makes you want to get out there and hike too!

Lytton Strachey wrote that the most illuminating histories tend to "shoot a revealing searchlight into obscure recesses. . ." (Eminient Victorians). The history of the Illinois frontier ought to be one of the truly fascinating recesses of American history -- it is, after all, the scene of the confluence of multiple cultures and influence: the prehistoric Sac and Fox cultures arising from the rubble of Cahokia, the greatest North American pre-Columbian culture; the French and British Influence; the American settlement and finally the Mormon Sojourn. This ought to be a rich ground for historical writing.

The end result is highly disappointing. It informs but does not inspire. The writing is tedious and bogged down and seems to have no focus or theme. This is a standard academic text, calculated to put its reader to sleep. However, the Bibliography is a helpful springboard to other research on the subject.

Read this book when it was first released and have not been able to keep it out of my mind ever since, so I just finished reading it again. As a student of history, my greatest interest is in how the people lived and felt who shaped the events we call history. James F. Davis helped me to visualize how people lived and how they felt about the events they affected and that effected them. Especially impressive is his understanding of the mindsets of Yankees and Southerners and how this evolved as the State matured and grew. I give "Frontier Illinois" my highest unqualified recommendation.

I have just finished James Davis's book of frontier history and felt compelled to not only add my kudos to the growing body of discerning Amazon readers but also to set the record straight. The reader from Springfield, Illinois is clearly mistaken when he accuses Dr. Davis of "poor organization and editing." As pointed out in other reviews, the two figures are not inconsistent; one is national while the other is for Illinois. Davis's editing skills are superlative; that is abundantly apparent when one reads the finely-tuned notes to his DREAMS TO DUST: A DIARY OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH 1849-1850 (1989, University of Nebraska Press). Legitimate criticisms are always valid. Unfortunately, the conclusions of the reader from Springfield are neither.

Taking a quote from the book, it could well have been subtitled: From 'Root Hog or Die' to 'Can You Spare a Dollar, Please.' Although it traces the history primarily of the Eastern Kentucky Cumberland Plateau area, there are probably some similarities with the character of life in similar mountain country in parts of West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee. While it describes the history from the time of the first non-native settlers until about 1963, the book is essentially a plea for outside help for the area. The author suggests the formation of a Southern Mountain Authority to be much like the Tennessee Valley Authority. He states "The T.V.A. demonstrated the means by which many of the world's trouble spots can be rescued. It's example now offers solid assurance that, for low direct cost to the taxpayers, America can successfully attack the ills of the Southern highlands in a campaign that will eventually benefit every one of the fifty states." He does not let TVA off without criticism, though, because he blames TVA for much of the motivations that lead to increased strip mining rather than deep mining. He claims that in 1953 TVA began changing from a "benevolent government agency whose masters gave every evidence of a wise dedication to public service" into "a mammoth corporation which subordinated all other considerations to low costs and balanced budgets."

Other than the concluding plea for help, the book is depressing, and offers little hope. It traces the history from fiercely independent settlers, through company coal towns, to a severely depressed welfare state with poor schools, which threaten to perpetuate the problems indefinitely. Despite the depressing aspects, the history is well written and interesting.

In predicting the continued decline of the coal industry, the author does reasonably well, but does not foresee the formation of an organization like OPEC, and he makes an interesting, perhaps over-confident comment about nuclear power. He says, "The growing petroleum glut and the network of natural gas pipelines lessen coal's importance with each passing season. Within a few years tireless atomic reactors will provide much of the electric power now made from coal."

This book would easily serve as an excellent history book for 8th graders living in and near south-eastern Kentucky. It doesn't read as easily as Caudill's stories and tales about the people and politics of this region, but it is valuable for anyone who wants to know about his or her history and why it happened the way it did. Sometimes sad and depressing but still factual and truthful, this book will define the area and its people for many years to come.

I read this book for a rural sociology class. Being a native Kentuckian, I was amazed how much I actually learned about this part of our state. I knew all the negative stereotypes, but this book gave a foundation on which to explain them. Very good book - although depressing. For someone who loves Kentucky and thinks it's the most beautiful place on earth, to read of the exploitation of the people and the destruction of the natural beauty of the Cumberland Plateau is upsetting. Even more upsetting is that little progress has been made. A definite read if you are interested in Appalachia or Kentucky.

Frankly, I was somewhat disappointed by this book. I picked it up because I am interested in ghosts and because I live just east of the foothills in western North Carolina. I had also enjoyed reading the authors' book Ghost Dogs of the South. Despite the title of this book, the vast majority of the stories collected here have nothing to do with ghosts, and no story deals with a traditional type of haunting. What these stories do contain are tidbits of mountain folklore, local history, and Indian traditions and beliefs. The book is not bad in and of itself; the problem is that this reader was expecting something quite different from what he found. Peculiarities of the mountain environment are the catalysts for many of these tales, and I believe that readers unfamiliar with the North Carolina mountains will probably be more disappointed than I was. You don't need to have visited Clingman's Dome, Blowing Rock, or Grandfather Mountain to enjoy these tales, but having some personal knowledge of the area is certainly a plus for the reader.

Mountain Ghost Stories is a pretty short book, coming in at just over 100 pages. I would have loved to see pictures of some of the locations mentioned, but there are none. If you are interested in mountain folklore, Indian myths/traditions, or North Carolina history, you might find a quick wade in this pool enjoyable. If you are looking for traditional ghost stories, you would do well to bypass this little book altogether.

Although I somewhat enjoyed this book, I felt that the title was misleading. A more appropriate title would have been simply "Mountain Folk Tales," because many of the narratives were based on ancient Cherokee legends. The book is well written and intelligent, and appears to be historically accurate. In addition, students of Native American culture will find some great material here. However, if you are looking for a good old fashioned haunting, you will not find it in this collection of tales.

The stories in this book are a good balance of the unexplained natural occurrence in the area and the reaction of the people of people to them. Most of the stories are short but left me wishing for more.