The popular account by Steve Sherman and Julia Older of their hike through fourteen states has been re-published in a special edition.

APPALACHIAN ODYSSEY highlights their bliss-and-blister experiences of what it takes to hike the 2000-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine—and enjoy it!

Follow their adventure away from Interstates and into backwoods America. Cross the Smokies, survive Virginia floods, buck New Jersey heat, walk the Presidentials of the White Mountains, and a mile-deep gorge. One hundred and fifty days later, stand victorious on the summit of Mount Katahdin.

A total of 181 people became thru-hikers from 1936 to 1973, the year Sherman and Older hiked The Trail. Today, in a single year, as many as 600 men, women and children become end-to-enders.

Sherman and Older write with spirit and wit. They’re good observers, playful, responsive to place names and places.
     —Peggy Thomson, The Washington Post

Over the years, people wrote, phoned and emailed requests for copies of APPALACHIAN ODYSSEY; Walking the Trail from Georgia to Maine , with a forward-looking Foreword by Edward Abbey. In partnership with iUniverse, the Authors Guild selected the book as part of its special Back-in-Print program to renew this American classic for the Green Generation. Inspiring for all ages whether you’re a backpacker, day-tripper or armchair hiker.

Appalachian Odyssey is not only a readable and very human book but a cleansing and replenishing one.
     —Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

Copies are available from Appledore Books (signed copies on request) or directly from iUniverse as well as from independent and online bookstores.

According to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau that tracks all major commercial sales, business in bookstores has been steady on keel. Bookstore sales held fast in January this year, increasing $1 million to $2.28 billion, considered holding flat against January 2008. Overall sales for all national retail products tracked by the Bureau fell 8.3% percent in January 2009 from the same period last year. One conclusion is that people re-discover books as a good deal in bad times.