On Trails: An Exploration

This exploration of trails by environmentalist Robert Moor leads the reader into a rhapsodic review of our world from the microscopic to the global. Reflecting through philosophy, literature, science, anthropology, history, and his perceptive observations, this author demonstrates how the creature and man-made paths have shaped history. Ant trails serve as an information track, animal trails lead to fodder, early American Indian footpaths fostered communication, and many of these trails were eventually widened for wagons and then paved into roads and highways. Stitched into this exceptional saga about the evolution of trails are his accounts of his hiking addiction, especially on the Appalachian Trail, which he has covered from bottom to top. He joyfully recounts his progress along the trail, and even reveals his misadventures. Currently he is pushing for an international Appalachian Trail. Anecdotes about other hikers spike the stories, as he tries to expose the inner calling that induces this walking obsession. This phenomenal book is magical reading, and Robert Moor has an extraordinary gift for meshing a scholarly background with an insightful environmental awareness. This writer joins David Quammen as a magnificent nature writer.