A Spiritual Passage

by Rand Timmerman, Esq.

A couple of older men, brothers, agree to hike the Appalachian Trail together. One of the brothers, Ron, is a recent and grieving widower, who appears to see the challenge of it as healing. The other brother, Rand, who authors the memoir, doesn't really take it all quite seriously though he does agree to head off with his bad knee and lack of mental preparation, perhaps as a way of assisting him in a quest for healing of his own.

From that first chapter on, we follow the brothers along the trail, from mile marker to mile marker, camp to motel, back home for breaks and onward through rain, snow, mud and stony fields. Along the way they meet a variety of other hikers, most of whom travel the trail known only by a hiking moniker, like Wonder Woman, Ozzie and Commander; they fall and get hurt or hike on and get soaked by rain; they camp in the woods or make their way to a cheap motel. They argue, laugh, fall into moods, and help one another through rough patches.

The chronicler, though he writes in the third person, referring to himself as "Rand," adds details of their hikes - each hike is the day's challenge, from a particular point on the route to the next, punctuated by a sleep, either out on the trail in a campsite, a cottage, or at a motel or inn along the way. Each brings his car, and they essentially trade off walking "up" or "down" the trail to the parked car of the other, meeting up for the night and bringing both cars back to the next day's launch point.

The sheer scope of such an activity is something most readers won't expect, if you hadn't actually done something similar yourself. According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy website,  "The Appalachian Trail is the longest hiking-only footpath in the world, ranging from Maine to Georgia It covers 2,197.4 miles (in 2024, so evidently miles are added and subtracted over time), with a 464,500 feet gain/less in elevation. It traverses 14 states, and hosts over 3 million visitors a year. The mountains were "created," according to geologists, over 300 million years ago, when the continental plates of Africa and North America collided, causing a buckling and uprising of what we now see as a beautiful, sometimes wild, sometimes gentle, landscape, that has become a destination to day hikers, and "through hikers" alike.

But Rand's tale is more than the daily treks, the aches and pains, the weather, exhaustion and exhilaration. The story also covers his struggle with drinking, not drinking, recovering from drinking, and a truly "spiritual passage" from one "place" to another in his walk of life. His experience in Viet Nam, and in the service afterward seemed to have contributed in some measure to his adventures - both in a positive, and a more negative, sense. He is strengthened, yet injured; running ahead, yet often wandering off, the path of his best life. He shares the details of what drink cost him, the adventures and misadventures of a man who, in spite of his penchant for excess, was able to become an attorney - a successful one - to start over, not once but several times; to find friends, partners, family; to become a friend who helps - and, as importantly, a friend who can accept the help he needs to move forward.

Each step on one journey is contrasted with a step on the other. He recounts his bad days and his good ones as he puts one foot in front of the other as he walks the two trails: to cover the length of the A.T., and to cover the program in his sobriety program.

And while it isn't the primary focus of the story, the growth and walk toward peace of his bereaved brother is also recounted, indirectly, but importantly to the reader, as he continues on to complete the journey.

Because by about halfway through the book, readers will realize they have for many pages, and many "days" looked forward to another chapter (or three) visiting with Rand and his brother - finding out how they're doing, learning where they've been, who they've met, if they managed to get back on the trail after a needed rest or recovery break. They have become "friends" who matter, in whose success the reader becomes invested. And while any individual reader may have chosen another method of making his own "spiritual passage," the effort, and the will to success can be cheered on as the pages keep turning.

The book includes hundreds of photos, helping the reader "see" in even greater detail the moments of rain, snow, sun, bears (yes, bears), snakes, flowers, lakes and shelters. The stuff of life on the trail.