I recently finished Walking to Vermont which is essentially about a former New York Times writer who buys a retirement home in Vermont then the day he leaves the Times decides to walk from Times Square in Manhattan to his house in Vermont, some 400 miles away. Now, don't get carried away with the Bill Bryson comparisons. The difference is that Christopher Wren actually does it, all 400 miles. Bill walked further but it seemed like much of his book is about how he is rationalizing cutting parts out.The part of this book that I like the best is Wren's flashbacks to his reporting days. When it starts to rain on him, he thinks back to when he was in Vietnam dug into a rat infested bunker. In the middle of the night rats climb on top of his net cocoon of a bed and begin to make baby rats. He grabs his gun to shoot them off but then remembers he's in a war zone and a shot from his gun would wake the soldiers around him and give the false impression they were under attack. The rats eventually scamper off and we are left with a story with impressive if not exactly pleasant imagery.
I've always had an unfounded love of Vermont which is the reason I originally bought the book. A few years ago I half-heartedly applied to numerous high schools in Vermont, the towns seemed quaint albeit cold, and I imagined that Ben and Jerry's ice cream and maple syrup were served with all meals. I voted for Howard Dean largely because Vermont was an attractive place to live politically, environmentally, and socially.
Then I actually visited Vermont. It was more beautiful and hospitable then I ever could have imagined. It had history (Ethan Allen), nature (The Green Mountains), quirks (a floating bridge), and personality. My first night there I met a girl at a restaurant that agreed to show me around town and we ended up camping on Lake Champlain together. The next day we hiked up Camel's Hump in the mountains. The breakfasts were fit for kings and the air just smelled different.
Walking the Appalachian Trail never really appealed to me, but I think the 270 mile Long Trail that runs the length of the Greens sounds fantastic. The summit of Camel's Hump was so foggy that you couldn't even see the next peak and it felt like you were standing in a cloud. I can only imagine doing that for leisurely month-long walk in the woods. Add it to my list of things to do.
