The Trail Is the Teacher: Living and Learning on the Appalachian Trail (Thru-Hiking)

Clay Bonnyman Evans — aka Pony — set out on the Appalachian Trail in March 2016, intending only to walk as far as he could get by Memorial Day. But once he got started, he fell in love with the trail, the terrain and, most of all, his fellow thru-hikers, and he knew he’d go crazy if he didn’t finish. “The Trail is the Teacher” is the story of his inadvertent flip-flop journey, the people he met, the trials and triumphs he walked through, and the many lessons the trail has to teach. Written with wry humor, deep reverence for the land, and love for the hiking community, this vivid memoir reveals how engaging with people in the wilderness can ease the human heart and restore hope.Clay Bonnyman Evans is a former newspaper reporter and columnist for such publications as the Los Angeles Times. He is now a freelance writer living in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina and Boulder, Colorado. Since his AT hike, he has completed the Foothills Trail, Alabama Pinhoti Trail and the pilot trail of the nascent Great Plains Trail in South Dakota and Nebraska. He is a frequent contributor to The Trek (thetrek.co) and has been featured as a guest on the popular hiking podcasts Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, Hiking Thru Life and Backpacker Radio. His previous book, “Bones of My Grandfather: Reclaiming a Lost Hero of World War II,” has been an Amazon bestseller in several categories, including Military History.