Non-fiction Audiobook Review: On Trails, by Robert Moor

Another installment in my quest to understand walking, hiking and the huge mental health benefits that I, at least, get from doing it.

 

 

Title: On Trails: An Exploration 


Author: 
Robert Moor, read by Jason Grasl

Publication Info: Audiobooks.com, 2016. 11 hours. Original by Simon and Schuster, 2016. 


Source:  Library



Publisher’s Blurb: 



 From a brilliant new literary voice comes a groundbreaking exploration of how trails help us understand the world—from tiny ant trails to hiking paths that span continents, from interstate highways to the Internet.

In 2009, while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, Robert Moor began to wonder about the paths that lie beneath our feet: How do they form? Why do some improve over time while others fade? What makes us follow or strike off on our own? Over the course of the next seven years, Moor traveled the globe, exploring trails of all kinds, from the minuscule to the massive. He learned the tricks of master trail-builders, hunted down long-lost Cherokee trails, and traced the origins of our road networks and the Internet. In each chapter, Moor interweaves his adventures with findings from science, history, philosophy, and nature writing—combining the nomadic joys of Peter Matthiessen with the eclectic wisdom of Lewis Hyde’s The Gift.

Throughout, Moor reveals how this single topic—the oft-overlooked trail—sheds new light on a wealth of age-old questions: How does order emerge out of chaos? How did animals first crawl forth from the seas and spread across continents? How has humanity’s relationship with nature and technology shaped world around us? And, ultimately, how does each of us pick a path through life?

Moor has the essayist’s gift for making new connections, the adventurer’s love for paths untaken, and the philosopher’s knack for asking big questions. With a breathtaking arc that spans from the dawn of animal life to the digital era, On Trails is a book that makes us see our world, our history, our species, and our ways of life anew.

My Review: 


As the blurb reveals, this was less about our minds and bodies on trails, than about the trails themselves. That may have made it less relevant to my researches (but who knows where things will lead?), but no less interesting. After all, those mountain and desert trails I hike to the benefit of my psyche didn't happen by accident. Mostly.

Where trails come from seems particularly relevant when I hike the Grand Canyon, as I was doing a week or so back. Who found the ways down the cliffs? How? Did they just keep trying? Or did the white prospectors follow the Indian trails, and the Indians follow the game trails? It's something to think about besides whether or not the knees will make it to the bottom.

In On Trails, there is also a discussion in the rather substantial Epilogue that feels like it was speaking to my obsession with hiking. Moor hikes with and talks with a long-distance hiker who, having done all the long-distance trails, has taken to just... walking. Across Texas or whatever, and roads are as good or better than trails (most of us will go out of our way not to walk roads, and with good reason). That discussion left me with a couple of questions: What is beauty? Moor's road walker finds the man-made to be beautiful, even things that many of us see as a big mess, like tangles of power lines. (As a note, my son is an amateur photographer who specializes in the grittier bits of cities and abandoned places, and yes, he find art there). 

A second important question, one that any long-distance hiker or hiking addict (me) has to ask at some point, is, Why am I hiking? I'll get back to you when I find an answer. It'll probably take a book to explain.

In the end, Moor's contemplation of the origins and nature of trails (even the distinctions between trails and paths!) brought me to a valid meditation on the ways in which walking heals--and leaves the question of if it's the landscapes or the movement that matters most.

Jason Grasl's narration felt smooth and natural, making it easy to listen and follow the book's sometimes winding and branching topic. 

My Recommendation: 

 


This book might be more for those who are interested in quirky information and contemplation of the history of the land than those who want to go for a walk in the woods. But I was never bored.

 

FTC Disclosure: I checked On Trails out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  


 

 ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated.


Don't miss a post--Follow us!