Exploring Life’s Paths Through Robert Moor’s “On Trails”
Hiking is one of life’s great joys. Turning off screens and getting out into nature for an extended period of time, even several days, is rejuvenating. Unfortunately, as someone with two young children and a bad back, I’m not really able to hike anymore. So I often find myself trying to live vicariously through others who write about their long efforts along the Appalachians or the PCT. This is what I thought I was signing up for when I picked up Robert Moor’s On Trails: An Exploration. But it turned out to be much more.
Setting the Stage: Moor’s Journey Begins
The prologue begins with Moor talking about his decision to hike the Appalachian Trail. And the first chapter doesn’t stray from the expected topic either. It focuses primarily on Moor’s journey to Western Brook Pond in Newfoundland and discusses the concept of wilderness extensively.
A Writer’s Craft: Moor’s Captivating Narration
His talents as a writer are evident from the first moment. A storm pins Amarre on a ridge:
For nearly an hour, flooded by increasing waves of tympanic rumbling, I had time to reconsider the merits of the hike. Stripped of his romantic trappings, the savage has ceased to inspire; only a vaporous canvas separated the sublime and the horror.
Beyond a Travelogue: Diverse Themes Explored
This is perhaps the first clue that what awaits you is not a travelogue or a simple memoir using the trail as a narrative device. Chapter two immediately consolidates this, launching into a discussion of ant tracks and the fine distinctions of various English words for lines of movement.
Seamless Transitions: Moor’s Expansive Scope
On Trails bounces blithely from one subject to another: game trails, fiber optic wires, Moor’s time as a shepherd. And throughout, Moor seamlessly navigates the shifting tones. One moment he’s waxing poetic about the power of nature, the next he’s recounting an anecdote about an entire herd of sheep going astray with a comic’s sense of rhythm, then he’s waxing philosophical about the damage wrought by colonialism.
A Testimony to Moor’s Narrative Skill
It’s a testament to Moor’s talent that the book not only manages to be compulsively readable, but never feels disjointed as it jumps wildly from exploring a proto-Internet imagined by engineer Vannevar Bush in 1945 to quoting poet Gary Snyder.
Understanding the World Through Trails
On Trails begins with a simple idea: how did the Appalachian Trail, or any hiking trail for that matter, form? And from there, it branches off endlessly into a thousand different tributaries, exploring how the very concept of trails can help us understand the world.
For more insights on Robert Moor’s On Trails, you can read the original review here.
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