Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America's Most Hopeful Landscape: Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks (Crown Journeys)

Bill McKibben comes through again. This time it's "a walk in his woods," a three week hike connecting upstate Vermont with the Adirondacks. When you travel with Bill, it's a journey of body, a journey of mind and a journey of spirit, all rolled into one. You'll meet other folks along the way, people who have something to say to Bill and to you. You travel easy with Bill. This Bill is not as funny as Bill Bryson but he's more thoughtful. And he'll get you thinking. This book is a book about a place and about the history of that place. Having hiked in both areas, I especially enjoyed the subtle distinctions Bill is able to discern in landscape, flora and in the character of people between what he sees in the gentle hills of Vermont and the rougher landscape and terrain of the Adirondacks. Take this trip with Bill McKibben. You'll be glad you did.

I have spent much of my recreational time in the two places Bill McKibben writes about in this book -- The Adirondacks of New York and the Champlain Valley of Vermont. They both offer some of the most beautiful, pastoral scenery in the US. From Lake Champlain itself you can see the Green Mountains of Vermont on one side and the Adirondack Mountains of New York on the other. As Mr. KcKibben points out, while they may look similar and proximate from afar, each is quite different from the other. The Champlain Valley is more pastoral, bucolic and New England-like. The Adirondacks are much more rugged, wilderness-like and rough around the edges. Both can call to you in a way that becomes a lifetime's pursuit. This book is an easy and short read. It is engaging, paints wonderful pictures with words and gets you to think about the tension between a simpler life closer to the natural world and modern society and progress/development. He is fair in his assessment of the joys and the struggles associated with a simpler life closer to nature. I don't know who would enjoy this book more - the person who has enjoyed this simpler life or one who can only imagine it through books like this one. I highly recommend this book for people who love this part of the world or who have thought about getting closer to the land and living a simpler life.

Bill McKibben is a thoughtful writer. Most of all, this book made me wish I could take a hike with him and meet the land he loves so much. Be warned that this book might make you homesick, even if you've never been to Vermont or the Adirondacks. But beyond that, the book has some serious points to make. I'm a suburbanite trapped in the cycle of debt that has sucked in so many Americans (in my case, student loans and a mortgage). I work for the Department of Commerce. I have a husband. I have a child who is addicted to video games. I don't have the money or the freedom to move to the Adirondacks, or even take a trip there. This book is a reminder that Americans don't have to live the way we do. We might very well be happier if we got rid of a lot of our stuff and lived more lightly on the land. Of course, McKibben punctures that little bubble by pointing out that a lot of people have tried to do that in Vermont, with laughable results. I believe that once the cheap oil is gone, life in America is going to be very different. Ordinary American life today puts so much emphasis on getting places quickly. In the not-so-distant future we're going to be staying much more in one spot, and only rarely going anywhere we can't reach on foot or bicycle. This book is a reminder that such a stationary life might not be so bad. There's more to a meaningful and happy existence than what cheap gasoline and Wal-Mart can bring. Maybe someday the science of economics will remember that.

A very inspiring and gently provocative account of a trip, the likes of which we should all take at least once during our lifetime--even though we could not hope to achieve McKibben's mastery in telling a story.

Mt Abraham in Vermont has a beautiful view to the west, to the Champlain Valley and Lake Champlain. Here is where environmentalist, Bill McKibben starts his walk from one home in Vermont to another home in New York State. This is not a book about a walk from country to city, no; this is a walk in the country to the country through the most amazing woodland in the East, the Adirondacks. Bill McKibben starts his walk from his home in Ripton, Vermont near the famous Middlebury College where he has a post. Between Ripton and Johnsburg, New York where he finished his walk, we meet the most fascinating environmentalists and friends and glimpse through Bill's view the glorious vistas. This is a novel that takes you into the land. Through out the book, I could picture in my mind what Bill McKibben was actually seeing, his prose is so vivid. He has a love of his land and all land, and that comes through loud and clear. However, he is also quite truthful about the life he and his family live. They know they have a wonderful life, and his righteousness only goes so far. He benefits from what he calls "the systematic abuse of the planet". Cheap food, cheap energy and cheap wood are in abundance. He and his wife have tried to rein themselves in, they have one child, drive a modest hybrid car, and have a solar home. His friends take turns walking with him. The President of Greenpeace and other people involved in environmental groups walk and talk and tell tales of their exploits. The most interesting portions of the book are those tales told by the people who live on the land, and the stories of their ancestors. In Lock Muller, a small town in New York, a giant white pine shades the ground, and from it hangs a sign: "On this site in 1845 this pine tree, a sapling of twelve years, was transplanted by me, at he age of twelve years. Seventy-five years I have watched and protected it. In my advancing years it has given me rest and comfort. Woodman spare that tree, touch not a single bough, In youth it sheltered me, and I'll protect it now." Pascal P Warren, June 14, 1920 Teddy Roosevelt loved New York State, and he loved the Adirondacks the most. He loved climbing the mountains, and it was on such a mountain that he learned that due to an accident he was now the President of the United States. As Governor of New York, he preserved much of the Adirondacks and it became state land, not to be touched and left in pristine condition. Bill McKibben discusses the logging of the land, and the safe conservation of our land. He gives us much of the past history of the Adirondacks, and the people who inhabit the small towns and villages throughout. This is a lovely book, we walk along with the author, and feel like his neighbor. He tells us stories, and we meet his friends and yearn to see his land as he sees it. This is a wise book that gives us hope. Highly recommende